When to join the Tournament

So, when is the best time to join the tournament? In case you don't know, it's not the first day.

In the Black Card Tournament, you compete with 100 random people within your bracket. Everyone in your bracket joined the tournament around the same time, typically the same day. These people are not necessarily at the same card level. In fact, when you compete, you don't necessarily even play their decks. But how each player does in the tournament (the number of trophies won) is what determines ranking.

Here's a screenshot of the last tournament I just won. I blacked out my name because it's sort of an identifying detail and... by the way, you can't change the name that you used, so choose wisely.

You'll notice here that I'm at the top of my bracket, with 3,529 trophies. The next highest has 1,097 trophies. You'll also notice that I won 451 games and lost 3. As you can see, I earned almost 8 trophies per match. This is not very high. The next highest player won about 14 trophies per match. This, of course, is the secret to my success -- keeping my hero levels low means I spend fewer hearts to play each match. Instead of five hearts, I spend two. I only get 8 trophies (4 trophies for the match plus 4 trophies for the win streak), but I get to play many more matches everyday.

Anyway, so the best time to join is certainly not the first day of the tournament. That's when all the crazy people who just finished the previous tournament join. These are the eager players you want to avoid. They are typically aggressive players who rack up a lot of trophies.

Instead, join a couple days later, at least. If the tournament ends Saturday evening (as it always does for me, because I live in California), then wait until Monday or Tuesday at least before joining.

Another strategy is to use the Daily Gift to get as many hearts as possible, beyond the maximum your heart meter already has. It's pretty typical to get five hearts or 10,000 coins, but sometimes (very rarely) you get 50 hearts. Store those hearts up until the day you join the tournament. You'll also need to store coins if you're just starting out.

I don't suggest joining the tournament on the last day or the second-to-last day of the tournament. By then, you'll likely be competing with other people who have stored up hearts, too.