CUE Orientation

CUE is a card battle game. You build a deck of 18 cards from your collection and play against other players (or sometimes bots). Building your deck is part of the enjoyment, lots of different types of decks can win, unlike some other battle games, it’s not simply a race to all try and build the same deck. Even new players with few cards can be competitive in the game with some deck savvy. Some CUE players don’t actually play the battle game very much and instead focus on the collecting and trading aspects of CUE.

This guide explains some of the terminology, different types of card packs that are available, and some basic strategy. It is intended to orient new players so that they can benefit from more detailed information through the site. There are also information screens throughout the CUE user interface, look for the yellow information buttons. For example, at the top of the Card Collection, the information icon presents the most important aspects of card rarity, energy and power.

## Cards (and how to get them)

### Broad types of cards

CUE has over 4000 different cards. They come in two broad types: basic and limited. You can tell the difference by looking at the icon at the bottom of the card image (above the text box). Limited cards state **limited card**, and basic cards either do not have any text or state **fusion ingredient**. Fusion ingredients are simply basic cards that can be used to make other cards, but more about fusion later.

Cards also have different rarity levels, indicated by a badge at the top right of the card. **Common** cards don’t have a badge, **rare** cards have a bronze coloured badge with the word rare and two interlinked circles, **epic** cards have a silver coloured badge with the word epic and a star, and **legendary** cards have a gold coloured badge with the word legendary and a gemstone outline. These two classifications combine, so there are both basic and limited legendary cards for example.

Cards are also classified by album and collection, which refers to the content of the card rather than its rarity. Albums include major groupings such as History or Science, and each album has multiple collections, for example Ancient Greece in History, or Excellent Elements in Science. Some collections have a mix of basic and limited cards (e.g. Ancient Greece) and some are only limited cards (e.g. Primates in the Life on land category).

In addition, as you gain experience, you will automatically receive Level Up Cards. These cards are never in packs and cannot be obtained except by reaching the experience threshold or trading for one. However, most players will not trade away their level up cards because they know they would be hard to replace.

### Fusions and Mythics

**Fusion** cards are made from some basic cards, those marked fusion ingredient. When a new fusion is released, some of the existing basic cards become fusion ingredients. Fusion cards are not available in packs. They are obtained by collecting all the ingredients and then destroying those cards in the fusion screen. A typical fusion might require 3x epics, 6x rares and 30 commons. The specific cards needed can be found by viewing the fusion card and pressing the button below it labelled “Fusion”.

**Mythic** cards are powerful but very rare. Every pack has a small chance of giving a mythic except those packs where every card is a guaranteed (because there’s no free slots for the mythic). While the odds are not known, experience suggests that the average is about 1 mythic per 750 to 1000 packs opened. It would be very expensive to open packs simply to chase mythics but they will appear as you open packs for the actual pack contents.

### Crafting

Crafting allows you to convert multiple lower rarity cards into a higher rarity card. With fusion, a specific fusion level card is created from a particular combination of fusion ingredient cards. In contrast, crafting uses 9x lower level cards to create a higher level card that could be found in packs. It is intended as a way to convert excess cards into better cards. Commons are used to craft a random basic rare, rares are used to craft a random basic epic, epics are used to create a random basic legendary and legendaries are used to create a random limited card (which could be rare or epic or legendary). Only basic cards can be used in the crafting process and they must be duplicates.

In addition to the normal crafting process, Avid occasionally releases a special card that can only be crafted. These are like fusion cards in the sense that a specific recipe is required and the card is not available in packs. However, unlike fusions, the recipe is not released and must be found by solving puzzles.

### Packs

Different packs offer different mixes of basic and limited cards from different albums. All packs contain basic cards, but only some packs contain limited cards. Some packs are always available in the shop, such as “Marvellous Miscellany”, which delivers 8 basic cards for 4500 coins. The shop also has a section for premium packs, which guarantee rare (or higher) cards or have a chance of limited cards. See the packs page for details on what packs are available on what days.

