Summary

The Bleach trading card game (not to be confused with the recent Bleach releases that are part of the Union Arena system) was a short-lived TCG based on the anime and manga series. In the game, you play as a Guardian, channeling energy (from a side deck) to play other cards to deplete your opponent's power (or deck them). The game was distributed in two different sets of starter decks and 10-card booster packs spanning across an impressive six sets (three releases a year while the game was active), along with promo cards and autographed cards.

Card Types

• Guardian - Cards that represent personas in Bleach, and are not part of the deck. A deck is built around one, and the chosen guardian card determines the composition of the energy side deck. Guardians also have effects that can be used during gameplay.
• Energy - Cards that provide energy to play other cards, and are kept in a side deck.
• Character - Cards representing different characters in Bleach. They have costs, traits, stats, and may have gameplay effects.
• Event - A card with various effects. They have costs and effects.
• Item - Cards equipped to characters that provide additional effects. They also have costs.
• Battleground - A card representing a location, with a constant effect on the game. They also have costs.

Sets and Decks

The game had six sets released: Premiere, Soul Society, Seireitei, Bankai, Bounts, and Portal. Two other sets (Infiltration and Evolution) were planned but never released. Other promotional cards and products such as deck boxes (with corresponding guardian cards) were also available.

Starter decks were only available for two of the sets: Premiere and Bankai. Both sets of starters had the same format. Infiltration would have included starter decks as well, with a similar format to the other starters. It would appear Score had intended to do yearly three-set "blocks", with the opening set each year including starter decks.

There were additionally ultra rare cards and autographed cards, and a parallel foil set.

Deck Composition and Contents

Starter Decks

Starter decks were available for two sets: Premiere and Bankai. In both cases, the decks came with two high-tech guardian cards (out of a possible eight), a 40-card deck (a legal deck is 60 cards), and 10 of each of the three energy cards (of which you'll use 20 total, based on the guardian), as well as a rulebook and a playmat. The playmat has a poster and checklist of cards on the back.

Starter deck contents were fixed, from a few different possible deck configurations, and the guardian cards were also randomized (one of four sets of 2 guardians). The guardians do not determine which deck you receive (any of the four guardian sets can come with any deck). In both cases, the boxes also do not indicate which deck or guardians you will receive. The decks themselves contain common, uncommon, and rare cards.

Decks also included two booster packs of the corresponding expansion. The 20 total cards (10 per booster) could theoretically be used to make a full legal 60-card deck, albeit with extreme randomness, and assuming you do not receive a guardian or energy card in either booster.

Deck Rarity Analysis

The high-tech guardians are exclusive to starter decks, although the fact that there are four sets of them and the starters are blind means that you'll have a difficult time collecting all 8 without trading. The blind nature also means you may end up with a large number of duplicate non-rare cards if you're trying to collect all the guardians yourself. (The fact that guardians are randomized indepenently from the decks may actually make this problem worse, depending on your luck.)

The starters do include rare cards, but that's only two rares (one copy of each). The different (fixed) starters all contain different rares, meaning you're not spoiling your rare pulls from boosters too much.

One interesting thing is that (like Pokemon) energy cards are also found in booster packs. Unlike Pokemon, energy here is common rarity, meaning you can spoil pulling other commons with a useless energy card (plus there are only three energy types, and enough copies of all three are included in every starter). This is not a big issue if you open a ton of boosters (as you'll drown in commons like most games), but it is disappointing when you're looking at a smaller number of boosters, such as the two you get with your starter deck, as an energy card is a completely useless pull if you have a starter deck.

Alan's Thoughts On The Game

I think I had lower expectations than usual going into it, but I really like this game.

There's a surprising amount of decisions to make during a game, just in the starter decks, such as whether you defend with a character or save them to attack later. There's a lot of strategy around whether you draw a card or play an energy, and the energy mechanic in this game is fantastic and makes you feel like you're really in control. The fact that the characters have multiple stats they can attack in also means you'll want to fill in the gaps in your lineup so your opponent doesn't have a free shot at your guardian, while trying to find a hole in their defense, which I really like.

The boost mechanic is also really interesting, and it's something I think would be more interesting if you were able to really build a deck around it (rather than just playing with starters, like I did). The ability to effectively discard cards to increase a stat has been done before in many games, but when combined with the draw-or-energy question, it creates really interesting decisions.

The friend I played with compared this favorably to the 24 TCG, and I agree. It feels like almost the same game, but with a lot more interesting decisions... whereas I think in 24 you'll build a deck that is more hyper-tailored to what you're trying to do (as all skills work the same while on a mission), Bleach makes you build a more well-rounded deck that has you adapting on the fly. Both good games, but this one does have a slight edge.

I recommend this one. Surprisingly easy to learn but with an unexpected amount of strategic depth.

Side note: I don't enjoy how thin and flimsy the cards are. They feel the same as the Inuyasha TCG and the Sonic X (T)CG (both also made by Score), but the smaller size of card compared with the thinness just doesn't feel good to hold. Of course, this doesn't affect gameplay in any way.

Resources

• General Info (via Wikipedia)
• Retro DBZ CCG (includes card images and rulebook)
• Starter Deck Card Lists (AlanvDotOrg Randomjunk)