Battle Card (Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam)

Battle Cards are items introduced in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, being the spiritual successor the Badge system in the previous games. They are used in battle and have a plethora of effects: examples include temporarily boosting a certain stat, healing the party, reducing a specific group of enemy's Level, dealing damage to a specific group of enemies and boosting EXP and Coins earned at the end of the battle.

Battle Cards are introduced in Twinsy Tropics's dungeon. After freeing a Paper Goomba, the player receives their first cards. After that, previously unavaible Card Shops will officially open, and they can be also obtained by clearing Lakitu Centre quests or sometimes retrieved from defeated enemies.

In the menu, the player can set up a deck from his Battle Card collection from the Battle Card option. A deck can only contain 10 cards: no more, no less. At the start, only one deck can be set up at a time, but as the player collects more Battle Cards, they can store more decks, even unfinished ones. From this menu, the player can also clear its deck, restore it to the last setting, or make one randomly.

In battle
Once a deck is set up, it will show up in the Touch Screen in battle. Their effects can be used in exchange of Star Points: up to 20 of them can be obtained at once (30 with a Rank-Up Bonus). Each card uses a different amount of Star Points, from just one to about a dozen of them. Star Points can be obtained by succesfully attacking enemies and obtaining ranks like Great and Excellent: however, ordinary attacks can only add up to about a third of a Star Point, while Bros. Attacks and Trio Attacks can grant up to 3 Star Points at once. If a player doesn't want to use a card, they can turn it over to discard it. The status of a player's deck carries over battles.

Up to three cards can be dealt at once. If three of them are present at once, no more will come out, and the player has to use one or turn it over. When all 10 cards are used, they are shuffled again and the cycle repeats.

Shiny Battle Cards
Shiny Battle Cards are a variation of ordinary Battle Cards. They are rarely dropped by enemies and are never sold in Card Shops. Their effects are similar to an ordinary Battle Card, however cost half of its Star Points (rounded up) and have a slightly stronger effect at the same time.

After Battle Cards are introduced, Shiny Battle Cards can be dropped by enemies at anytime. The player can learn about their effect by taliking to the rightmost Toad in a Card Shop.

Character Cards
Character Cards are a system similar to Battle Cards, but work with amiibos. To get started, one must first get a '''? Card'''. ? Cards come in two variations: LV 1 ? Cards and LV 2 ? Cards. The second type is rarer but produces stronger cards. They are rarely dropped by enemies or alternatively bought for 200 and 800 Coins, respectively, in a Card Shop from a Toad with a dialogue box with a ? Card in it. From the menu, the player can make a random Character Card of the ? Card's level by scanning an amiibo. In battle, the player can scan an amiibo, pick a card and use it. That card can't be used again until the battle ends. The player can't get doubles of the same card in the same amiibo.

Two variations of them exist. The first is Duo Character Cards. If the game alerts the player they can make one, they have to scan a different amiibo (no data will be written on it) and the card will be obtained. They feature an artwork of two characters at once. If the player doesn't have another amiibo, they can cancel the creation with. If they make a combination that doesn't lead to any card (such as Mario + Bowser), they don't get anything.

Sparkle Character Cards are also stronger version of Character Cards, but are made differently. If the player has two amiibos and both of them have a certain card, they can both be scanned to make a card with similar, but amplified effect, and register it on both amiibos. They are shiny too, making them similar to Shiny Battle Cards. However, the player can only make one per day.

The first ? Cards are dropped by defeating Petey Piranha: after that, they can be freely bought and used. Mario and Luigi have 26 different cards, while Peach, Yoshi, Toad and Bowser all have 23 of them, having one less LV 1 Character Card, LV 2 Character Card and LV 2 Duo Character Card.

Enemies' Battle Cards
Some bosses also have their custom Battle Card decks. Some of them are Larry Koopa and Ludwig von Koopa, fought respectively in Twinsy Tropics and Neo Bowser Castle. They also have a personal Star Points counter (Dark Star Points in-game), which works similarly to the player's: if they fail to dodge enemy attacks and get hit, the counter goes up. Battle Cards are as well used automatically by spending Dark Star Points and have different effects, including raising one of their stats or disabling some of the player's attack temporarily. At the start of the match and after any card is played, a dialogue plays, alerting the player of the next card's effect and the number of Dark Star Points needed.

Trivia

 * One of the amiibo Cards that can be created with a Bowser amiibo has a picture of Antasma on the front. This is because the card uses artwork from Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, where both characters are featured in some of the same pieces of artwork.
 * Just like Stickers in Paper Mario: Sticker Star, shiny Battle Cards can change the angle of the reflection by tilting the system.