You know what you guys just reminded me of? Duel Masters.
I dunno if any of you guys remember it, but it was one of the card games people really got into. It was so much fun to play it, and despite the fact that the cards are not manufactured anymore, I still manage to get some more cards every year. For those that don't know the game, imagine another version of hearthstone, but where you can "sacrifice" monsters to gain more mana. There were five elements for the monsters.
Darkness, the race that would outlast and exterminate the enemy with their slayers and card destroying spells. Fire, the speed demon deck, to get powerful monsters and to get them fast. Nature, a mana focused race, more of a deck to combine with a deck with fire simply because of the quick boost to mana. Water, a mixed race with good overall battle capabilities like blockers. Last but not least Light, the ultimate blocker deck, with extremely powerful and game turning spells.
Each monster would have a number at the top left, signifying how much mana you need to summon, bottom right you would have the attack power, and above that you would have monster description, your goal would be to destroy all the enemy player's shield cards to reach the soft core of the player him/herself. Of course, they are doing the same to you. The whole time you would get a sense of epic battles because of the unique and powerful creatures each faction would have. Scary skeletons and abomination for darkness. Lizard and dragon like warriors for fire. Nature animals like animals and mystical earth beasts for nature. Fish people and deep underwater monsters for Water. Mysterious robots and constructions, held together by light for the light faction.
Then there were the spells, god I loved the spells. The darkness faction would have the sickly spells that would destroy your cards in battle and on hand. The fire faction would have spells to directly attack the enemy's fighter and greatly buff themselves. The nature faction would have spells to buff and to gain more mana. The water faction would have a mix of all. Light would have expensive but VERY powerful spells to turn the battle in their favor.
No game came even close to the amount of enjoyment I got from this game. Just a shame its no longer manufactured, it stopped in 2004. But, it actually was made again, not with the old cards however. Now its just a annoying card game with too many rules to make it the enjoyable it once was.
Heh, good things don't last forever.
