Gaining cards can be a pain. You start off with such a painfully small assortment of cards, and gaining more cards can be like pulling teeth. Here's some easy ways to gain lots of cards fast. These are designed for the US version of the game, though they can easily be adapted for other versions.

• The Overall Method
  • The Map
  • The Deck
  • The Play
• A Special Case
  • The Deck
  • The Play

The Overall Method

This method was originally posted by PzKwIVG of Culdcept Forum. The general idea is to use an alliance of three cepters against a single cepter to win quickly. This involves setting up a rule to be used whenever you want to crack open a booster pack.

First, set up a rule with the following options:

• 30 card decks
• All purple lands
• 1000G limit

'30 card decks' lets you have fewer cards, increasing the chance that you'll draw one of the cards you really need in your initial hand. 'All purple lands' makes it very easy to chain lands together as long as you and your allies all use creatures with the same element. The 1000G limit should be obvious.

The three cepters should be the three that you want to earn cards. If you've got some friends over, then all three of the cepters can be human. If not, virtual cepters work just as well. The enemy cepter could also be a human if you wanted to steal cards from their deck. In my opinion, this is one of those things you probably want to do by yourself to make it quick. You and two virtual cepters versus a virtual cepter can make it a very quick match up.

The Map

Really, any map will work okay. Alternating between Coliseum II and Coliseum III will allow you to gain almost all the cards except for multiple enchant spells, multiple flash spells, and dual element creatures. I find Stairway to the Gods really works the best for general card gain, but this is a specialized case.

The Deck

So, what cards do you want in your 30-card Booster deck? Well, it depends on the map. For most maps, it'll take two rounds to gain enough G to win. This means you'll either need a way to turn around or a way to go backwards on the first turn. For these maps, I pack 4x Clockwork Owl, 4x Word of Recall, 4x Holy Word 8, and 4x Backwards. The Clockwork Owl can turn around any member of the alliance, and Backwards can be used on someone who hasn't left the castle so that on the second round, they're already pointed towards the castle. Holy Word 8 is included to ensure that you get back to the castle during that second round.

You'll also want ways to gain G easily. It's generally better to rely on spells that give you G rather than creatures, since you might land on a fort, temple, shrine, or other special place that you can't put a creature. Gift really shines here, since you can Gift the next person in your alliance so that they have both an extra card and extra G to play with. Load up the rest of your deck with spells that grant G.

If you need creatures to fill out your deck with, consider using cheap yellow creatures. There are some neutral creatures that cost 0 G, but neutral territory won't chain. On most maps, you'll only need a chain of two to have enough TG to win.

The Play

First, consider whether or not you can play a spell to win. It sucks to play a Word of Recall and be taken down to 990 TG, or to play a Manna when you had a Word of Recall that could have won the game. If you can win right now, do it. The aim here is for speed.

If you can't, play a spell that will help out your alliance. Resist the urge to play Gift on yourself. It's not a Doublecast spell, so the extra card that it gives you won't usually help. It's more helpful to play Gift on the next member of the alliance. Also look for opportunities to set up the win with Holy Word 8 or Backwards.

After the roll, it's almost always worth it to play a creature since all your creatures should be cheap (<50G to play). Add to a chain if you can. If you've got a Clockwork Owl, you can give a member of your alliance to choose which way to move on the next turn. This is an easy way of getting a member back to the castle.

Remember that you control the enemy cepter, so its spells could also help you out. Playing Gift from the enemy cepter to the alliance is a free 100G plus a card.

A Special Case

Remember Stairway to the Gods? This map can be a card-gaining powerhouse for one simple reason: the alliance starts off with enough G to win. Gaining cards on this map is such a breeze.

The Deck

First, the deck is a bit different. You'll want something like this:
Holy Word 0 x4
Reincarnation x4
Gift x4
Word of Recall x4
Lots of Filler x14

Possibilities for filler include Manna and cheap yellow creatures, but really...you'll probably never use them.

The Play

The first player on the alliance will basically have 50G to work with. This means the first player can't win with a Word of Recall. If the first player doesn't have a Holy Word 0, play Gift on the next alliance member. If you can't do that, at least try to make it to the fort. If you roll a 5 or greater, you'll hit the fort. If you roll a 10, you can turn around and come straight back to the castle FTW.

The second player on the alliance should be able to safely use either Word of Recall or Holy Word 0. If neither of these are in hand, consider using Reincarnation to draw more cards.

Using this method, you have greater than a 99.7% chance of winning before the first round is over. Each game can be over in a minute or less. Since this map gives you 16 cards, that's almost 100 cards every 6 minutes.

TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/5zh265