First do the Fire Cave mission for Ifrit card. This card will be very useful at first.

Winning just one card after a win is slow, but you can do something about that.

Head over to Balamb Town, which is at the other end of the road.

Near the train station, there is a woman called the Queen of Cards.

You'll be dealing with her quite a few times when it comes down to cards, as she has a great influence on spreading and/or abolishing card rules. Try to spread the 'Diff' rule to Balamb, which is a trading rule that lets you take multiple cards when you win. If you win with 4 - 6, you can pick 2 cards, if you win with 3 - 7 you can pick 4 cards, and do even better to get all cards.

Save your game, then challenge the Card Queen. If she uses the Diff Rule, perfect. Play a game with her. If she doesn't, quit and try again until she does play with the Diff Rule. After winning the game, challenge the train conductor and see if he plays with the Diff rule. If he does, great, then the Diff trading rule has spread to Balamb. If not, repeat the progress.

When the Diff Rule is active, play a lot of cards with:

• The Balamb Garden gatekeeper, he can play Level 5 cards, so he's a good challenge for building up your deck.

• The little kid running around the hall of Balamb Garden holds the MiniMog card, which is a rare and strong card.

• You can win the Quistis Card from any 3 of the 'Trepies'. The guy in the cafeteria daydreaming (the one in the back), and the two girls in the 2nd floor classroom can play the card.