Bio:
All Jedi and Sith are warrior mages, so we had to find the one that was most mage-like for our competition and who better than Palpatine to take up that role. Many of you know Palpatine from the original Star Wars Trilogy, and the Trilogy of Star Wars prequels. There he showed great command over the dark side of the force, and significant skill with a light-saber. Still Palpatine preferred to sit back, manipulate others, and throw force lighting rather than to dirty his blade, making him an excellent mage analog. Palpatine has many of the powers the dark-side of the force grants, including telekinesis and increased physical ability, however it is hinted in the prequel trilogy that Palpatine killed Darth Plagueis, a Sith with the power over life and death, and that he himself may have that power as well. In the extended Star Wars universe, Palpatine becomes Palpatine the undying, his spirit returning from the netherworld of the force, and possessing many a character, including hoards of his own personally created clones. As a spirit, and in whatever body he possesses, Palpatine retains most if not all of his Dark Side powers. Physical death is not enough to stop Palpatine and without complete spiritual obliteration, it is guaranteed that Palpatine will continue to fight until the battle is won for the Dark Side. Fortunately, our competitors in this competition tend to be able to completely obliterate spirits, so Palpatine is vulnerable. Please note, TCGplayer.com is not responsible injury caused by possession of the audience by Emperor Palpatine.

• Spirit is undying and can possess any body
• Access to the most powerful dark side force powers
• Skilled with a lightsaber

• Bodies are all very quick to deteriorate once possessed
• Manipulative abilities less effective in a tournament battle
• Tends to hesitate for dramatic monologue

Bio:
A noble of house Kuchiki, Rukia is one of the protagonists of the Anime series, Bleach. She is a Shinigami, a God of Death, translated into English as Soul Reaper. Shinigami are the overseers of the spirit world, and deal with governing good spirits, while destroying evil ones. All Shinigami in Bleach are accomplished martial artists, but many also have the ability to use Kido, a potent type of magical art. Kido masters are able to bind their opponents with invisible chains, create point blank explosions, create portals to other worlds, and much much more. Rukia’s mastery of Kido far surpasses her ability with the blade, and is one of the highest if not the highest among Shinigami. Even when trapped in a human body stripped of most of her powers, she was still able to harness her Kido against the Hollows (essentially tormented souls who have become demonic in nature) to great effect. She is one of the only characters who can use multiple Kido spells at once, and fire them off in quick succession, as quick as others could draw their blade. Speaking of blades, Rukia’s Zanpakutou is a spiritual manifestation of itself, and when released into Shikai, a first stage release of power, it becomes a powerful Chinese blade of ice. She at that point attacks with potent “dances” which command the element of ice and cold, able to freeze things to near absolute zero, fire gigantic waves of ice at her opponents, and even materialize ice spikes inside her opponent’s body. Unfortunately, when in the human world a limiter is placed on her powers to minimize damage to the human realm. Still, this limiter has been released in dire situations. She is a god, but the Shinigami of the Bleach universe have many of the downfalls of human beings, and like human beings she can get cut, she can bleed, and she can die.

• Is a god and has killed many demons even with her power weakened
• Can fully destroy spirits outside of their bodies
• Adept at swordplay as well as magic

• Can be killed like a human
• Conditional limiter on her powers
• All her most powerful attacks are ice elemental

Bio:
Daigotsu, Dark Lord of the Shadowlands, and founder of the Spider Clan, comes to us from Legend of the Five Rings, and is proof that sometimes to be an awesome mage, you just have to be evil. Evil is Daigotsu’s trademark, turning to the power of the shadowlands, something that most people in Rokugan shun and fear. Honor? What’s honor!?! Daigotsu makes up for honor in power, being one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful Shugenja in L5R history. Daigotsu has cheated death before, giving up a portion of his soul to the shadow dragon so that he might be resurrected later through ritualistic Seppuku (that’s suicide for the ninja impaired) of his body guard. Though in command of numerous dark spirits and powerful magicks, Daigotsu prefers to play a political role, turning clan against clan, and watching Rokugan’s brittle bureaucracy crumble on itself. Daigotsu changed the face of the world even with half his soul trapped, and when he later retrieved his full power, he was nigh unstoppable. This makes Daigotsu one of our only combatants that is resistant to spiritual death as well as physical death! By far Daigotsu’s political machinations are what stand out most for him, from his deals with the Burning Sands to his impressive record of mass assassination. Literally having no limit to how far he will let his soul fall, he has become something much much darker than a normal mortal man. His dark pacts will make him a wild card in this competition, and being that he has joined the ranks of mages who have cheated death, he will most likely prove to be difficult to kill. Please note, TCGplayer.com is not responsible injury caused by possession of the audience by Daigotsu.

