History Main / CCGImportanceDissonance

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* The short-lived ''Manga/InitialD'' card game had a card for a ''car stereo system''. In spite of the fact that stereo systems were never even mentioned in the original manga, anime, nor video game, and none of the characters are the type to ever give a crap about stereo systems.

** For a long time in the game, the second most powerful card ever printed was the Third Hokage, often revered as perhaps the strongest ninja the leaf village ''ever'' produced, who [[spoiler:dies in an epic battle by summoning ''the god of death'' to defeat his opponent]]. The first? Ino Yamanaka, a low-level genin that does almost nothing in all of part 1.

* ''TabletopGame/WeissSchwarz'' is guilty of this in a narrativistic instead of mechanical way. This game runs on RuleOfCool versus RuleOfCute; it tries to replicate the awesome (or heartwarming, or sad) moment of the licensed anime in its cards. To do that, it allows itself to [[CrackIsCheaper print several different version of the same characters]], even if it's just a minor or situational variation. The downside of this, owing to the limit of cards in each expansion, is that characters whose appearances are few and far between gets less cards and decks built around them are less versatile (if building such deck is even possible)-- even if they are far more capable in-story than the spotlight-hogging main characters.

* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' has countless examples of this trope; so many that listing them all might double the size of this page. In general, the game has a habit of vastly buffing anime cards, vastly nerfing anime cards, or leaving anime cards the same without accounting for lack of [[TheMagicPokerEquation The Heart of the Cards]] making them useless or leading to players abusing what seemed to be innocuous effects. This frequently leads to a meta that barely resembles that of the anime. Even Kazuki Takahashi joked about how the cards in the anime and manga were designed to create drama and get the characters out of jams, not be playable in a real-world context. Much of the issue comes down to the fact that, in the anime, many of these super-cards are considered [[PowerEqualsRarity incredibly rare]]: as in, probably a single-digit number of real copies in the world, if not [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup outright unique]].[[note]]For instance, it's stated in the anime that only four copies of Blue-Eyes White Dragon were ever printed, and Kaiba rips up the only one he didn't already own in the first episode.[[/note]] These concerns become much clearer when you have to account for anyone being able to potentially obtain a copy.

* While the ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' movies portray heroes such as Boromir or Gimli as capable of successfully defeating dozens of Orcs or Uruks in a single fight, in the ''Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game'' most minions, including not only Nazgûls or Trolls, but about 98% of all "random nameless extra" Orcs, Uruks and Evil Men are stronger than the basic Fellowship members. Thus, the Fellowship has to arm itself with lots and lots of weapons and use various combat support to be able to win skirmishes. And even then, many wounds are taken.

** The same goes for the ''Star Wars Miniatures'' game; for a while, the best character in the game was Aurra Sing, a BountyHunter who only made a brief cameo appearance in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''. Booster packs often tended to frustrate buyers because each pack only contains one rare figure, and ''all'' named characters are rare or very rare regardless of importance. You were very likely to get some random cantina alien rather than fan-favorite characters from the movies.

* There was a ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' CCG, briefly. They had cards for every item and background character in the movie - even ones that didn't have names (which the CCG was mostly comprised of) such as "Gift-Wrapping Elf" and "Ghost on the Left".

* The ''[[TabletopGame/BattleTech Mechwarrior: Dark Age]]'' game suffered badly from this in the first few sets. Battlemechs were supposed to be kings of the battlefield, but most of them wound up being fairly weak. A few squads of infantry or a vehicle or two could take down most mechs pretty quickly, even ones that were supposed to be quite powerful. This was because the stats of most units were generally done randomly instead of following some sort of attempt to convert them over from the original game. This also led to mechs being armed with long range weapons that had short range values, and thirty ton mechs that could easily take more damage than mechs more than twice their size.

** A [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221103 Dragon Engine]] is supposed to be a titanic siege weapon, Mishra's great weapons in the Brothers War. Its printed version can be easily destroyed by two [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=6613 Bear Cubs]].

