The Battle Spirits Trading Card Game is a two-player collectible card game

Collectible card game

thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...

 (CCG) jointly developed by Bandai

Bandai

is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...

 and Sunrise, Inc. The card game is part of the Battle Spirits franchise which also includes several anime series, manga serializations and other merchandise like toys and video games.

The game was released in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in September 2008, where it quickly became one of the top selling trading card games of the year. Due to this popularity, it was released in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 by Bandai of America on August 14, 2009.

NEEDS UPDATE: Bandai provides massive organized play support for the game in both the US and Japan. In the United States and Canada hobby retailers can sign up to receive bi-monthly kits to support weekly tournaments with prizes ranging from promotional cards to deck boxes and highly coveted play mats. A new booster set is typically released once every three months.
(NOTE: BANDAI USA CANCELLED THE ENGLISH VERSION WITH SET BS05!)

Gameplay

In Battle Spirits the game uses gems known as 'core' for its resource system. The players use cores to summon spirits and spells which they use to defeat their opponent. Players start out with a hand of four cards from their 40 card deck, four cores in their reserve and five life. When a player's life and/or deck have been depleted they lose the game.

Card Types

• Spirits: Spirits are summoned mainly to attack the opponent and reduce their life but are also used to protect your own life.
• Spells: Players use spells to change the game field environment by causing a variety of different effects from providing BP (Battle Point) boosts to drawing more cards. They can drastically change the pace of the game.
• Nexus: The places of the Battle Spirits world that give your spirits special power are called “nexuses”.Players use them to change the field and gain an advantage over their opponents.
• Brave: A fourth type of card introduced about two years into the Japanese game's life. They act like other Spirits, but can be 'Braved' onto other Spirits, combining effects and attributes.

Card Rarity

The card rarity in Battle Spirits goes as follows:

• Common:
• Uncommon:
• Rare: In the US version, they are all foiled cards except for starter rares.
• Master Rare: Foiled cards, much like rares
• X Rare: Special foil with an X in the effect box background. They typically feature much more powerful effects than other tiers of rarity.

The Six Colors

The Battle Spirits world is set with six colors; Ruby (Red), Emerald (Green), Amethyst (Purple), Diamond (White), Sapphire (Blue), and Topaz (Yellow). Each color stems from a different variety of precious gem.

• Red: Red cards are mainly aggressive and have many effects that are activated when the player is attacking. Red also have many destructive effects that change the game situation drastically. One of the typical cards is “Flame Tempest”. It destroys all spirits with 3000BP or less.

• Green: Green cards have comparatively cheap costs and high BP for their costs. They are good at generating cores in which they can give a player an early resource advantage in the game.

• Purple: Purple cards are good at causing pain to your opponent outside of the battle. Purple is notorious for effects that play with the core layout of their opponent, like removing core from opposing Spirits in an attempt to deplete them. They also have many draw cards. One of the typical cards is “The Shackles of Doom”. It prohibits spirits with only 1 core on them from attacking or blocking. It stalls the game and gives you enough time to draw a killer card.

• White: White cards are mainly defensive and many have effects that activate when they block. Even when you have less spirits than your opponent does, white spirits will protect your Life with their strong defensive power. One of the typical cards is “Pure Elixir”. It refreshes all of your exhausted spirits. Even if your spirits are all exhausted from the last attacks, they are now ready to block your opponent’s attacks once again.

• Blue: Blue cards are gladiators and other powerful warriors that have trained hard to achieve the next level of power. They mainly have the power to mill your opponents deck. The "Stone-statue" is a great example of this type of effect because just by playing him you send the top card of the opponents deck to the trash zone.

• Yellow: Yellow cards may look weak compared to some other spirits when looking at things like cost and BP but have amazing effects that give you a powerful advantage when it comes to spells. Yellow is great at working with other colors to boost the power of their spells and allows you to change the outcome of a game no matter how much stronger the opponent may seem. One of the many ways that yellow helps you is with the card “Trickster” by allowing you to reuse a spell card you've already played.

Card Mechanics

There are spirits with keywords that help identify a spirits effect.

• Rage: Spirits with Rage have the effect texts as follow, if an effect gives a spirit Rage, it gets the following text:(When Attacks):Your Opponent must block if possible. This effect is in Red.

• Windstorm X: Spirits with Windstorm have the effect texts as follow, if an effect gives a spirit Windstorm X, it gets the following text: (During Your Battle Phase): Each time this spirit is blocked, your opponent exhausts the specified number of unexhausted spirits they control. This effect is in Green.

