Cards that can destroy you in one turn

There are some cards that can do you in immediately if you have a Level 3 deck like I do, so I always watch out for them.

For Corn Fields, there is Gold Corn Ronin and Gold Patchy the Pumpkin. Both have attacks over 25, which means if they land on an empty lane, you're dead. Blue Plains has one such card, Gold Psionic Architect, and Useless Swamps has one such card, Gold Tree of Underneath.

For this reason, it's imperative to keep all your lanes filled as much as possible.

Typically, this is how a typical game for me goes:

• Computer goes first, places two creatures down for 1 point each.
• If I have any Black cards, place them on the two empty lanes to immediately hit the computer. If not, place any other 1 point cards with high attack. Even if I have no high attack cards, place cards in empty lanes. Even if the computer already placed cards with higher attack.
• Computer goes again, usually countering the cards I just put down. Also, cards that were placed in the first round get to attack, and may be stronger with a building added.

This way, the computer doesn't have a chance to hit an empty lane, and the computer will never replace an existing creature with another unless that creature was killed off.

Yes, it pays to mine the Cool Chest

Yes, when you have a bunch of coins leftover from winning the Black Card Tournament, it does help to mind the Cool Chest for cards. Why? Because, if you're like me, you can't mine Quests for cards because it will increase the level of your hero. And you can't increase the level of your hero because you need to keep it at 3 or lower so that it costs only 1 Heart to play Deck Wars matches.

So, here are two examples of decent cards you can get in the Cool Chest. The Pickler is very useful, late in the game, against low-level decks, as most cards have 5 Defense or less. Corn Parthenon is not as useful, unless you happen to have a three- or four-colour deck.

But most of the time, you just get 1 Rarity cards, often worthless cards, like The Pig or Mouthball. You just have to be patient.

New update, increase inventory for coins!

Great news! With the new app update, you can add extra inventory to your card box for COINS, and not GEMS! What a great deal! If you're like me, after winning several tournaments, you end up with lots of coins anyway. I usually spend them on the Cool Chest, but this is much better. So, I maxed up my inventory to 500, which is the maximum. It only took me less than 1 million coins.

Also, I was greeted with this interesting message:

Sure, I'll take it, why not?

My Current Deck

Originally, when I started, I had to work with a rather weak Corn Fields Deck. For a starter deck, this was the best I could muster -- you already start with some Corn Fields, and you already have Jake as a hero, who is strongest with a Corn Fields Deck.

But as I won tournaments and began to acquire Black Cards, I was freer to choose different decks. Don't forget that all of my heroes are at Level 3 or below so that it costs only 1 heart to play a match in Deck Wars. This allows me to quickly rack up trophies so that I can win Black Cards. But this also means that I don't have the opportunity to "mine" quests for cards, even 1 star cards.

Thanks to Tournaments #14, #15, and #4, I now have three Sandy Lands Black Cards -- two Sandasaurus Rex and one Party Ogre. These are 14/16 and 11/19. Because my heroes are all Level 3, I almost always get matched up against other Level 3 decks, which means I need only 25 points to knock out the opponent. This means any two out of three Black Cards placed on empty lanes will give me an instant win (always go second so that you can attack first). If I don't start with two Black Cards, I can play whatever card I have an use Crystal Ball to get a new hand. It's best to use Brief Power before Crystal Ball so that I can place a bunch of 1-point cards down for free, and then use the Crystal Ball to grab the Black Cards.

Also, Sand Eyebat is very useful in knocking out any opponent cards that have only 1 or 2 Defense. These opponents don't have to be on the exact opposite side of the Sand Eyebat -- it will work on any opponent. This can often open up a lane so that I can place my Black Card down for a nice 11-point or 14-point hit.

Tournament #6 Log Knight and X-Large Spirit Soldier

Another tournament, another Black (and Gold) Card!

Log Knight, with 10/20, is a little on the weak side compared to other Black Cards, but if you're playing with a Corn deck, it's a welcome addition. X-Large Spirit Soldier, at 7/60, may be weak in terms of Attack, but it's a tank, and the best part is its floop -- if it's about to die, floop the card back into your hand and play it again!

The next Black Card Tournament, #7, has Camera Dude and Lost Golem. Camera Dude is very handy, as it lowers the opponent's Magic Points by 2. This is good to combine with Timmy Magic Eyes, which lowers the flooping cost by 1, and Infinite Figure, which increases the opponent's flooping cost by 1.

