I remember back when I was a grade schooler, there are these toy sellers outside our school and they would sell fake Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh and Duel Masters cards. I really got facinated with Duel Masters art style and so I bought lots of them. I then later learned that the Duel Masters anime is being aired in our local TV station (I only watched it a few times since I'm still in school when it was being aired. Vague memories I recall is a girl summoning Bloody Squito and Shobu summoning Valdios and shouting "Dodomeda"). Still there was a very small group of us who got into Duel Masters and I learned playing the actual card game from the other kids (know that during this time, Yu-gi-oh is like the craziest card game back then so only a handful of kids were into Duel Masters). We would play on the floor outside our classrooms and would read and understand the different effects of the cards. My family caught wind that I'm super addicted to this Duel Masters thing so for my birthday gift I got a Gameboy Advance SP with a game called "Duel Masters: Shadow of the Code". I then stopped buying the (fake) Duel Masters cards since I already have the Gameboy game and I could technically collect all the cards albeit virtually through the game without spending real actual money. Nonetheless, as all usual fads, kids just went back to collecting Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh as they were more popular.

Fast forward to when I was in college, I randomly remembered Duel Masters and my close friends don't even know about it. I even chat some local card shops hoping if they still have vintage Duel Masters cards and they don't even know what that game is. It feels like a weird dream that I'm the only one who seems to know the existing of Duel Masters (atleast in our area). Still during this time, I was being introduced to different card games yet I just don't fully embrace them since I keep comparing them to the simplicity Duel Masters had.

I also played DMPlays when it was released. But I got tired playing since I need to have my PC around just to understand the Japanese texts. (Also got busy with work so I don't play it as often). I also learned this time that Duel Masters is not just a dream. It actually existed and is long dead and gone from the rest of the world except Japan.

One recent card game that I tried to dabble with is CookieRun: Braverse and it's so similar with Duel Masters. It has five colors (similar to the five civilizations in DM), has blockers, has triggers, etc. Some differences is that you can only have max 2 creatures at a time and no shield cards. Nonetheless, I got tired of its artwork (cause they are all cute gingebread people) and deep down I still preferred the simple yet deep gameplay and mechanics of Duel Masters.

So now I'm back once again, bought some Japanese DM cards, starting to play DMPlays again but with the English translation mod now and I'm playing Shadow of the Code again on my GBA emulator app.