BRANDON - If your teenager mumbles words like ``Vampire Lord'' or spends his allowance on something called ``Zombie Madness,'' don't worry. He hasn't gone over to the Dark Side.
Those are hot new decks in Yu-Gi-Oh, a Japanese card game that makes its predecessor, Pokemon, look as tame as a rousing game of old maid.
Pitting mystical creatures against each other on a battlefield filled with traps and pitfalls, the game has spiraled into a global brand, spawning video games, cartoon shows, toys and a movie so far.
And it's cool. What other game has cards with names like ``Torrential Tribute,'' ``Creature Swap'' and ``Snatch Steal''?
``It's strategy, it's combat, it's pitting your skill against an opponent,'' said Lori Sheets of Brandon, a self-described ``den mother'' for local Yu- Gi-Oh players.
Sheets estimates she's spent $600 to $700 over the years on cards and other gear for three sons who play the game. But, she quickly adds, it's money well spent.
``It's a social thing, a family thing,'' she said, where 7- year-olds are taken as seriously and treated with the same respect as their adult competitors.
The No. 2 ranked player in Florida, in fact, is still years away from a driver's license.
A family member gave him a deck, said Donald Kiss, 13, of Seffner. ``I stuck with it and he didn't.''
In Yu-Gi-Oh, first played in Japan in 1996, players use Monster cards to gain control of the game and Magic and Trap cards to change the outcome of duels.
The goal is to accumulate a deck with enough powerful cards to destroy all comers.
``Once you start winning, it's a snowball effect,'' Sheets said. ``The more you win, the better your deck gets. The better your deck gets, the more you win.''
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