New Redemption Code: GHOST DOG

Another redemption code is available! Type in "GHOST DOG" to get Ghost Jake! Don't forget all caps and the space in between. Ghost Jake is similar to Jake, except it adds +5 Attack to Blue Plains creatures! Regular Jake adds only +3 attack to Corn creatures. But this also means you need a decent Blue Plains deck, which I don't have right now.

Don't forget to check http://cardwars.wikia.com/wiki/Redeem_Codes to make sure you have redeemed all the codes you can.

Don't forget that new hero cards are useful when you're intentionally keeping your hero card levels at 3 or less. You can use a new hero card to farm some more cards or you can try to advance in the Quests to increase your heart maximum. Just be sure to keep your hero level at 3 or lower. Once you go over 3, the number of hearts it takes to play a match in Deck Wars increases to 2. The number of hearts required is your highest hero's level divided by 2, rounded down.

Tournament #5 Apple Tree and Good King Wonderful

Tournament #5 is over, and that means more Black Cards!

I don't particularly like playing with Nicelands decks, so this tournament wasn't that exciting for me. I have Apple Tree (which is not the most useful) and Good King Wonderful. Both are pretty defensive, but then again, so is everything about NiceLands.

The good thing is that this tournament, I didn't suffer from the connection error as I did last tournmanet. I wonder if D3 has still flagged my account for cheating (which I didn't do)?

Also, all of the Deck Wars matchups were fairly consistent. I was matched up only with other Level 3 Hero decks. Sometimes they were 5 trophies, and other times just 4 trophies. I always tried for 5 trophy matches, of course. I'm glad that D3 finally fixed that. I was getting tired of being matched up with Level 10 decks.

Throwing my hat into the ring again... Tournament #5

I'm joining the tournament again. As you can see, I have lots of hearts saved up. I think I must have gotten two 50 heart bonuses from the Daily Gift. And now it's time to use them!

I wanted to join early to avoid being flagged for "exploitation" of Deck Wars. I'm going to assume that this account flagging is on a per-tournament basis, and that joining early enough might allow me to avoid this problem in the future. I think last time I joined, I joined the Thursday before the Black Card Tournament ended, and I used up many hearts all at once. Could that be what flagged my account?

In any case, this is Tournament #5, so we are looking at Apple Tree and Good King Wonderful. Kind of... meh. And I don't like playing Nice Lands Decks. They're kind of boring.

D3 finally came through -- my account is (sort of) restored!

In an earlier post, weeks ago, I discussed how one of my Google Play accounts overwrote the other, so I lost all my Black and Gold Cards. D3 said they would help me restore those Tournament cards (though my account couldn't be restored, so I did lose some great cards), and they finally came through, weeks later. Yay!

So now I have:

• Sun King
• Eye Guy
• Timmy Magic Eyes
• Sandasaurus Rex (x2)
• Green Party Ogre
• Legion of Earlings
• Husker Giant
• Embarrassing Bard
• Dr. Death
• Sandy
• Brain Gooey (x2)
• Fisher Fish (x2)

I'm so relieved! I'll probably join the Tournament tomorrow... but assuming that my account isn't still flagged for "exploiting Deck Wars". :)

Tournament #4 Sandasaurus Rex and Husker Giant

So Tournament #4 came and went, and even though D3 flagged my account for "exploiting Deck Wars", it appears I was still able to win first place, thanks to all the trophies I racked up before the "Connection Failed" issues started popping up.

Now I'm wondering if the Connection Failed issue is D3's way of "throttling" players who win lots of trophies or are highly ranked. If so, that would be a very cumbersome way of going about it. I can think of better ways to do this, like fixing game mechanics and rules. Or how about just making it easier to win Black Cards?

D3 thinks I'm... CHEATING!?!?

I contacted D3 because of persistent "Connection Failed" issues. They responded by saying that my account has been flagged as exploiting Deck Wars.

Seriously, in what way have I cheated? I hate cheaters. Playing the game within the parameters that they set is not cheating. I feel like I've wasted my time and money on this stupid, stupid game. Well, not that much ($5 + $3). Still, this is very disappointing.

UPDATE 2015-08-15 Looks like I'm not the only one experiencing this. Check out this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/CardWars/comments/3h2e0n/any_idea_why_d3_would_flag_my_account/.

I hope D3 gets their heads out of their asses and stops pissing off the players. I know I, for one, will never buy anything from them ever again.

Frustrating Deck Wars -- Connection Failed

Lately, I've been running into this problem a lot -- "Connection Failed". As far as I can tell, you just have to keep trying. I usually wait for a few minutes and try again, and sometimes it miraculously works again. I've hit this problem before, but now it's almost constant. I'm guessing that, because the Tournament ends on Saturday, people are hitting the servers pretty hard, and that could be causing connection timeouts.