### Trading for new cards

Limited cards are much more expensive to obtain than basic cards and are therefore much more valuable than basic cards at the same level. When trading, do not offer basic cards for limited cards, and always check the offers you receive to make sure that you are receiving limited cards if being asked for limited cards.

In trading, basic cards are reasonably interchangeable at level (so rare for rare etc) as are limited commons and limited rares. However, the trading value of limited epics and limited legendaries vary widely based on their playability and scarcity.

## Using your Cards in Battle

Battles are broken into rounds of three turns. The winner of a round is the person ahead at the end of the three turns. If the two players are drawn at the end of a round, extra turns are added within that round until one player wins. The battle winner is the first player to win three rounds, so a battle takes between three and five rounds.

Each player starts with a stock of energy. Energy is added to that stock at the beginning of each turn, and reduced according to the cards played.

### Energy and power

The top left of each card has two numbers: energy (top, blue) and power (bottom, pink). Energy is how much it costs to play the card and the card delivers the stated amount of power in battle. This is notated with E/P where E is the amount of energy and P is the amount of power.

Each turn, the player can place up to three cards into battle but the total energy of the cards played cannot exceed the current energy stock for that player. The winner of a round is whichever player has delivered the most total power over three turns.

Both energy and power must be managed throughout the game. In general, cards that deliver more power cost more energy to play. Beating the opponent by a large amount of power in one round may lead to insufficient energy in a later round to play the cards you want to play. But holding back too much energy means that you are also playing lower power cards so it is harder to win a round.

### Card abilities

Some cards also have special abilities, which are described in the text at the bottom of the card. Card abilities vary widely. Some improve the card in certain situations, for example adding extra power if played on the first turn of a round. Some cards improve other cards, for example by reducing the energy cost of cards in hand when the card is drawn. Other cards change the balance of the game in other ways, for example by adding energy to the owner’s current total.

Abilities are organised broadly as power, energy, burn or lock. Some cards have more than one ability.

**Power** abilities affect the power of cards, either a player’s own or the opponent’s or both:

* **Buff** cards increase the power of other cards. Some are generic, for example, the ability of Stingray reads: *When played, your cards have +18 power this turn*. Stingray is 2/10, but when played with two other cards, the 2 energy will generate 64 power (10+18 for stingray and an extra 18 for each of the other two cards). Other cards buff only a specific card and must be played in combination (or **combos**). For example, Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp buff each other. Separately, they are 6/52 and 3/26 respectively, so would deliver 78 power for 9 energy, However, if they are played together (in the same turn), they each add 25 power to the other card for 9/128. There are also cards that have some intermediate scope of application, such as buffing those cards in a particular collection (such as Butch Cassidy) or a particular rarity (such as The Molly Maguires).

* **Debuff** cards have the opposite effect, they decrease the power of cards. Debuffs are mostly directed at the cards the opponent plays or holds in their hand (such as Kumamoto Castle). Others, however, are directed at your own cards as an offset for some other benefit (such as Lemon Shark, which reduces power temporarily but delivers an unusually high amount of power per energy).**‍**

* **Ramp** cards come in two types. They can increase in power each time they are played. For example, Sushi is 6/60 the first time it is played, then increases to 6/90 if you win that turn and then to 6/120 if you win the second time you play it. Or they can give you power per turn for some period. For example, Diamond Tetra delivers 10 power per turn for the rest of the game (and accumulates, so is providing 20 per turn when played a second time).‍

**Energy** abilities affect the energy of cards, either a player’s own or the opponent’s or both:

* **Cost reduction** cards decrease the energy of itself and/or other cards. For example, the ability of Sons of Liberty reads: *When drawn, reduce the Energy Cost of all your cards (even if in your deck) by -1 for this turn and next turn*. That card is 8/65 while in your collection, but will be 7/65 when it appears in your hand. Furthermore, every other card also in your hand and any card drawn on the next turn will also reduce its energy needs. However, the reduction is temporary and any cards not played will revert to their normal energy level the following turn. In contrast, Bottlenose Dolphin reduces the cost of any cards from the Ocean Mammals collection that are in hand when it is drawn (including itself). That reduction is permanent, so multiple draws decrease the energy further.

