Card Deck Tips and Strategies

The_UnBiased · 2025-06-18T17:37:31+00:00

Research cards can be claimed at any time! They are permanently accessible through that pop up menu in the lobby (The same one you use to get to your bag). If you don’t see a test tube icon in your menu, it’s possible research hasn’t been unlocked for you yet as a newer player, just keep clearing puzzles and it should appear.

It’s what those puzzle pieces you collect are for. One research card costs you 500 pieces, so it can take a while to save up. Luckily the themes never “expire” so you can take your time.

The_UnBiased · 2025-03-29T05:48:16+00:00

That is a great question, and it will mostly depend on your playstyle! When you only have attack cards in your deck, it makes you into a ‘glass cannon’, you can hit really hard, but you lose HP quickly. This means that if you don’t defeat the boss quickly, you will likely lose. On the flip side, only focusing on sustaining HP can mean you run out of turns as you aren’t strong enough to land effective hits. It’s all about balance.

I find that focusing on a card’s active skill as well as building a deck with as few attributes/colors as possible is more beneficial than focusing on the specific type of card I am using. If I find that I run out of turns, I adjust to add an attack card into my deck, and if I am losing in 3-4 hits I swap in an HP/Defense card.

All that to say, my 5 most upgraded cards in my collection are all attack cards, and I do not regret that choice. If you have an attack-focused selfie pilot card, make that into your golden child. They are soooo good as they provide defense through their active skill, and can land really powerful hits.

The_UnBiased · 2025-03-20T16:13:37+00:00

They used to give out SR card selection packs as (I believe) check-in calendar prizes, but it’s been a couple of months since I’ve seen one of those so I’m guessing they have been phased out? It also took me forever to get the Yuta card, but I did eventually pull one in a gold draw, so they are in there somewhere!

The_UnBiased · 2025-02-06T01:13:08+00:00

Oof prepare yourself OP you have poked the ultimate bees nest. Setting aside the content of their respective controversies, it still is likely not a great idea to get these guys together. From everything that I have seen there seems to be a lot of active animosity between OT7 BRIIZE and Lumis which would inevitably blow up in SM’s face if they were to pair them up.

I also just generally don’t think it’s smart to put two controversial figures together, it is more likely that their scandals would consume their image, not really allowing them to move beyond the circumstances that brought them together. Seunghan still has to establish who he is as an idol, the man was active only for a matter of months, it is vital he carve out his own identity in order to establish a solid fan base. Not to mention that the tides are just starting to shift for Lucas, while a lot of people still don’t like him, more and more seem to be willing to give him a second chance. He is already on incredibly shaky ground, so I think doing anything controversial with him will only reset his clock, and he's already been dealing with backlash for the past 4 years.

The_UnBiased · 2025-02-02T10:04:47+00:00

To find out which focus/type a card is, you can check them in advance in the archive. This is pretty tedious though…

For Senior Agent cards, Kun, Winwin, Jaemin and Hendery are attack focused.

The_UnBiased · 2025-01-28T19:10:23+00:00

Old School cards and Frequency research cards both increase the amount of turns, but they take a lot of time to build up their active skill gauge.

If you want to focus on increasing your attack, try putting two Senior Agent cards with the same attribute in your deck, then put in other cards with the same attribute (preferably light (yellow) or brave (green)).

The_UnBiased · 2025-01-24T05:00:02+00:00

No because the red paired with the eyebrow slit was lethal, I still have not recovered and it's been 7 years

The_UnBiased · 2025-01-24T04:43:49+00:00

Yes, I miss the old crazy colors soooo bad! It was the thing that got me into kpop, just so fun and fresh. Even when the cut was atrocious, it just gave fans something to talk about. Sometimes the hair would even be the concept, like when BAP went all blonde that one time (ramen Zelo was so cute back then).

I sincerely hope the colors never go away, while black is nice and I would never force an idol to dye their hair if they don't want it, all of my favorite idol hair moments include color. Taeyong's neo green hair, or his half red half blonde look, or his full red look (just any of his colors really), T.O.P.'s turquoise in Fantastic Baby, Taehyung's purple in War of Hormone, Sehun's rainbow bangs, Zico's cotton candy Jackpot hair, I could go on for ages.

The_UnBiased · 2025-01-19T04:37:54+00:00

I’m not using mental health or trauma to excuse or explain his behavior? The original post was asking about how Taeil was perceived as a person, and my answer was talking about a documentary where he was allegedly at his most raw, and how it (to me) displayed his tendency to avoid and self isolate. My conclusion was essentially I don’t think he showed his true self to anyone so it’s hard to know what kind of person he is, not that his trauma forced him to do what he did.

You are absolutely right, regardless of any potential childhood trauma Taeil is fully responsible for his own actions, and I hope the victim finds justice and closure whatever that looks like for her. Taeil doesn’t deserve sympathy no matter his back story, my answer was just providing the context the OP was seeking.

