| rdfs:comment | - Monster Cards are items used to upgrade equipment through sockets. There are currently 411 Monster Cards in the game.
- Let's be frank: one of the groups that gets the biggest enjoyment out of 1000 Blank White Cards is the the party of game design nerds. Specifically, game design nerds who play other card games. And one of the most common themes of CCGs is monsters. Hence, the Monster Card.
- Monster Cards (Japanese: モンスターカード Monsutākādo) represent monsters that players battle against each other or directly against either player during the Battle Phase. Monsters are the main focus of Duel Monsters. Monster Cards are differentiated by their names, Type; Attribute; ATK; DEF; Level (or Rank or Link Rating). Monster Cards can be subdivided into Normal Monsters, Effect Monsters, Ritual Monsters, Fusion Monsters, Synchro Monsters, Xyz Monsters, Pendulum Monsters, Link Monsters and Token Monsters, each with a distinctive colored card frame to differentiate them.
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| abstract | - Let's be frank: one of the groups that gets the biggest enjoyment out of 1000 Blank White Cards is the the party of game design nerds. Specifically, game design nerds who play other card games. And one of the most common themes of CCGs is monsters. Hence, the Monster Card. The Monster Card, at its most basic, is a card that represents some sort of entity that fights for a player. Sometimes, they protect the player themself from being attacked, othertimes they are the main target. Common elements of Monster Cards vary between most commercial card games, and as a result there is no basic template for a Monster Card. However, certain elements are common enough that they can be expected to show up at some point:
* A Name and a Picture: At least, they had better, or you're gonna have some boring fights.
* Power/Strength/Attack Value: This is how much damage the monster can inflict when it attacks.
* Hit Points/Toughness/Defense Value: This is how much damage the monster can withstand before it keels over, usually being discarded as a result. This value's exact effects can vary; sometimes it acts like health in a video game, being worn down gradually until it is reduced to zero. Othertimes, it represents how much damage must be inflicted with one attack to be effective (such as in Yu-gi-Oh!). This is more of a spectrum than two values; monsters in Magic: The Gathering must be hit with a certain amount of attack before the opponent's turn ends to be killed. Getting even more complicated, sometimes this can be split into two stats, with a health value that is depleted and a defense value that lessens the brunt of incoming attacks. The Defense can even be specialized to resist certain kinds of attacks, but that's getting a little overwhelming...
* Speed/Agility Value: While it doesn't always show up, due to the turn based nature of most card games, some battle systems require a speed stat to determine which monster attacks first. Can sometimes manifest in the form of Counter Cards, which take priority over normal cards and can interrupt their play. And of course, you can have Counter-Counter Cards, and Counter-Counter-Counter Cards...
* Cost: Some systems can require resources to summon a monster, or to have the monster attack, defend, or use a special ability. Used to balance powerful cards by making them consume more resources.
* Affinity/Element: Many card games assign affinities to monsters, such as Fire, Water, Light, Darkness, etc. Mostly these elements fall into a Rock-Paper-Scissors relationship, whether with increased/decreased effectiveness of attacks (such as in the Pokemon TCG), differing strategies with a pecking order (Magic again), or sometimes just as a category (Yu-gi-Oh! once more).
* Special Abilities: This is where it gets interesting. You can have monsters that ignore Defense, discard a card every other turn, slowly charge up their attack values, counterattack, or even cause the opponent to dance around when attacked. Commercial CCGs tend to only have monsters with balanced, game-related abilities, but you're certainly not required to follow their lead...
- Monster Cards are items used to upgrade equipment through sockets. There are currently 411 Monster Cards in the game.
- Monster Cards (Japanese: モンスターカード Monsutākādo) represent monsters that players battle against each other or directly against either player during the Battle Phase. Monsters are the main focus of Duel Monsters. Monster Cards are differentiated by their names, Type; Attribute; ATK; DEF; Level (or Rank or Link Rating). Monster Cards can be subdivided into Normal Monsters, Effect Monsters, Ritual Monsters, Fusion Monsters, Synchro Monsters, Xyz Monsters, Pendulum Monsters, Link Monsters and Token Monsters, each with a distinctive colored card frame to differentiate them. In extent to the aforementioned classifications, Monster can also be classified as Tuner monsters or Special Summon Monsters, but this classification isn't a separate division from those above. Also, Effect Monsters, exclusively, can be classified further by Ability. This include Spirit Monsters, Toon Monsters, Union Monsters, Gemini Monsters and Flip Monsters. Normal Monsters lack effects and are not typically paired with any other Monster Card types (with the exception of Gemini monsters, a class of Effect Monsters which are summoned as Normal Monsters, and some Pendulum Monsters, which can also be Normal Monsters). Effect Monsters cannot also be Normal Monsters (with the exception of the aforementioned Gemini monsters), but they can also be Ritual, Fusion, Synchro, Xyz Monsters, Pendulum, and Link Monsters. Some Ritual, Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Link Monsters lack effects and are thus not also Effect Monsters, but they are not considered Normal Monsters. Such monsters are known as Non-Effect Monsters. During play, monster cards can be played in either face-up Attack Position or face-down Defense Position. The importance of monster cards lies in their effects (which usually activate during their controller's Main Phase) and their ATK and DEF values during the Battle Phase (or more specifically, the Damage Step).
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