* **Cost inflation** cards have the opposite effect, they increase the energy cost of cards. Some apply to the other player’s cards (such as Orion) but others increase your own energy expenditure in return for some benefit (such as Blue Shark, which also buffs power).

* **Energy generators** increase the amount of energy you receive each turn. For example, Thunderstorms increases the energy received per turn by 1. These effects are cumulative, so playing the card again will further increase the energy received each turn.

* **Drain** cards reduce the amount of energy. Some affect energy received each turn. For example, the ability of King Cobra reads: *When played, your opponent loses -1 Energy/Turn until game end*. Others are one time reductions that adjust a player’s energy stock, such as that of Spotted Salamander. If the player does not have sufficient energy, the stock will be negative and the player will be unable to play any cards until the per turn energy has increased the stock sufficiently.

**Burn** cards are similar to debuff cards, they reduce power. However, the reduction usually does not occur for one turn and may continue for multiple turns. For example, the ability of Raphael reads (in part): *When drawn BURN (14 P/T) your Opponent’s cards until played*. Assuming the other player plays three cards immediately and then the other two cards in the next turn, two cards will each have a reduction of 14 power. But if the card cannot be played for some reason (such as insufficient energy or being locked), the burning will inflict a further 14 power reduction each turn until power becomes 0 or the card is played. Note that burn only affects the base power of a card, not the power it receives from other cards.

**Lock** cards make a card unplayable for some number of turns. The ability of Puli reads: *When drawn, Lock a random card in your opponent’s hand this turn*. This means that when the card appears in your hand, one of the five cards in your opponent’s hand will not be available to play in that turn. This can be very disruptive if, for example, the player is trying to coordinate a combo.

There is considerable variety in the way these broad abilities are implemented in individual cards. Abilities differ in the cards to which they apply. They can apply to cards that are being played, all the cards in the hand, or in the deck. This is in addition to card specific conditions such as only applying to cards from certain collections.

The other way that abilities differ even though they appear similar is in the timing and duration. Abilities can be triggered on draw (when the card comes into your hand, you don’t need to play it), play (it will apply during the turn in which you play it) or return to deck (after the turn is played). And the effect can last for different durations. For example, the debuff applied by Hammerhead Shark lasts for the rest of the game, even when the affected card is drawn again later in the game, it will still have less than normal energy. Other changes may just last for the turn in which the card is played (such as Kumamoto Castle), or until the round finishes (such as Blizzard). Note that the ‘end of round’ effects end before the energy is given for the first turn of the next round or the cards for the next round are drawn.

### Rules of play

A deck is made up of exactly 18 cards. At the start of the game, you draw 5 random cards from your deck. You can play up to 3 cards each turn (provided you have sufficient energy). At the end of the turn, you receive the same number of cards as you play, so you always have 5 cards to choose from.

Conceptually, the cards that you play are returned to the bottom of the deck. That means that cards you play together will be drawn together later; once your combo is lined up, it will stay lined up. Further, the card you play in the left hand box is returned first, then the one from the middle box, then the right hand box.

If you play three cards every turn (referred to as cycling), then two of the three cards you play in the first turn will be available in turn 3 of round 2 (because turn 1 of round 1 has cards 1 to 5, then 6 to 8 are drawn and so on until 15 to 17 in turn 2 of round 2). This continues through the deck, so the cards you play are available again approximately two rounds later.

There are two options for playing: casual and league. In casual games, the starting energy is 7, 14 or 21 (depending which mode you selected) and the additional energy gained each turn is the same (unless changed by card abilities). Energy is unlimited in the sense that any leftover energy is carried over to the next turn. Each round has a different randomly selected album. You can see what albums apply for each round by the colours at the top of the game display (where you also see whether you won or lost previous rounds and what turn you are currently playing). If you play a card of the same album during the round, the card has +10 power for that turn.

