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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

End of Tournament #2 Timmy Magic Eyes and Brain Gooey

I have two games going on. One on my phone, one on my PC, using BlueStacks. On my phone, my highest hero card is Level 4, which means it costs 2 hearts to play each match, but I also completed up to Quest 33, so I have a maximum of 16 hearts. But on my PC, my highest hero card is Level 3, which means it costs 1 heart to play each match, but I also completed up to Quest 12, so I have a maximum of 9 hearts.

On my phone, I got the Black Card. Yay!

But on my PC, I joined only Friday, got over 500 trophies, and established a comfortable lead. The next highest player had only 60 trophies or so. But I didn't think to check my progress on Saturday (I didn't even play), and I found out just now that somebody beat me, and I got only rank 2.

So let this be a lesson!

Don't assume that you're safe. Someone can easily fill up their heart meter and win several hundreds of trophies! Stay vigilant!

Anyway, now that I have Timmy Magic Eyes, I'll have to build a decent Blue Plains deck. I don't have enough cards, and I can't mine the Quests, or else I'll increase my Hero level.

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.

My quest to get all the black cards

This blog is about Card Wars the video game. I thought I'd start a blog to detail my journey to get all the Black Cards in the Black Card Tournament.

If you don't know about the game, there's a Wikia page that talks about the game and other useful information about it: http://cardwars.wikia.com/

There's also a discussion forum on the same site: http://cardwars.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Forum

Reddit also has a discussion forum: https://www.reddit.com/r/CardWars/

As of this entry, I already have three black cards from Tournaments #14, #15, and #1. I am currently in first place in my bracket for Tournament #2.

All black card tournaments follow a round-robin bi-weekly schedule. This is helpful so you know what black card to expect and which tournaments in which to invest your time. The schedule can be found here: http://cardwars.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Card_Tournament