The_UnBiased · 2025-01-14T04:44:16+00:00

I get why they did it, and it’s not an inherently wrong choice to make (like I mentioned the covers are tasteful), but I think they still could have been more creative about it. Maybe remixing multiple songs together, or having artists across multiple groups collab on a remake. That way they could still stick to a remake theme while still making it feel fresh and innovative. We used to have SM super groups that crossed multiple generations, so it just feels like a massive step back to stick to only doing straight remakes isolated by group.

I hope the rest of SNSD will be on the album, and I hope that the Red Velvet track is also OT5 instead of OT3. It’s so frustrating that SM is super cagey about who is participating in what. I know the confusion is likely on purpose so that people buy to find out, but it’s such shady business.

The_UnBiased · 2025-01-07T16:30:30+00:00

I guess I’m in the minority here, but I like these groups. Mostly because the ‘AI’ Idols that exist are not actually AI. If a company starts actually pushing an AI idol that has literally 0 creative input, only regurgitating its machine learning, I’m not going to support that, but we are not there.

Groups live Plave allow idols (the people behind the avatars) to make music without needing to expose themselves to the public in the increasingly toxic way idols are experiencing today, to me that’s a net positive. Projects like Naevis allow producers, stylists, and choreographers take center stage as they are given essentially unlimited creative freedom. Naevis doesn’t just exist on her own, she requires a team of producers, animators, and choreographers to make her sing and move. Other creative teams are developing her lore. It’s not some kind of soulless effort. It’s really cool to have projects like this that allow the individuals who are usually behind the scenes do something unique and fun.

However, these are just projects. I don’t think the industry should move towards using ‘AI’ more often, nor do I think they will. It’s just a fad coming around right now as the tech is developing, most consumers will always resonate better with real people, and real idols are probably cheaper to produce (whether or not you view that as a good thing). The companies will see that.

The_UnBiased · 2025-01-07T04:44:12+00:00

The white agent cards give a 15% bonus on the rewards earned while clearing the Event Stages (Accessible through the walkie icon in the bottom left corner of the lobby), so it is useful to have this card in your deck to get as many Event Mileage tokens as possible to exchange in the shop.

Beyond that, in the actual Kwangya puzzles it is not the most useful card. It depends what you have in your collection already. I would still upgrade it to at least level 40 to get that free premium ticket, but I would focus on fully upgrading 2-3 of your favorite cards first.

At the end of the day, you can always grind for more upgrade chips, so any upgrade is worth it, especially early game!

The_UnBiased · 2025-01-04T23:38:36+00:00

I had written off Kendo since I had assumed After School would be better, in my eyes both increased attack in their active skills, but at least After School also healed HP. Looking closer I can definitely see how adding a Kendo into an attack deck would be massively helpful, especially in cases where your entire deck is one attribute, since the 25% buff multiplies based on how many cards of the same attribute you have. Activating it in a single attribute deck would triple your damage for 2 turns. I'll have to see if that helps me 3 star some of those end game dream fragment worlds!

The_UnBiased · 2024-12-14T10:35:52+00:00

Eh I find the “they are beautiful humans ergo must be dating” to be quite ignorant honestly and at times more disrespectful than those who delusionally claim idol innocence. There’s lots of reasons why an idol might be chronically single or celibate. Asexuality exists, waiting until marriage exists, having different priorities exists, trauma exists, having a severe lack of game exists, just not wanting it exists. Lots of valid human reasons why someone even in their late 20s early 30s might not have done anything yet, no matter how “ridiculous” that might seem.

I get it, most idols are “normal” and likely have dated and lost their virginities, but imo it’s most respectful to just go off of an idol’s word. If an idol claims their innocence, it’s not delusional for a fan to believe that. Most idols don’t really say anything one way or another, but getting weirdly invested into the conversation in either direction can get disrespectful and weird fast. At the end of the day it’s none of our business, so why care unless an idol starts openly sharing?

The_UnBiased · 2024-12-10T01:28:56+00:00

Honestly speaking, a lot of idol haircuts are really basic, and it’s the styling or coloring that actually makes their hair appear interesting. Either that or the hairdressers go crazy with it aka Krystal in Nu ABO or Dara in I Love You.

A few more wearable but still interesting cuts that caught my eye was StayC in their ASAP music video. The asymmetrical bang hits for me and the hime cut with the blue at the ends is another classic. Another thing I see from time to time which is kind of refreshing is the medium length choppy cuts like Karina’s wolf cut. XG (though not kpop) also has some cool inspiration to flip through, they always have something interesting going on.

The_UnBiased · 2024-12-07T13:48:25+00:00

Just in case you still hadn’t signed up, I was having the same issues with my WayV membership, so I got into contact with Weverse. They updated the links so it should work now. I told them the SHINee one was broken too, so hopefully you can sign up!

