Tekken Card Tournament (TCT) is a mobile and browser game from Namco-Bandai, based on the hit fighting game series of the same name. Tekken Card Tournament pits your favorite fighters in a tense and strategic collectible card game instead of the 3D fighting mayhem we have grown accustomed to over the years.

As a former #5 player in the world (I’m aiming for #1 this week!), and a member of the current #1 team in the world (go Liberty Heart!), I do hope I am qualified to give a bit of advice. I’ve been singing the praises of Tekken Card Tournament for a long while now, because once you get over the shock of using cards instead of fist and shin to beat your opponent to a pulp, you realize that this is actually a pretty fun, deep, and strategic game. I don’t really need to explain how to play the game here because when you start playing, the tutorial is pretty much going to teach you everything you need to know about how to play.

Tekken Card Tournament   Android Apps on Google Play

Here’s the caveat: yes, it’s a free app if you play it on Android or iOS, but like any full-fledged collectible card game (CCG) worth its salt, if you really want to dominate the game as you play against millions of other players all over the world, you will have to invest time and/or money. It’s not going to come cheap.

Unless you take heed of the following bits of advice…

8. Focus on only one character

Currently, Tekken features nine characters: Kazuya, Nina, Yoshimitsu, Xiaoyu, Paul, Panda, Law, Lili, and Heihachi. For you to play any of them, you need 15 Attack cards and one Power card to make your character more powerful from the get-go.

This means that you should focus on getting the best card for only one character at a time if you don’t want to break the bank building your decks. Pick one of the nine, then work your way up from there.

8 Winning Habits To Be a Top TCT photo 8
7. Know your card pool

After you’ve chosen your character, you need to know what cards make them good. Currently, all Tekken characters have their own strengths and weaknesses, and any glaring imbalances are addressed via balance patches that happen on a regular basis. This means that if you somehow picked the worst character starting off, there’s a high chance that this character will get better over time, but you need to know what cards are the best for them. Otherwise, you might be buying bad cards for your deck, only to have to sell them at a fraction of the price you got them at afterwards, which makes for a bad investment.

And speaking of investments…

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8 Winning Habits To Be a Top TCT photo 6a
6. Know the best Super Rare for your character from the start

All non-Power Card, non-Heihachi Super Rares are priced at 320,000 Gold in the market. If you managed to save up that much gold over playing, buying the wrong Super Rare would set you back a long way. Here are the best Super Rare Attack Cards per character at the moment…

Lili: Elysee Le Bras Allonge, followed by Divine Step
Paul: Kongo Blast, followed by Incomplete Somersault
Panda: Ultra Kuma
Law: Tiger Fang
Nina: Crab Hold
Kazuya: Rampaging Demon
Xiaoyu: Shooting Star
Yoshimitsu: Magatama
Heihachi: Heaven’s Wrath

Now, unless the next balance patches completely change how good these cards are, if you can’t find these cards in the Market when you have the money to buy them, then wait until they become available. The other Super Rares simply are bad investments in contrast to these ones.

5. Form or join a team and participate in the weekly tournament as soon as possible

The easiest way to get Credits regularly, which you use to buy packs that could actually contain Super Rare cards, would be to just always participate in the weekly tournaments. Even if you don’t win, participation alone nets a reward that you could put to good use over time. To double the benefit of the weekly tournament, you should do this as part of the team. Not everyone has to be a member of, ahem, Liberty Heart to gain from being in a team, so don’t let your so-so ranking discourage you starting out. The game gets more and more fun as you start making your deck more powerful, so keep on keeping on.

8 Winning Habits To Be a Top TCT photo 5a
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4. Maximize your rewards

TCT gives you rewards in Gold or Credits for playing on a daily basis, having a certain number of cards in your collection, or winning a certain number of games, or beating a certain character, or winning with a certain character, and so on and so forth. They’re pretty self-explanatory, and can really go a long way into powering up your deck.

3. Keep an eye out for sales

Hold onto your Gold and Credits for the most part. Aside from buying cards directly from the Market, you will need them for packs and TCT runs sales every now and then. Make sure to only consider two packs unless you have a huge reason to do otherwise: the First Pack, normally available for 3,000 Gold, for getting a few Base cards to enhance your collection; and the Ultra Pack, normally available for 400 Credits, in order to be guaranteed a Rare, and potentially a Super Rare, even.

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8 Winning Habits To Be a Top TCT photo 3
2. Read the cards carefully

Because winning and losing can mean the difference between a few hundred extra gold, a good winning record tends to add up over time. At the start, you’d want to play only a few games in the weekly tournament to assure yourself of a weekly reward, but most of your games will be spent playing the computer in Arcade Mode. The computer AI is very easy, but if you don’t know what your cards and your opponent’s cards do, you might end up being overwhelmed, regardless.

1. Try your hand at some Physical Booster Packs

Recently, Namco-Bandai started selling Physical Booster Packs in Datablitz branches at P249 a pack. If you want to invest and have some potential shot at resale value, then buying these packs could actually allow you to do that.

Consider if you’re playing Lili as your main deck. If you buy a physical pack and get a Super Rare for Kazuya, then you can simply choose not to redeem the card in your game and sell it to a teammate or a new player who needs it. Now, you are in a position to buy more packs, or outright profit—not bad for someone who’s playing competitively while on a budget!

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Kel Fabie

Kel Fabie. is a DJ, host, mentalist, satirist, comedian, and a long-time contributor to 8List (Hello, ladies!). He has an Oscar, a Pulitzer, a Nobel, and two other weirdly-named pet dogs. He blogs on mistervader.com.

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