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.