聖剣伝説 レジェンド オブ マナ カードデュエル
The Seiken Densetsu trading card game.

Legend of Mana Card Duel Game Summary

Legend of Mana Card Duel is Square's first collectible card game, created by indieszero, released Japan only on September 1st, 1999, two months after the main game, as a single 150 card set. Players could purchase 60-card "Starter Decks" for 1,500円 (~$13 in 1999), which came with a guaranteed Rare - Holofoil Hero card but were otherwise random (to a degree). Players could also increase their collection by purchasing 10-card "Booster Packs" for 333円 (~$3 in 1999, listed at 350円 MSRP including tax). Card art uses illustrations, sprites, and backgrounds from the main game. Cards also feature flavor text at the bottom taken from in-game encyclopedias.

Legend of Mana Card Duel centered on the "land make" system from the main game. Players create their own decks, place Lands onto a map grid, and use Mana generated from them to play. The game is unique in that players use two decks: one for their player Character cards, and one for everything else. Various cards, such as NPC Support cards and Items, help players develop their side of the field and interfere with their opponent's attempts to create their own map. Lands function as both resources and a playfield, but may also be used as Artifacts to cast powerful spells. Players on both side field Monsters on their Lands and player Characters, who do battle until one player reigns supreme. Monsters can be played face-up for a cost or face-down for free, resulting in a game of wits as players try to determine whether they can win a fight. The game has three main victory conditions: 1) destroy all of your opponent's Characters, 2) complete your map, or 3) generate a certain amount of Mana.

Legend of Mana Card Duel Game Details

Below, you will find a link to the translated rules for Legend of Mana Card Duel. The next link includes various thoughts about deckbuilding, and also includes decklists for two sample decks. You will also find links to pages discussing booster packs and starter decks. For the remainder of the page, various other aspects of the game are briefly discussed along with a complete listing of cards and some various details about them. At the end, a few other collectibles related to the game are listed with gallery links following.

Rule Book

Read the fully translated rules and mechanics of Legend of Mana Card Duel.

Deckbuilding

Analyze strategies, card synergies, and view sample decklists.

Booster Packs

Explore booster pack cards, booster boxes, and rarity ratios.

Starter Decks

Check out starter deck configurations, opened decks, and functionality.

Card Types

The 150 collectible cards are divided into five different card types. Artifact/Land, Monster, Support, and Item cards all share the same backing and belong to the Main Deck of 40-60 cards with no more than four copies of each card. Character cards, belonging to a Character Deck of eight cards with no duplicates, have a different backing.

Artifact/Land: 27cards. These cards can be played two different ways. Artifacts may be played during the main phase to activate an effect. Lands may be placed on the playing field in a 3×3 grid, one per turn, and generate Mana. The Lands influence each other in four directions, altering the amount of Mana you receive each turn. You win the game when you have nine Lands in play, or when you can generate 12 Mana.

Monster: 40 cards. These cards are placed onto your Lands during the monster deployment phase. They may be placed face down for free, or face up for their cost. They may also be flipped face up for their cost. Monsters can invade your opponent's Lands. Monsters have Strength and Defense values, which are altered based on Items and elements, for use in battle against Characters. Demihuman monsters have illustrated art on them, while Bosses display a single large sprite, and other Monsters display a variety of sprites in different poses.

Support: 40 cards. These cards feature NPCs from the game, and have a variety of different effects. They may be played during different phases depending on the card. Each Support card requires a certain amount of Mana as well as the existence of Lands of specific elements.

Character: 24 cards. Each player fields a party of three Character cards during gameplay (topped off during the start phase). These characters have Strength and Defense values, which are altered based on Synchro effects and Items. You lose the game when all characters are defeated. Several NPC characters appear as "playable" Character cards, despite not being playable in the main game.

Item: 19 cards (11 Weapons and 8 Magical Instruments). These cards are equipped to characters on the field. Each Item card has three different abilities which effect either Monsters or Characters. Weapons require a cost to be paid to activate their abilities, while Magical Instruments only require specific elements to be present.

Card #, Card Name, and Card Name (Japanese)

The "Card #" column displays the collector number for each card. The "Card Name" column displays my English translation of the "Card Name (Japanese)" column. For Artifact/Land cards, the Artifact name appears at the top of the card, and the Land name appears halfway down the card. Monster and Character cards simply list the name of whoever is depicted on the card, while Support card names represent a phrase or idea related to the displayed character. Item cards contain the name of a crafting material before the Weapon or Instrument name.

Element / Synchro

The "Element" column displays which element the card belongs to. Lands will generate Mana based on their element. The Postbox has no element, the Golden Seed can generate Light, Dark, Wood, and Gold Mana (the elements with the fewest lands), and the Sword of Mana can generate Mana from all eight elements. Monsters, Support, and Instrument Items typically have Mana costs related to their element. Character and Weapon Item cards do not have elements assigned to them. Some Characters have a "Synchro" mentioned in their text box that gives them bonus stats when certain other characters are present in the three Character party on the field. The Character card list below displays those combinations.

Rarity

The "Rarity" column displays the rarity symbol assigned to each card. Rarity is broken down into four categories, as seen in the table below. On the actual cards, there is no difference between the Rare and Rare - Holofoil symbol.

Rarity Symbol	Rarity Name	Total	Artifact/Land	Monster	Support	Character	Item
	Common	49*	12	14	13*	5	5
	Uncommon	51*	9	13	14*	8	7
	Rare	40	5	12	11	5	7
	Rare - Holofoil	10	1	1	2	6	0

Note:
* Despite being marked as an uncommon card, Flameshe's Singing actually appears along with common cards. Considering this, the true counts of common and uncommon cards would be 50 each with 14 common Support cards and 13 uncommon Support cards.

Value Ratings

The "Valuable" columns on the tables below display my perceived value rating for each card. I have based these ratings around the number of cards I have in my collection, not on how useful they are in play. Since I have collected a relatively large number of cards and have been hunting them for nearly two decades, I believe I have a good understanding of how hard each card is to come by. I created this rating because I found the rarity listed on each card does not accurately reflect how rare they actually are. For example, you get four out of the five rare Lands in every starter deck, making them easier to obtain than the common Lands. As another example, the Hero is a Holofoil but appears in every starter deck making it quite common.
Semi-Valuable: I have a handful of these cards. I do not need more, but they are still relatively uncommon.
Valuable: I have few of these cards. I would consider obtaining more, but I already have a decent amount.
Very Valuable: I have barely any of these cards. I would love to obtain more. Please contact me if you have any of these!

Complete Legend of Mana Card Duel Listing

Artifacts / Lands

Monsters

Support

Characters

Items

Other Collectibles

		Name	Name (Japanese)	Details	Valuable
		Turn Composition Diagram (card)	ターン構成図	no backing
		Booster Pack	ブースターパック	10 cards
		Starter Deck	スターターパック	60 cards
		Rule Book	ルールブック	In decks
		Booster Box	ブースターセット	15 packs
		Starter Deck Box	スターターパックセット	12 decks