League has a new competition with slightly different rules each week, running Monday to Monday. There are two elements to the rules, arena bonuses and energy. Arena bonuses apply to a specific collection within an album. Six collections attract an arena bonus in each league, typically between 40 and 80 additional power for any card from the relevant collection played during that album’s round. Furthermore, the album for three of these collections is guaranteed to be included in the five rounds, with the other two rounds choosing from the remaining three buffed collectiions. These arena bonuses can be a valuable source of power for newer players who have not yet built a strong deck.

There are four different aspects to the league energy rules. These are starting energy, energy per turn, and energy cap. A low energy league may have a rule such as 10 start, +10 each turn, maximum of 15. A high energy league may have a rule such as 60 start, +15 each turn, maximum of 100. These different energy rules require different strategies and careful balancing of energy and power. Some leagues have an additional rule for minimum energy and/or minimum energy per turn so that the energy available to play your cards can never fall below a certain amount regardless of how many drain cards your opponent has played.

The combination of different arena collections and changing energy rules mean that a deck that is good in one league is unlikely to be competitive in the following week’s league. But many players have a core deck of cards that they enjoy playing, and rather than rebuild each week, they adjust the deck for the different rules by changing only some of the cards.

## Deck Building

There are over 4000 different cards available in CUE, and you choose 18 to make up your deck. There is no specific best deck (or **meta game**) in CUE. Many different decks can win with a combination of good deck building, good play and good luck. While it is true that higher rarity cards have more power per energy and better special abilities, a deck with only basic cards that is played well can win against a deck stacked with high end cards that is designed and played badly.

### General approach: power and energy

A good first objective for newer players is to average 10 power per energy played. So in a game with average 12 energy per turn, the initial target is 120 power per turn. This can’t be achieved simply by placing high power cards, because there are few cards with 10 power per energy, and special purpose cards such as energy generators have much lower power per energy. Instead, a deck is designed with synergy, so that there are combinations or buffs that benefit other cards in the deck.

Cycling is needed to gain the full benefit of such synergy. Playing one high power card each turn will only use half the deck in three rounds, and combinations may never be available. Furthermore, many cards have permanent effects and those effects accumulate if the card is played multiple times.

Energy management is therefore a key principle of deck design. League rules with high starting energy and large energy per turn support decks with many higher powered cards (which tend to require more energy) and few, if any, cards that help to generate or conserve energy. On the other hand, casual rules and league rules with a small energy per turn favour decks with many small energy cards that support each other. Finishing the game with lots of spare energy suggests that some more powerful cards could be included in the deck, making the deck deliver more power. On the other hand, the deck will not cycle if there is insufficient energy to play the available cards.

### Deck types

A typical deck includes a mix of cards: to generate energy, high power, combinations, cards that support the category that the combinations are drawn from, and some cards that generally buff the deck. The combinations and subcategory buffing mean that the deck is more powerful than is apparent just from the individual cards.

There are also decks that are designed to win in other ways.

A **ramp deck** has a large number of ramp cards together with some energy generators and some higher power cards. The strategy is to win one of the first three rounds with the higher power cards while playing as many ramp cards as possible. Then the power per turn from the ramp cards makes it easy to win rounds 4 and 5.

A **disruption deck** contains a large number of lock and burn cards. The idea is to disrupt the other player’s combinations and coordination by either locking a card they need to play or forcing them to play a card they want to hold because it is burning and losing power.

A **drainflation deck** uses a combination of drain and cost inflation cards to reduce the opponent’s energy (stock and per turn) and increase the energy cost of their cards so they are unable to fully cycle in early rounds and may not be able to play any cards at all in later rounds.

More specialised decks are also possible but generally rely on limited cards and are more difficult to design, so are not really suitable for new players. For example, Frilled Dragon buffs any card with energy of 0 or 1. The deck would have as many cards with 0 or 1 energy as possible to gain the benefit of that buffing. As these cards are low energy, there is also spare energy available to play some high power cards. A different deck can be built around Bobbit Worm, which debuffs any card with power of at least 50. As Bobbit Worm also affects your own cards, the deck would contain cards with 49 or lower power that buff each other rather than rely on higher power cards.