Battle Cards

Battle Cards are a time-honored tradition in Pangaea, and the games have become so popular that many countries have set up their own rules for Battle Card tournaments. This encourages young people who cannot compete in actual Monster Battles (because of the danger and age restrictions) to collect the cards and search for the rarest and most powerful ones to build a deck. As seen when Suezo meets Furred Suezo in the anime series, even monsters go crazy over collecting their favorite Battle Cards.

In order to keep everything legal and organized, the Monster Card Association was formed, and levels were assigned. The goal was to simulate actual monster battles as much as possible, so that kids could learn the rules at a young age and then go on to become Breeders later. Because of the money involved, many teens and young people seek fame through card "breeding" and battling, and it has become the closest thing to a pop-culture phenomenon that Pangaea has.

The cards are divided into three categories:

• Monster Cards - These represent the actual monsters that you have in play. Once the hit points listed on their card have been negated, that card is taken out of play. You start out with three Monster Cards each round of a game.

• Skill Cards - These cards represent the monsters' offensive and defensive maneuvers. Each purebreed monster has a set of 12 Skills, that consist of Power and Intelligence moves, Dodge and Block moves, and some Special moves (although not every monster will have every type of skill. For instance, Tiger lacks any Block moves). Any time you want your monster to attack or defend, you must discard cards from your hand to create the appropriate amount of Guts listed on the Skill Card. Then you follow the directions of that card to its conclusion. These cards are specific to the monster listed on the card, so once that monster is out of play that card can no longer be used. The only exception to this is a hybrid monster, which use a mixture of attack and defense cards from the two species of monsters they are bred from (Attacks from the Main breed and defense from the Sub-breed).

• Special Cards - These cards can be either items or events, and they effect the outcome of some attacks or have a special effect on the game as a whole. These cards are not specific to a certain monster and can be played directly by the participant as long as the amount of Guts is met. In the games, they are termed "Any Monster" Cards and Breeder Cards.

Some believe that this is simply a game, but some believe that the cards are actually imbued with magical power. Given the events of Monster Rancher Battle Card: Episode 2, it may be the case that the legends are true.

A deck of Battle Cards can be found in Monster Rancher 4 as an item for sale, and are also an item that can be collected in Monster Rancher Explorer, but their purpose in this game is, as of yet, unknown.

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