Dreamwave Productions has announced that its Duel Masters #1 comic book, by Brian Augustyn and Jeremy Tiongson, will come polybagged with rare limited edition Duel Masters cards from the upcoming Wizards of the Coast Duel Masters CCG.  There will be five different Duel Masters cards, one for each of the five different covers of the Duel Masters #1 comic (see 'Dreamwave's Duel Masters Comic Set For November').  Based on preorders for the Duel Masters comic, it appears that there will be only 4,500 of each of the rare Duel Masters cards, which is a very small number when compared with the 400 million Duel Masters cards sold in Japan in just one year.

The Duel Masters comic book from Dreamwave, which debuts in November, is the first of many Duel Masters products to debut in the U.S. (see 'Duel Masters -- WotC CCG, Dreamwave Comic'), but it will hardly be the last.  Jointly owned by Hasbro Consumer Products, Wizards of the Coast, Mistui Kids Station, and Shogakukan, Duel Masters is a property, which should have plenty of marketing muscle behind it.  Although the Duel Masters CCG won't debut until Q1 2004, the unique cards bagged with the Dreamwave comic will reward the adventurous consumer, who wants to get in on the ground floor of what could become a major edifice.  The Duel Masters CCG has done well in Japan, where it competes with Yu-Gi-Oh for the post-Pokemon CCG demographic, and the property has the potential to score a similar success here in the States.