* In ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'', minor, often useless characters can be major players in the game due to nothing more than raw fan popularity. Finding a faction with an AscendedExtra isn't the exception, but the rule. Toku and Bayushi Tangen were chump sacrificial characters when introduced. The former's daughter now leads the Scorpion Clan as a regent, and the latter's students now comprise the clan's BigDamnHeroes troops.
** In contrast, since storyline tournaments usually net storyline victory cards, balance demands PowerCreepPowerSeep. It's not uncommon for these victory cards to be utterly useless, or better for someone else's clan, or for a clan's repeated victories leading directly to them being utterly useless in subsequent sets.

* The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' CCG by Decipher actually cycled into and out of this trope. At first players only used named characters since the no-name Starfleet {{Red Shirt}}s had usually only one skill and mediocre stats. To balance this out, they made cards called "Lower Decks" and "Assign Mission Specialist" so that these cards would see use. Also, since the game was premised on all the Star Trek races competing, every on-screen Romulan, Klingon and several other characters eventually got cards with skills and high ability scores never demonstrated on screen so that their faction had a viable chance at solving missions. Oh, and Riker's card sucked. [[note]]His [[CloningBlues clone's, moreso.]][[/note]]

** Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and Dark Magician, the principle ace cards of the main characters of the original series, were perceived as AwesomeButImpractical at best for a long time, being outclassed by less-costly cards like Summoned Skull and Jinzo. Much of this was down to the game adding a "Tribute Summon" mechanic that meant playing high-level cards required a player to give up multiple monsters, which invariably made them vulnerable to removal (there was a brief period in the OCG where it didn't exist, and Blue-Eyes was predictably completely overpowered). Later on, this would be averted, as a large swathe of support was released for the three that made them actually playable, albeit usually more as the central piece of a large number of cards.

** In general, the anime duel plotting tends to feature cards that block damage being [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Prevent_Reborn much weaker]] (i.e. costing LP or resources, not blocking all damage, or not preventing destruction) and cards that draw cards being [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Xyz_Treasure much stronger]] (i.e. "draw a card for each [X] monster on the field"). The real game places very harsh limits on draw power (anything legal above drawing one card is probably [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_HERO_-_Disk_Commander going to have heavy costs or restrictions]][[note]]The Pot of Greed, ubiquitous in the anime, merely allows you to draw two cards, and since you had to draw it first, effectively only gives you one extra card. It is ''banned for overpoweredness'' in the card game.[[/note]]), while [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Waboku cards that can completely block damage and destruction at no cost for an entire turn]] are downright common and often barely see play outside of dedicated stall decks.

** In general, the anime duel plotting tends to feature cards that block damage being [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Prevent_Reborn much weaker]] (i.e. costing LP or resources, not blocking all damage, or not preventing destruction) and cards that draw cards being [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Xyz_Treasure much stronger]] (i.e. "draw a card for each [X] monster on the field"). The real game places very harsh limits on draw power (anything legal above drawing one card is probably [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_HERO_-_Disk_Commander going to have heavy costs or restrictions]]), while [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Waboku cards that can completely block damage and destruction at no cost for an entire turn]] are downright common and often barely see play outside of dedicated stall decks.

* ''Anime/UltimateMuscle'' Battle Card Game inverted this trope. Even though the 'translator' (or guy who decided to make this playable and semi-balanced) nerfed a few of the cards, the Legendary characters like Ramenman or Buffaloman were nearly impossible to beat with the common wrestlers like Gorgeousman!

** [[LightNovel/{{SwordArtOnline}} Silica]] is another example of this. While in the anime she barely appeared for more than a few episodes and only appearing as one of Kirito's possible love interests, there's a whole entire set of her in both volumes of the series' respective boosters, which has been shown in tournaments to be a [[GameBreaker Game Breaker]] sometimes. Her signed card is [[https://shop.tcgplayer.com/weiss-schwarz/sword-art-online/silicas-unyielding-trust-sp?xid=pi92b80101-cb9d-462f-ad39-0155d60a610d surprisingly expensive]] for a Level 0 variant.

** The Mugic Fortissimo is depicted in the show as a very potent mugic that can make creatures grow to gigantic size. In the actual game? It only gives a creature a poultry boost of 5 in every discipline. Which even compared to other early stat boosting cards in the game was absolutely pathetic.

* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' has countless examples of this trope; so many that listing them all might double the size of this page. In general, the game has a habit of vastly buffing anime cards, vastly nerfing anime cards, or leaving anime cards the same without accounting for lack of [[TheMagicPokerEquation The Heart of the Cards]] making them useless or leading to players abusing what seemed to be innocuous effects. This frequently leads to a meta that barely resembles that of the anime. Even Kazuki Takahashi joked about how the cards in the anime and manga were designed to create drama and get the characters out of jams, not be playable in a real-world context. Much of the issue comes down to the fact that, in the anime, many of these super-cards are considered [[PowerEqualsRarity incredibly rare:]] as in, probably a single-digit number of real copies in the world, if not [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup outright unique]].[[note]]For instance, it's stated in the anime that only four copies of Blue-Eyes White Dragon were ever printed, and Kaiba rips up the only one he didn't already own in the first episode.[[/note]] These concerns become much clearer when you have to account for anyone being able to potentially obtain a copy.

* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' has countless examples of this trope; so many that listing them all might double the size of this page. In general, the game has a habit of vastly buffing anime cards, vastly nerfing anime cards, or leaving anime cards the same without accounting for lack of [[TheMagicPokerEquation The Heart of the Cards]] making them useless or leading to players abusing what seemed to be innocuous effects. This frequently leads to a meta that barely resembles that of the anime. Even Kazuki Takahashi joked about how the cards in the anime and manga were designed to create drama and get the characters out of jams, not be playable in a real-world context. Much of the issue comes down to the fact that, in the anime, many of these super-cards are considered [[PowerEqualsRarity incredibly rare:]] as in, probably a single-digit number of real copies in the world, if not [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup outright unique]]. These concerns become much clearer when you have to account for anyone being able to potentially obtain a copy.

** Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and Dark Magician, the principle ace cards of the main characters of the original series, were perceived as AwesomeButImpractical at best for a long time, being outclassed by less-costly cards like Summoned Skull and Jinzo. Much of this was down to the game adding a "Tribute Summon" mechanic that meant playing high-level cards required a player to give up multiple monsters, which invariably made them vulnerable to removal (there was a brief period in the OCG where it didn't exist, and Blue-Eyes was predictably completely overpowered). Later on, this would be averted, as a large swathe of support was released for the duo that made them actually playable, sometimes verging on excellent, albeit usually more as the central piece of a large number of cards.

** Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician, the principle ace cards of the main characters of the original series, were perceived as AwesomeButImpractical for a long time, being outclassed by less-costly cards like Summoned Skull and Jinzo. Much of this was down to the game adding a "Tribute Summon" mechanic that meant playing high-level cards required a player to give up multiple monsters, which invariably made them vulnerable to removal (there was a brief period in the OCG where it didn't exist, and Blue-Eyes was predictably completely overpowered). Later on, this would be averted, as a large swathe of support was released for the duo that made them actually playable, sometimes verging on excellent, albeit usually more as the central piece of a large number of cards.
** Red-Eyes Black Dragon, the principle ace of the third main character for the series, was arguably even worse compared to Blue-Eyes and Dark Magician. It didn't help that two Fusion Monsters built for it during its initial release, Black Skull Dragon and Meteor Black Dragon, meant that players would need to spend ''three'' cards at minimum to get one powerhouse onto the field when their respective non-Red-Eyes materials, Summoned Skull and Meteor Dragon, were fairly respectable in their own regard and cheaper too. Just like Blue-Eyes and Dark Magician, though, Red-Eyes would get more support from later generations.

** Not to mention IRL, a stereo system is detrimental to racing, as it adds dead weight to the car and serves no useful purpose whatsoever. * In ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'', minor, often useless characters can be major players in the game due to nothing more than raw fan popularity. Finding a faction with an AscendedExtra isn't the exception, but the rule. Toku and Bayushi Tangen were chump sacrificial characters when introduced. The former's daughter now leads the Scorpion Clan as a regent, and the latter's students now comprise the clan's BigDamnHeroes troops.