KARDS · Strategy and opening plans
Learn to combine hand management, positioning and attack opportunities into one plan, from Kredit budgets and frontline control to national decks. Includes practice, deckbuilding, decisions and a rules reference.
KARDS · 2020
2–2 players · Turn-based digital card game
官方Basics对战机制；2026-10-28 核对。Cards数值、关键词及排位卡池以当前客户端为准。
Official KARDS rules and Academy
Opening plans and decisions
Learn to combine hand management, positioning and attack opportunities into one plan, from Kredit budgets and frontline control to national decks. Includes practice, deckbuilding, decisions and a rules reference.
Two players fight with prebuilt decks. Hands are hidden; the battlefield and remaining public resources determine visible threats.
Start here if you are new
WANGO advice · Keep an early curve and reserve operation costs
During the opening mulligan, or when you can both deploy and operate this turn.
Keep low-cost units and necessary interaction that matter in the first two or three turns; usually replace expensive finishers. Budget essential attacks and moves before deployment. Draw early if doing so will not prevent necessary defense; apply buffs before the relevant attack.
An affordable unit may not change the board immediately. Spending everything on deployment can leave existing units unable to clear threats.
Not every cheap card is worth keeping. Do not keep removal with no likely target just to smooth the curve, or miss your only lethal line to draw cards.
With a complete low-cost hand against a slow opponent, keep a key midgame card. Against aggro, favor options that can defend in time.
WANGO advice · Contest the frontline for your next effective attack
When deciding between removing a threat, attacking the HQ or advancing units.
First check whether the opponent can immediately destroy your HQ. Then compare removing blockers, protecting key damage dealers and reducing enemy defense. Before advancing, estimate the opponent's cheapest answer and leave sensible positions for Guard, artillery and other key units.
The frontline grants attack access and space, not an automatic lead. Units that survive until their next attack provide lasting value.
Trading units consumes damage and operation costs. Constant removal can miss your chance to finish, while blindly attacking the HQ can expose you to a counterattack.
Take a guaranteed lethal line this turn. Against units that generate ongoing value, remove the threat before it snowballs, even if that means less HQ damage.
WANGO advice · Choose your 39 cards around one winning plan
When upgrading a starter deck or combining a main nation with an ally.
Choose aggro, midrange, control or combo first. Give each card a role: early board presence, removal, draw, protection or finishing. Use ally cards to fill gaps rather than forcing all 12 slots. Check deployment curves and operation costs, then make small changes based on several games.
Reliable synergy within one plan is easier to repeat than a collection of unrelated rare cards. Build the deck before the match; you do not buy cards during play.
Overcommitting to one combo can clog your hand. Too many expensive cards, untargeted orders or buffs without draw can leave you without useful actions at a crucial moment.
Start with the official campaign deck. Complete the main-nation tutorials, then replace cards that clearly do not fit your plan. Confirm ranked legality before queuing.
Comparing two choices
Deploy a 4-cost unit first, or reserve 3 Kredits to finish the attack?
Use the 5-Kredit example above. The new unit has no deployment effect that immediately wins the game.
Deploy the 4-cost unit first
Gain another option for future board presence.
Only 1 Kredit remains, so you cannot clear the frontline, advance and attack the HQ.
Reserve the operation budget first
Use the two existing tanks to execute the example's lethal line, leaving 2 Kredits.
Recalculate if hidden effects change the position. The example is not a fixed card-playing sequence.
Take a guaranteed win when available. Otherwise compare developing the board against next turn's risks.
What do low-cost pressure and late-game control each lack?
These are examples of deck roles, not the best decklist for a nation. Midrange decks must adapt their role to the opponent.
Aggro: create pressure early
Use cheap threats and low operation costs for repeated attacks, limiting the opponent's time to develop.
Board clears can leave you short of cards. Keep draw or final damage available; you cannot trade units indefinitely.
Control: survive the early game first
Trade interaction and defense for the opponent's resources, then finish with reliable threats.
Defense without a finisher can exhaust your own resources. Expensive cards may arrive too late to deploy.
Choose a winning plan you can explain in one sentence. Midrange should defend against aggro and apply pressure against slow control.
Details that are easy to miss
- Reading the large deployment cost while forgetting the smaller operation cost.
- Spending all your Kredits on new units and leaving existing attackers unable to act.
- Making a tank that has already attacked attack again without an additional ability.
- Planning to advance before clearing enemy units from the frontline.
- Treating Guard as protection for the whole line and ignoring adjacent positions.
- Assuming Blitz grants free or unlimited operations.
- Meeting nation, ally and rarity limits while forgetting the Reserve Pool restrictions.
- Judging only wins and losses and rebuilding the entire deck after every defeat.
Rules checked on 2026-10-15. This guide explains the official core mechanisms. WANGO offers an unofficial trial; only cards with verified effects are playable. Check the trial interface for its supported card pool and effects.
A decision example
You have 5 Kredits and two tanks that were already in the support line last turn. A and B each have 3 attack, 4 defense and an operation cost of 1. The enemy frontline has one 1-attack/3-defense unit; the enemy HQ has 3 defense. There are no Guard, Ambush, countermeasure or other effects.
Why can you still lose with a frontline advantage?
Controlling the frontline is not itself a win. Without Kredits to keep attacking, or when neglecting HQ defense, ranged threats or hand depletion, a positional lead may never pay off.
Operation costs make existing units compete with new cards for your budget
Kredits limit both deployment and operations. A more expensive card in hand is not necessarily better than another useful action from a unit already on the board.
If moves and attacks were free, players could spend more of their Kredits on new cards, reducing the budget tradeoff between frontline advances and deployment. This is WANGO's hypothetical analysis, not an official variant.