聖剣伝説 レジェンド オブ マナ カードデュエル スターター
More detail than you could ever hope to know about Legend of Mana Card Duel starter decks.

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Starter Deck Information and Card Order
 Card Order Details
  Common Uncommon Rare
 Cards Not Appearing in Starter Decks
Sub Pages:
Opened Decks
Functionality

Starter Deck Details

Like many other collectible card games, Legend of Mana Card Duel has starter decks. These starter decks were sold for 1,500円 (~$13 in 1999). Each starter deck comes with 60 cards and a rule book, so you can get started playing. Unlike most other trading card games, these decks do not have premade themes with select cards appearing; instead, these decks contain a mostly random assortment of cards more similar to the “tournament packs” that some trading card games have. Some quirks in the inclusion of cards into starter decks are discussed below, and a discussion of how usable these decks are can be found on the Functionality page.

Each starter deck contains 30 common, 18 uncommon, and 11 rare cards, as well as 1 guaranteed Holofoil Hero card for a total of 60 cards. The exact breakdown of the types of cards included is explained below. Starter boxes contain 12 sealed starter decks, but as far as I can tell were never sealed themselves. The starter boxes could be folded into a display.

On the Opened Decks page you will find information about 12 starter decks I opened in the past, and you can watch those openings on the Vidoes page.

Starter Deck Images

Starter Box Images

Starter Deck Information and Card Order

Starter Deck Types

I have determined there are at least two different types of starter decks. When I purchased cards from two separate merchants, I noticed the starter decks looked slightly different from one another. One merchant had slightly more yellowed plastic wrap on their starter decks, which I assumed was due to age. The other merchant had much cleaner looking starter deck wrappers. As far as I can tell now, there was otherwise no difference in outward appearance. This is an ongoing area of research, so if you have any details on identifying starter deck types please let me know.

Monster Item (MI) type starter decks – These decks contain an additional uncommon and rare Monster card and an additional uncommon and rare Item card. To make room for those extras, the decks contain one fewer each of uncommon and rare Character and Support cards. This is a huge problem, as these starter decks will not contain ANY rare Character cards, besides the guaranteed Holofoil Hero. The fact these starter decks have two fewer Character cards, resulting in only seven total, means that they do not meet the requirements for fielding a legal Character Deck which requires eight cards.

Support Character (SC) type starter decks – These decks contain what I assume is the correct number of cards. I assume these come from a later printing run where card inclusion issues were fixed. These decks contain one fewer uncommon and rare Monster and one fewer uncommon and rare Item cards. In their place, one more each of uncommon and rare Support and Character cards are included. These starter decks actually contain one more Character card than a legal Character Deck of eight cards, so one Character must be set aside if using the starter deck as an actual deck.

Card Order Details

The following tables show the order that cards were placed into the starter decks. Commons always come first, then uncommons, and finally rares. Next, the Type of card determines order: Artifacts/Lands, Monster, Support, Character, and Item.

Common lands were placed into starter decks in two separate sets, as shown below. For all other cards, a random card from each type and rarity begins a “run” of cards. Cards were placed into the starter deck after the initial card in a specific order, which follows the collector number of the cards. Each type and rarity combination has a specified run length, denoted by the Runs column, which depends on the type of starter deck (see details above). If the run reaches the end of the card order it will simply wrap around to the beginning.

For example, if a common Monster run began on a Kid Dragon, you would count 8 cards (including the Kid Dragon) and end on a Sahagin. That starter deck would contain the Kid Dragon, Sahagin, and the 6 cards listed between the two. If a common Monster run began on a Tonpole, you would count 4 cards (including the Tonpole) and end on Lullabud. Since the run still has 4 cards remaining, you would start at the Beholder and count 4 cards (including the Beholder) and end on a Malboro. That starter deck would contain the Tonpole, Lullabud, and the two cards between them, the Beholder, the Malboro, and the two cards between them.

Finally, not all cards seem to be obtainable in starter decks, and this information is captured in the Appears column. A more detailed explanation of this appears after the card order tables.

Common Cards – 30 per deck

Type	Appears	Runs	Cards
Artifacts/Lands	12 / 12	6	Set A: Set B:
Monsters	14 / 14	8
Support	14 / 13*	8
Characters	5 / 5	4
Items	5 / 5	4

Uncommon Cards – 18 per deck

Type	Appears	Runs	Cards
Artifacts/Lands	9	4
Monsters	13 / 13	5 | 4†
Support	13 / 14*	4 | 5†
Characters	8 / 8	2 | 3†
Items	7 / 7	3 | 2†

Rare Cards – 12 per deck

Type	Appears	Runs	Cards
Artifacts/Lands	5 / 6‡	4
Monsters	8 / 13‡	3 | 2†
Support	8 / 13‡	2 | 3†
Characters	8 / 10‡	0 | 1†
Guaranteed Character	1 / 1	1
Items	5 / 7‡	2 | 1†

Notes:
* Despite being marked as an uncommon card, Flameshe’s Singing actually appears along with common cards.
† MI type starter decks (left number) have more Monsters and Items and fewer Support and Character cards.
SC type starter decks (right number) have fewer Monsters and Items and more Support and Character cards.
‡ Information may be inaccurate. The Appears column only reflects which cards I have evidence of being pulled.

Cards Not Appearing in Starter Decks

There are 15 cards that I believe do not appear in starter decks. These cards would have to be obtained by opening Booster Packs instead. The September 1999 issue of Game Gather (A Japanese trading card magazine) confirms that some cards only appear in boosters, however, I am not completely sure exactly which cards. In the table below I divided these cards into two different types:
Appears unlikely – I have my doubts these cards appear due to the number of decks opened without seeing them, as well as the number in my collection being similar to the next category of cards.
Card order skips – These cards are ruled out of appearing as the card order completely skips past them.

Information	Symbol	Count	Cards
Appears unlikely		4
Card order skips		11