• Spirit is semi undying and can be split apart while surviving
• Leader of the spider clan
• Also skilled with a sword

• His dark pacts bind him in unfortunate ways
• Is more powerful in the shadowlands than out
• Manipulative abilities less effective in a tournament battle

Bio:
The Dark Magician is probably our competitor with the least backstory, which is a shame because less backstory means fewer powers. According to the Yu-Gi-Oh anime, the Dark Magician is the embodiment of Mahad, a former guardian of the ancient Pharoh. Mahad sacrificed himself to essentially become the Dark Magician. Beyond that, the Dark Magician’s story stops there. The Dark Magician does have an impressive amount of assisting spell cards and other monsters it can eventually become though. It has been in several important real life Yu-Gi-Oh tournament decks since the beginning, and is essentially the protagonist of Yugi Mutou, the main character of the Yu-Gi-Oh animated series. It is sort of a spiritual rival to the Blue Eyes White Dragon, as Blue Eyes is the favorite card of Seto Kaiba, the anti-hero of the series. However, Dark Magician’s stats are lower than blue eyes, and besides the impressive amount of trap cards, magic cards, and transformations it can go into, it has but one spell, its “Dark Magic Attack”. In all actuality, the Dark Magician is our underdog in this competition, being the most mortal, and with the least spells at his disposal. However, Yu-Gi-Oh characters are known for pulling out victories when all looks bleak so I wouldn’t cut out Dark Magician yet.

• Lots of supporting spells and effects
• Magic is all non-elemental
• Can become a much more powerful creature through the use of fusion magic

• Limited spell library
• Can be killed like any human
• Mostly just a direct attacker

Bio:
This green giant hails from the world of Chaotic, and is one of the better known creatures in that world. The Lord of the Overworld, Maxxor is known as one of the big four, i.e., the four most powerful cards in Chaotic. In Chaotic canon, it is said that even though Maxxor is the Lord of the Overworld, no Overworlder has ever seen his face, as he is always leading the charge on the frontlines of battle, so much so that only his opponents catch a glimpse before their demise. He is both a powerful hand to hand combatant, and a potent Mugician (Mugic is the Magic of the Chaotic world), with access to many if not all of the best attacks and spells both neutral and exclusively Overworld based. He can heal himself without even using a spell, and he is made stronger by the elements of fire and earth, which are the elements of the spells of some of our combatants. The cards in Chaotic have varying stats between each one, however Maxxor’s stats always hover around very high, with his Courage breaking 100 (which is near unseen in most Chaotic cards). He also has an extremely high amount of energy which serves as the HP for Chaotic. No one really knows what “race” Maxxor is, and it hasn’t been revealed what his lifespan is, or whether or not he is mortal. The original stats of Maxxor used in the animated series, in fact had lower courage, but even higher energy and much more Mugic power, tying him for best in the game. Though a potent Mugician, and probably one of the most well known Mugicians in Chaotic, Maxxor is a battler at heart, which makes him one of the only combatants that can fight hand to hand. This makes him a threat to our Mages who haven’t had any non-magical combat experience.

• Fire and Earth make him stronger
• Can self heal
• Is the most powerful hand to hand attacker in the battle

• Tends to rush into a fist fight before using Mugic
• Has been afflicted by curses to reduce his stats in the past
• Stats vary from confrontation to confrontation

Bio:
The high master of artifice Urza was born on the year 0… you heard me… 0, which gave him a lot of time to do great things. Urza is a planeswalker, which in the Magic: The Gathering universe is a powerful near immortal interdimensional mage with limitless power. Urza is the only planeswalker to actually CREATE another planeswalker, in Karn, the silver golem, an artificial robot like construct that carried on Urza’s Legacy after his death. Urza is probably the most powerful planeswalker in the history of Magic as well as the most iconic. In fact if you count Karn in with Urza’s accomplishments, you can even say that Urza indirectly created an entire plane of existence! Urza, as stated before is a master of artifice and even has artifacts imbedded in his body, including his eyesockets! He can bring the inanimate to life, and turn the living into the benign. He also created a weapon that essentially obliterated… well anything by erasing it from existence! This was in addition to creating the titans, which were essentially giant fighting robots which heightened a planeswalker’s power yet more! To put the icing on the cake, Urza at one point was decapitated, and his head remained alive independent of his body! Freaky! Urza has plumbed the depths of good and evil, tasting true infinite power and doing both great and horrible things with it. The Mightstone and Weakstone, the artifacts that were placed in Urza’s eyes were used to power the Legacy, the most powerful artifact of all time, and the crowning achievement of Urza’s life. Upon removal of the Mightstone and Weakstone, Urza died, however considering that these two artifacts still exist, and that they awakened Urza’s spark in the first place, it is doubtful as to whether or not Urza can ever truly meet death. Luckily, the planar rifts from the Time Spiral expansion have allowed us to pull Urza back from the time stream pre-death specifically so that he may participate in this battle.