But even when I can find a match, lately I've found that the matches can be really, really uneven matches. Look at this screen -- how in the world do I have a chance against a Level 50 hero with 260 points!?!? Sure, it's a 10 trophy match, but it would be almost impossible for me to win.

Is it worth it to complain to the developers? I doubt it. There are so many bugs in this game that it doesn't seem like that care.

Tournament Matches -- I have no idea how matches are determined

I don't know if something has changed in the way matches are determined, but I've been getting some rather random matches in the Deck Wars Black Card Tournament.

First of all, I sometimes get matched with Level 1 decks. These still earn the minimum 4 trophies per match (plus 4 for streaks for a total of 8), but it's kind of odd to be matched up with them, as my hero is Level 3. In fact, how is it even possible for a Level 1 deck to exist, especially Finn or Jake? My guess is that someone didn't finish the tutorial and immediately started playing Deck Wars before leveling up the heroes to Level 2, which you normally do within the first 6 Quests.

Needless to say, beating a Level 1 deck is pretty easy. There are usually two open lanes where you can place 5 ATK cards, knocking the opponent from 15 down to 5 points. Then the opponent, who already has a weak deck, typically uses Mouthball and stupidly floops it, leaving you an open lane to finish the match.

But I've also been getting some Level 4 or Level 5 matches. These earn more trophies (7 trophies in this case). They're a little harder to beat, but with a decent deck, it's possible.

 See?

My next match was very strange -- a Level 14 deck for 10 trophies! But Level 14 heroes have 80 HP, so this is almost impossible to beat with my weak Level 3 deck.

And of course, I lost. Even if I had been able to make a few more hits, I would have quickly run out of cards.

After that Level 14 match, I was matched up with Level 1 and Level 2 decks again.

So, to summarise, I have no idea how Card Wars determines matches, and from what I can tell, they are often mismatched.

To go first, or not to go first, that is the question... with an easy answer

First of all, you should be able to consistently control the spinner so that it lands either on your side or your opponent's aside. For me, on my phone, I find that if I flick the spinner on the right side really fast, it always lands on the opponent's side.

For me, it makes sense to make the opponent go first. For several reasons.

• The player who goes first has two magic points with which to place cards but they can't attack. They are like sitting ducks. This typically leaves two empty lanes open for the other player to attack.
• If you're playing Jake with a Corn Fields Deck (like I am), the player who goes second gets to do the hero floop first. This is a huge advantage. It's the opportunity to deal a lot of damage first, or at least to clear most if not all of the opposing lanes.

The big drawback to going second is the magic point issue. Magic points are 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, and so on. This means your opponent gets to place, say, a 5-point card first, which can be a real game-changer.

But if you are playing weak decks (like I am), this usually isn't an issue.

Throwing my hat into the ring again -- Tournament #4 Sandasaurus Rex and Husker Giant

I joined the tournament again, this time on Wednesday or Thursday. I decided not to repeat a mistake I made with one of my accounts last time, where I earned over 500 trophies on the Friday before the tournament ended and didn't check my rank until it was all over. That time, #2 had somehow earned more than 500 trophies in less than 24 hours, which is, of course, within the realm of possibility. So let that be a lesson!

This time, I earned over 700 trophies with #2 only at 100 or so. But soon #2 surged to 700, so I had to play pretty hard and now I'm at over 2600. If #2 stays at 700, I can maybe take a break, but I still have to be ever vigilant!

Meanwhile, it'll be nice to get Sandasaurus Rex, a decent Black Card, though I don't have a decent Sandy Lands Deck yet, so I won't be able to use it yet. I had a very nice Sandy Lands deck before my whole Google Play fiasco where I was switching between accounts on my phone and had one account overwritten by the other. D3 still hadn't gotten back to me yet on this, which makes me sad.

Don't forget, my hero cards are intentionally low, at 2 or 3, to keep the cost of Deck Wars matches at just 1 heart. This way I can maximise on the number of trophies earned, even if each match I earn only 4 trophies for the low-level opponents plus another 4 trophies for the streak. Meanwhile, I can't mine for cards using the quests because I need to keep my heroes at a low level and quests would give me XP and increase my hero levels.

A good reason to play F&C levels -- Subliminal Strength

Holy crap, somebody just posted this on the Card Wars Facebook Page -- Subliminal Strength! Supposedly obtained from one of the last Quests in the Fionna and Cake expansion. No, I haven't gotten it yet, but it sure would be nice! Most creatures are rarity 3 or lower, so this would take care of most of them.

