What in the world is a TCG?

First of all, TCG stands for Trading Card Game. This site is exactly like a TCG, except, well, it's online! In online TCGs, you generally collect cards to complete decks, which are collections of specific subjects, such as anime characters. Cards can be earned through the games you can play on the site and through other activities that the TCG may have. You can also trade with other people to complete decks faster! Before you can earn cards or start trading with other members, you must first join the TCG. Usually it is required to have an email and a website for trading purposes. The idea for the original online TCG idea is Calico.

What Do I Need to Join PuzzleMANIA?

You'll need an name. Keep it simple, like Godii or Joey. I don't want to see names with alternating upper case, lower case (i.e. MiChAeL) or names with symbols (i.e. $@r@h). You'll also need a working email and a trade post (website). If you don't have an email, you can go to Yahoo or Google, or any other mail service. For websites, you can go to places like Freewebs or Geocities, just NO places that require other people to log in, such as Facebook or Myspace. Your trade post should include a link back to PuzzleMANIA, your card collection, a card log (explained later), and your current level (displayed by either text or a level badge).

The Starter Pack!

Well, since I'm such a nice person, you'll get 8 cards in your starter pack! You'll get 3 choice cards, 5 random, and 1 puzzle pieces! Put the starter pack up on your trade post as soon as you can and comment on the latest news to be moved from Pending Puzzle to Easy Puzzle.

How Do I Earn Cards?

Well, your first cards can be earned by joining the TCG. And besides playing the games, another way to earn cards is to watch the updates and read carefully. When new decks are out, you'll most likely get some freebies! Also, by leveling up, donations, and mastering decks, you can earn more cards. You'll also get a little present on your birthday.

Card Types?

All cards here are worth one. This means that all cards have an equal chance of coming up in the randomizer. It also makes things easier to keep track of. There are four subcategories of cards: Characters, Series, Relationships, and Events/Member Created Decks.

Member Cards

Member cards are cards that represent the members of PuzzleMANIA. But here, instead of just getting one, you can get 10. How? You get one when you join, four more throughout the levels, and then complete five different events. It does not matter which order you earn your member cards in, however, you can only trade the same numbers. For example: Sailor Moon has three member cards, but Sailor Venus only has two. Sailor Moon can only trade her sailormoon01 and sailormoon02 for sailorvenus01 and sailorvenus02. To get Venus's third card, Sailor Moon needs to earn a third member card herself. You can find the different ways to earn member cards on the member card page.

What Are Levels?

To put it simply: Levels, or sometimes ranks, are to keep track of how many cards you have. You basically level up by having a certain number of cards. You can display your level on your trade post by using badges. You can make your own (and donate the set to PuzzleMANIA for some cards) or use sets made by the staff and members of PM. What are the ranks here at PuzzleMANIA, you ask?

The answer to your question:
Pending Puzzle: Pending
Easy Puzzle: 1-100 Cards
Simple Puzzle: 101-200 Cards + 1 trading book
Medium Puzzle: 201-550 Cards + 3 trading books
Intermediate Puzzle: 551-800 Cards + 5 trading books
Hard Puzzle: 801-1000 Cards + 10 trading books, 10 decks mastered
Tough Puzzle: 1001-1500 Cards + 25 trading books, 15 decks mastered
Difficult Puzzle: 1501-2000 Cards + 30 trading books, 20 decks mastered
Insane Puzzle: 2001-2500 + 40 trading books, 30 decks mastered
ZOMG!! Puzzle: 2501-3000 + 50 trading books, 40 decks mastered
MANIAC Puzzle: 3001+ + 75 trading books, 50 decks mastered
Each time you level up you earn two choice cards and four random cards You may turn in a form for every 5000 cards + 5 trading books and 5 mastered decks after MANIAC Puzzle

How Do I Master A Deck?

First off, when you join, you have to pick a deck to collect. Once you've collected all the cards in that deck, then, glory, glory, hallelujah, you've mastered it! When you master a deck, you may take a master badge from the card page to put up on your website. Unfortunately, you won't be able to trade away those cards anymore. By mastering a deck, you will earn -one choice card, three random cards and one puzzle piece-.

How Do I Trade With Another Member?

First and foremost, you must be polite! Don't just demand cards or snottily decline a trade. Look for cards that members have listed as "Trading", and kindly ask for it by offering a card you think they would like (a good place to check is their collecting and keeping sections, as well as their wishlist). A good waiting peroid for a reply is about two weeks. More than they most likely did not recieve the email or have been very busy. A kind reminder can be used, but please do not pester them!

Make sure you mark your trades in your log, and take down the card once you have traded it away. Also, wait for the member to reply with a yea or nay before you take cards.

What Are Card Logs?

Card logs are to keep track of what cards you got from where. It basically helps maintain your trade post.

For example:
January 4, 2007
Won healinghearts04 from Easy Puzzle.

Make sure you have a detailed card log. When member checks are taking place, I don't want to see:

January 4, 2007
Won a card from a game.

Dude, that's like, not acceptable. It will also be considered cheating.

Coupons

Coupons are kind of like TCG currency, only it gives you something more specific. We only have one coupon here:

Coupons can be traded in at the forum for choice cards.

Trading Books

Most TCGs have a system of rewards for a certain amount of trades completed. We here at PuzzleMANIA are no different. For every 20 cards traded, you will earn one choice coupon, two random cards and a puzzle piece. A Trading Book contains 20 slots for you to mark off for every card traded, and are created by the members here at PuzzleMANIA. It is not required to use a book, however, you must somehow keep track of how many cards you have traded as well as have a log of said trades. About PuzzleMANIA and Its History

"PuzzleMANIA is an anime, manga, and video game character TCG that officially opened in August 2006 by me, Godii. It occured to me that there wasn't a TCG (that I knew of) that didn't just have puzzle decks. So with my fascination for puzzle decks and my otaku-ness, PuzzleMANIA began. Since then, PM has had one owner, me, and one co-owner, Mandy F, who left in late 2007 due to lack of time. In spring 2008, I reopened the site (late) with the determination to run the site properly. That determination didn't last long, however, and was once again put on hiatus during the winter of 2008. I attempted to reopen once more in early 2009, but became too busy to run the site. PuzzleMANIA was officially closed during the summer of 2009, after a host change deleted everything on the server."

Now I, Joey, have dug through the ashes and brought back PuzzleMANIA. I've always loved puzzle decks, just like Godii, and its a great way to get a huge diversity of characters, especially for ones that have very few images. So, here we are in 2010, back (hopefully) for good!

Puzzle Pieces

Puzzle Pieces are our currency here at PuzzleMANIA. They come in four colors: red, orange, green and blue. You can view them below:


These can be collected through games and contests, and can be exchanged for both choice and random cards at the forum.