• Nearly Immortal
• Access to a massive amount of powerful artifacts
• Has a weapon that erases you from existence

• Artifacts can be broken, and he is less effective without them
• Time Spiral rifts have caused planeswalkers to become more mortal
• Generally quite insane

Bio:
Stephen Vincent Strange, once brilliant surgeon, unfortunately suffered neurological damage which affected his coordination. Unable to continue on his path as a medical doctor he accepts the lesser title of SORCERER SUPREME OF THE EARTH!!! The result, near infinite mystical power, a near immortal lifespan, and the ability to summon nearly any celestial or demonic being, and these beings are the be all end all of the marvel universe so you know Dr. Strange isn’t screwing around when he summons something like Dormammu. He is also an accomplished martial artist, telepath, astral projector, hypnotist, illusionist (yes stage magic too), and occasionally he dabbles in arts and crafts. In addition, he has the power to forcibly take powers from other beings much more powerful than him through sheer force of will, however there is a chance that they will then take over both his mind and his body. He can invoke nearly any being, and when doing so he can become as strong as the being he invokes, and he has a full complement of magical artifacts. His veritable toolbox of powers make him a danger in this competition, however it has been shown that sheer brute force can take him down, as he has been defeated once before by the Hulk. He is powerful, but not undefeatable, and he has many mages of considerable power level to get through in this competition.

• Ability to channel powerful divine beings
• Access to several magical artifacts
• Ability to steal other’s powers

• Human, and Mortal
• Can be taken over by the beings he channels
• Has been bested by brute strength in the past

Bio:
(Courtesy of Upper Deck) The most powerful living Human mage in all of Azeroth, Lady Jaina Proudmoore was trained by the finest mages that the Kirin Tor had to offer, including their former leader Antonidas. One of the few members of the Alliance who has good relations with the Horde and their leader Thrall, Jaina strives to end the war between the Horde and the Alliance, and bring peace to Azeroth once more. In the World of Warcraft TCG, Jaina's mastery of magic, specifically the powers of frost, let her stop all of her opponents dead in their tracks no matter how big and strong they may be, keeping her allies safe from harm while dispatching their enemies from a distance. This little blurb from Upper Deck basically says it all, as Jaina is essentially the most powerful human mage in her world. She has gone up against Orcs, Dragons, the Undead, and much much more, and she (unlike some other unfortunate denizens of the World of Warcraft) did not die, become corrupt, or become something far worse. Jaina’s abilities make her one of the best ranged attackers in the battle, and when you put together every spell from every game she has been featured in, most likely her strategy will be to stand back, stopping the enemy, casting blizzard after blizzard, while her army of water elementals does away with whoever she is fighting. As long as she has mana she essentially has access to an infinite amount of water based followers and powerful offensive spells, and since we are leaving it up to our combatants to provide their own mana in these battles, her effectiveness may very well depend on how many mana potions she can stuff in her pocket. However, with enough mana she may be a serious threat in this competition.

• Can freeze and stop enemies regardless of power level
• Can generate followers at will
• Can stay well out of the way of our more martial combatants

• Human, and mortal
• Has finite mana
• Mostly ice or water elemental

Bio:
Karlemayn The Mage may in fact have been the most Iconic mage in Legends of Norrath, but unfortunately didn’t meet the epic standards our other competitors lived up to. When we looked into our mage battles and decided to pick the mages who were most powerful, we thought of mages that shaped time and space with their very thoughts, and unfortunately Karlemayn falls short of that level of ability. One day Karlmayn may have a place in the sun and 15 minutes of fame, but a trickster mage didn’t have much of a place in this competition

Bio:
There was a big fan push for Edward Elric to be in our mage competition representing the Full Metal Alchemist trading card game. Unfortunately, Ed said it himself in one of the first episodes of FMA ever “Alchemy is not magic it is science”. This isn’t a scientist battle, this is a battle for people who control powerful unexplainable otherworldly forces. I personally like Edward Elric as a character and I think he could have gotten far, considering he battled evil homunculi, crafted people’s very souls, and most importantly fought Nazis. However, magic is magic and science is science so… to bad Ed, see you next time. (P.S. Clarke’s Laws do not apply in this competition)

Bio:
Babidi is the most evil you can cram into a midget villain named after lyrics in a Disney song. He comes from the world of DBZ, and he in fact unleashed the ultimate evil on the world, a gigantic morally ambiguous energy throwing wad of gum. Unfortunately this ultimate evil killed him shortly thereafter so we never really saw what his magic can do. This made us hesitant to put him in the competition. We already have 8 different ways the world could end in this competition, we don’t need a little squeaky lizard thing unleashing sentient chewing gum on us as well.

Bio:
Now THIS was the most controversial decision we have ever had to make. Naruto fans everywhere are probably rolling in their graves shouting at us about how we should have let Mr. Evil himself into the competition. However, once again, Orochimaru isn’t actually a mage, he uses Ninjutsu and Genjutsu which are simply Martial Arts that use Chakra. Granted the explanation wears a little thin once you realize he can summon gigantic snakes, come back from the dead, command zombie legions, and much much more…. but we are sorry, no deal. We ask that all of our ninja combatants come back for our Ninja battle in a few months.