Why Should One Use Water?
(the following is compiled by one known on the chats and forum as darksword - and edited by the Site Administrator)

Ladies and gentlemen… Don’t worry I am not going to make a speech. Just couldn’t think of a good start. So, anyhow right now the topic I am about to write on is “Why should we use the Water Civilization in Duel Masters?”

According to the flavor texts of the cards, water is the most advanced civilization with regards to technology. Now if we take a look at the cards we see that it is kind of true. To use and master this civilization you need a lot of brains not brawn. It is one of the most difficult civilizations that you can master. (Now I am definitely not implying that the other four civs are easy to master!) But one of the main reasons I like water is simple, with water you don’t depend only upon luck. Water tends to reduce the luck factor of dueling to a minimum. Not null I know but minimum.

Now I have dueled a lot and recently almost every deck (that is not a rush deck) has water in it. Now one may ask, why is that? Well don’t stress your brain, I will answer it or will try to answer it for you. Water is used for the following reasons.

Firstly, draw ability. Water is one of the heaviest draw engines in the game. Out of its 176 pure (not multi-civ) cards, 31 cards allow you to draw without showing the drawn cards to your opponent. These include 8 spells and the rest are creatures. Many allow you to draw multiple cards. These 31 cards can change the course of the duel in matters of an instant as hand advantage is something every experienced duelist knows they can benefit from. The more your hand the easier your choices become. Other than these cards there are other cards like Psychic Shaper that allow you to draw while showing what you drew to your opponent.

Water also allows you to manipulate your mana like no other civilization. With cards like Mystic Dreamscape, Thrash Crawler, and so on you can take any card, yes, either a spell or a creature from your mana zone to your hand. This comes in very handy with mana acceleration decks.

Water provides battle field control by providing a variety of blockers and creatures that are able to bounce back either your own or your opponent’s creatures. Now you may ask why would you want to bounce back your own creatures? The answer is simple you can make combinations by bouncing your own creatures. By bouncing your own creatures like Gajirabute and such you gain an advantage. And sometimes it pays to bounce your opponent’s creatures instead of killing them. One prime example being Jil Warka.

Water provides excellent deck search and control. By deck search I mean it allows you to take any card from your deck and put it directly into your hand, something which no other civilization offers, from your deck. Light allows you only to take spells, nature only allows you to take creatures. With darkness, you can only take back creatures from your grave. But Water allows you to take a card either a spell or a creature from your deck with cards like Crystal Memory, Hawkeye Llunatron, Vikorays, etc. and of course how could I forget the mother of all deck search , Invincible Technology. This incredible card allows you to take any number of cards from deck and put them into your hand.

This explains deck search, now for deck control. Deck control is simple, Water allows you to control your and your opponent’s deck. It does so with cards like Corile (one of the most hated and loved cards in the game.) Other than that you can decide the order of the of top cards your own deck with cards like Aqua Strummer or Pulpie Goobie. This provides a great edge as through the use of these cards don’t depend only upon luck but your skills too.

Water provides you with cards with the effect “You may add a card from your hand to your shields face down. If you do, choose one of your shields and put it into your hand (you can't use the 'shield trigger' ability of that shield).” This effect allows you to substitute your shield with one card of your choice. Meaning again you don’t depend upon sheer luck but also your cards. By using such cards you make your own game.

Reconnaissance means scouting… (Just in case you don’t know.) Water gives its user the ability to see the duel with a clearer perspective. How you ask? It allows you to view your opponent's shields and his hand as well. Some water cards like Lalicious allow you to see the top card of your opponent's deck. This can eliminate the factor of surprise. Such cards allow you to properly know which shield to break and when to break it. You don’t go on a rampage and end up giving your opponent the cards he desires.

Finally Water provides you with the largest variety of creatures that can’t be blocked by blockers. Other civilizations also provide you with such creatures but they are mostly either power dependent or have stealth ability. Water provides you with such creatures and spells that can enable you to attack the opponent without being blocked by even the most deadliest and powerful blockers. This ability if used properly can also come in pretty handy.

These are some of the reasons why we use water. There are many other reasons why we may use water, but these are the basic ones the rest I leave to you to figure out as if I teach you everything then you won't learn properly, now will you? In the end I will just say one line, with water you try to make your own luck!