• Brilliance: Spirits with Brilliance have the effect texts as follow, if an effect gives a spirit Brilliance, it gets the following text: (During Your Battle Phase): While this spirit is battling, each time you play a spell card, at End of Battle Step, move that spell card from your Trash to your hand. This effect is in yellow.

• Crush: Spirits with Crush have the effect texts listed as follow, if an effect gives a spirit Crush, it gets the following text:(When Attacks): Move cards from the top of your opponent’s Deck to their Trash equal to this spirit’s LV. This effect is in blue.

• Curse: Spirits with Curse have the effect texts listed as follow, If an effect gives a spirit Curse, it gets the following text: (During Your Battle Phase): If this spirit is blocked, destroy the spirit that blocked this spirit at End of Battle Step. This effect is in purple.

• Immunity: Spirits with Immunity: X have the effect texts listed as follow, If an effect gives a spirit Immunity: X, it gets the following text:(Permanent): This spirit is unaffected by the effects of cards your opponent controls with the listed color(s) X. This effect is in white.

• High Speed: Spirits with High Speed have the effect texts listed as follow, If an effect gives a spirit High Speed, it gets the following text: (Flash Step): This spirit may be summoned from your hand during the Flash Step. In that case, the cost of this spirit and cores to be put on this spirit must be paid or moved from your Reserve. This effect is in green.

• Evolution: Spirits with Evolution have the effect texts listed as follow, If an effect gives a spirit Evolution, it gets the following text: (Flash Step): You may move any number of cores from spirits you control to this spirit. This effect is in red.

Set Releases (In Order)

A player must have at least 40 cards in their deck. Players can purchase booster pack

Booster pack

In collectible card games and collectible miniature wargames, a booster pack is a sealed package of cards or figurines, designed to add to a player's collection....

s to increase the number of cards they have. Expansions are sets of cards that build upon the foundation laid out by the base set, the original set of cards released.

• BS-01 Call of the Core (released 08/14/09): The base set that introduced the original four colors Red, Purple, Green and White.

• BS-02 Rise of the Angels (released 11/13/09): This set introduces the new color Yellow as well help additional support for the original four colors.

• BS-03 Scars of Battle (released 02/05/10): This set introduced the next new color Blue, completing the six colors of Battle Spirits so far.

• BS-04 Ascension of Dragons (released 05/07/10): This set focuses on dragons and the new two gem spirits that if they were to do damage they would take two life instead of one. Unlike the previous 3 US sets, it contained not only cards from Japanese series 4, but around half of series 5 as well.

• BS-05 Dawn of the Ancients:(released 09/10/2010): This set introduced two new effects key words; Rage and Windstorm. This set contain the rest of set 5 and half of the Japanese set 6.

There are currently a total of twelve expansions available in Japan as well as numerous decks, special sets and promotional cards.

Criticism

Many have claimed that the game is very similar to the Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...

 card game Duel Masters

Duel Masters Trading Card Game

The Duel Masters Trading Card Game is a two-player or 2 vs. 2 team collectible card game jointly developed by Wizards of the Coast, Shogakukan, and Mitsui & Co.. The card game is part of the Duel Masters franchise....

, and that this is because both games were designed by former Wizards of the Coast employee Michael Elliott. Similarities include:

• The card colours are similar to those of the civilization colours in Duel Masters.
• The designs of the cards (e.g. fire dragons and horrific dark creatures) are very similar.
• The core system is similar in style to the mana system of Duel Masters.
• In Duel Masters players start with 5 shields and in Battle Spirits players start with 5 lives.

It can be argued, if similarity is a good or bad thing. Considering the design and production style of japanese (based) TCG games, they all copy, draw elements AND evolve from each other. Logically they all share several gameplay or design elements, and if they use the same japanese artists even the creatures, spirits, monsters look similar. There is no point why Battle Spirits should not use and evolve from elements in Magic or Duel Masters TCG. Given that, one can speculate why the game was so short lived in western market (english ver.), but in 2011 August, european players (Italy) get a second chance to experience the game on western market.

Anime

• Battle Spirits: Shounen Toppa Bashin
• Battle Spirits: Shounen Gekiha Dan
• Battle Spirits: Brave
• Battle Spirits: Heroes
  Battle Spirits: Heroes
  is a Japanese anime series based on the Battle Spirits trading card game.- Production :The production of the new anime television series based on Battle Spirits was confirmed by Japanese broadcaster Nagoya TV in July 2011...
  
  

External links

• Battle Spirits site : Official English Battle Spirits site.
• Battle Spirits : Official Japanese Battle Spirits website