Cheaters on the global tournament board

If you've been playing in the Tournament, you'll notice that the global leader board always has these two players -- "Master Manme" and "Dax". "Dax" used to be called "AZ1ZONK". But I'm pretty sure both of them are cheaters. After only 3.5 days in the tournament they've racked up about 9K trophies each. How is this possible? Look at "Master Manme" -- 1178 wars won, averaging about 7.7 trophies per win, at a rate of 14 matches per hour. Never mind that hearts regenerate at only 1 per fifteen minutes, or 4 per hour. "Dax" played 1274+924=2198 matches, at a rate of 26 matches per hour.

Yes, I know there are ways to hack this game, but that really defeats the purpose and takes all the fun out of it. It's much more fun to beat the game within the parameters of the game itself. That's the real accomplishment. Never mind the cheaters.

Finding weak opponents on the Tournament

When you have a weak, low-level deck like mine, you need to be selective when choosing opponents in the Deck Wars Tournament. Don't forget, my heroes are intentionally set at a low level (3 and under) so that it costs only 1 heart to play each match. So I fight only Finn and Jake. Why those two? Because other heroes are available only through playing quests or from the Algebraic chest. Either way, heroes that aren't Finn or Jake usually indicate a player who has worked on building his or her deck, and we want to avoid those kinds of players. In fact, is usually preferable to play against Finn instead of Jake, as Jake has a Floop to give +3 Attack to all Corn Field creatures.

Secondly, we want to look at the landscapes. Usually, this is the best landscape -- Corn Field, Corn Field, Corn Field, Useless Swamp (CCCU).

This is usually the best landscape because it is the default landscape, as the deck you initially start with has a bunch of Corn Field cards and some Useless Swamp cards. This deck is also good to fight against because it usually indicates the opponent hasn't added any Blue Plains cards yet, possibly because they haven't fought beyond Quests 3, 5, 6, which drop Heavenly Gazers. But there is no guarantee, because your opponent might have some fancy Useless Swamp cards, like Tree of Underneath.

In my experience, this is the next best landscape -- Corn Field, Corn Field, Useless Swamp, Blue Plains (CCUB).

This usually indicates an opponent who might have added some Heavenly Gazers or Cool Dogs to the deck, which are usually from earlier quests.

The next best landscape is kind of iffy -- Corn Field, Corn Field, Corn Field, Blue Plains (CCCB).

This indicates someone who has intentionally removed Useless Swamp cards and added Blue Plains cards. This indicates some planning, so possibly a more advanced player. You might see someone with Cool Dogs, Woadic Time Walkers, Ancient Scholars, and Axeys.

Watch out for this landscape -- Corn Field, Corn Field, Corn Field, Corn Field (CCCC).

This is the kind of deck that I use and indicates that someone who has done some planning and is trying to avoid forced empty lanes where you have a landscape but no card to place on it.

Also watch out for these.

Basically, anything that is Sandy Lands or Nice Lands, because that indicates someone who has played advanced Quest levels to get some chest drops. Nice Lands chest drops start at Quest 10 with Princess Bubblegum, and Sandy Lands chest drops start at Quest 13 with Flame Princess.

Here's a good place to find out which cards can be dropped in each Quest: http://cardwars.wikia.com/wiki/Quests

New Redemption Codes!

Someone posted some new codes on the Facebook page for Card Wars. I've verified them and added them to the Card Wars Wikia Page.

NICE ONE

COOLDUDE

Don't forget the ALL CAPS and the space. You must enter the code EXACTLY.

Tournament #3 Eye Guy and Dr. Death

Another tournament, another couple of great cards. I don't have a good Useless Swamp deck, but these two cards are decent.

Eye Guy is a decent strength card, but the real bonus is the floop, dealing 3 damage to the hero for every other card that was flooped. This is more useful later in the game, or when you have more magic points. You can floop a bunch of creatures with low floop cost, replace those creatures with a bunch more and floop them, and the finally floop this card. This card is paired well with Timmy Magic eyes from the previous tournament, as Timmy Magic Eyes reduces the floop cost.

Dr. Death is a great card because of its 52 attack. Make sure to place it on an empty lane, as it is susceptible to Cerebral Bloodstorm.

Adventure Calendar is back!

Finally, another update, and we have the return of the Adventure Calendar! The previous update removed this feature. It's kind of nice. Run the app everyday and you get a prize each time. Coins are pretty much worthless. Hearts are useful for storing up until the next Tournament. But the gems are highly coveted. And if you log in for 25 days out of the full month (it goes by the calendar month), you also get a gold card. In my experience, it's usually not a great one. I've gotten a worthless Gold Ethan All-fire this way. But anyway, nice to see this is back.