Cards

Within the deck, there is a hierarchy. Clow Reed and later Sakura Kinomoto as Master/Mistress of the Clow have command of all cards and both guardians. Below them are the Guardians of the Clow, the physical incarnations of the powers used to create the cards. Keroberos representing the sun and the Western magic Clow inherited from his English magician father and Yue, the spirit of the moon and the Eastern magic from his mother. The mother is also the ancestor of the Li clan including Syaoran Li. Beneath the guardians are the Four Elements (The Earthy, The Firey, The Windy and The Watery, two under each guardian) and the Two Attributes (Light and Dark one for each guardian). The remaining 46 cards are divided up between those six. Each attribute has seven cards under them, while each element has eight under it. The only cards outside the jurisdiction of either Yue or Keroberos are The Nameless Card and The Hope (created by Sakura well after the creation of the Guardians so she couldn't appoint one of them as protector of it) and the Nothing, a negative card made simply to balance the Yang that the Clow Cards make whenever they are used.

Most of the cards may be seen represented in 4 ways: most of the time a beautiful woman or pretty girl dressed or holding an object according to its power (Arrow, Windy, Bubbles), an animal related to the power (Jump, Change, Dash), an object (Sword, Shield, Float) or a Man (Old or Young) dressed or holding an object according to is power (Time, Fiery)

Clow Card

The Clow Cards (クロウカード, Kurō Kādo) are magical cards used in the manga and anime series Cardcaptor Sakura.

In the manga series, there are nineteen cards specifically named, while the anime series has fifty-three (fifty-two in the series proper, the last from the second movie). The Clow Cards were created by the half-English, half-Chinese sorcerer named Clow Reed. After Clow's death the cards were sealed in the Clow Book, only to be released in contemporary times when a new "chosen one" appeared. The cards represent a combination of Eastern and Western magic centered on the concepts of natural forces and elements. Each Clow Card has its own personality, ranging from good-natured to violent, and its own powers that are mostly centered around an elemental force or performing a specific task. When in use or acting on their own, the cards assume alternative forms that vary from card to card. The original Clow Cards fall under a specific sign, sun or moon, corresponding to the guardians Keroberos and Yue. All cards seems to be able to float example, The Sword was floating before it had been captured, All are same except for Earthy, The Erase, The Return and The Illusion.

The nineteen cards in the manga are The Light, The Dark, The Windy, The Earthy, The Firey, The Wood, The Watery, The Flower, The Fly, The Jump, The Erase, The Mirror, The Maze, The Illusion, The Sword, The Shield, The Shadow, The Thunder, and The Glow. These cards also gain slightly different appearances in the manga when transformed into Sakura Cards (Star Cards in the English dub). Changes mainly include the addition of a star however The Sword and The Shield cards gain completely different appearances.