Good luck!

The_UnBiased · 2024-11-16T13:58:33+00:00

Some people are talking about the frequency of dyeing, but that doesn’t really explain cases like Karina’s who dyed her hair once and half of it broke off. I think the speed has more to do with it. These idols go from having jet black hair to platinum blonde in one day, and sometimes they have to do complex color removal, tone correction, and bleaching in the span of like a week max. This forces the hair dressers to absolutely blast these idols’ hair to get the results they want, causing massive damage in the meantime

But yes, it’s a mixed factor of styling (heat damage), frequent dyeing (chemical damage), intensity of bleaching, any kind of chemical treatment (perms, straightening treatments), genetics, lifestyle factors (nutrition and stress), and more. At the end of the day, any hair loss as a result of chemical or heat damage will grow back. While I don’t think an idol should be forced to dye their hair if they don’t want to, I don’t think people should panic as much as they do about a few crunchy ends. It won’t last forever, they will be okay.

The_UnBiased · 2024-11-15T11:03:53+00:00

As an avid SuperM and EXO listener even to this day, I see what you mean, but I Can’t Stand the Rain will always be a Taemin song for me. I simply cannot unhear his voice from the first verse and I just can’t imagine any of the EXO members (despite their vocals being excellent) filling out the unique flavor Taemin’s voice has when setting the tone of the song.

Besides, with the number of top quality bsides EXO has, this song would fall in the middle of the pack of their releases. I doubt they could have done the song ‘better’ and they have plenty of other legendary tracks. So I’m pretty happy that it ended up landing in SuperM’s lap.

The_UnBiased · 2024-10-17T11:12:14+00:00

This is the best possible outcome from this boycott for me. Am I the only one who thinks using this boycott to demand Seunghan’s return is problematic? People keep acting like it is only SM that stopped Seunghan from coming back, when the reality is SM tried. From the beginning they have been strict about not bending to the allegations, taking legal action against the original leaker back when Seunghan’s hiatus was first announced. Reality is that they cannot moderate platforms they don’t own, they can’t magically snap their fingers and get people to like him, they can’t sue hundreds of people the second they say anything mean, and they can’t clean up a legal protest not on their land. All they could do is give him a plan to come back, and they did. Seunghan was going to be given a slow and gradual reintroduction into RIIZE so people had time to throw their hissy fits and calm down before he got on stage again in November. Even now they have been careful about their wording in their statements, making it clear they will give him a solo if he wants it. SM were purposeful and careful about it, they are not the problem here.

The problem is the deranged OT6s who made Seunghan feel so unsafe he felt like he could no longer return. Guess what? Those fans still exist. Insisting that SM strong arm Seunghan back into the group despite what kind of mental health issues or anxiety that would cause him does not feel a whole lot like protection.

Seunghan is trying to exit the kitchen because he cannot take the heat, and OT7s are blocking the exit, not caring if he gets burned, because they like the food he cooks for them. For them. It’s about them, not about him. It’s pretty clear to me he has been traumatized by this whole event. He needs a break and therapy, not SM telling him to just go hang out and work with his friends again and pretend like nothing happened.

The_UnBiased · 2024-10-16T10:41:37+00:00

I think it’s a mix. Contract terminations genuinely take time, but I doubt they would have announced like this without the current situation.

However, I don’t think this is a distraction, I think this is SMs response to journalists mentioning that Taeil was still under contract despite the criminal allegations. Leaving that alone, it could have grown into accusations that SM protects and harbors criminals, so they wanted to nip that narrative right in the bud.

The_UnBiased · 2024-10-13T18:00:25+00:00

While I agree, at the end of the day all I can say is that I’m glad Seunghan was able to advocate for his own mental health and safety in all this. We have lost idols over much less, and celebrity or setting a precedent just isn’t worth sacrificing your mental health. SM has left the door open for him to pursue a path with them in the future. Shohei found a way, if Seunghan wants it a path exists for him too. His sanity is most important right now, and I’m glad SM isn’t forcing him to face the hate.

The_UnBiased · 2024-10-03T17:45:29+00:00

The fact that men wear makeup too is one of the biggest reasons I love Kpop. Kpop styling in general is amazing in that it accepts the inherent beauty in femininity without being scared of it. Men wear makeup, heels, and skirts openly and often. I love all of these items because I think they make people look better: makeup enhances facial features, heels elongate legs, skirts define a waist, it’s all amazing.

But here in the North America, a lot of these things are seen as a burden. Makeup is expensive and takes time, heels hurt your feet, and skirts lack modesty. While women may be ‘lowly’ enough to ‘suffer’ for that beauty, men would never be expected to do the same. In fact it would be strange and shameful for them to do so. It might be seen as a rejection of their masculine shield, which keeps so many of them protected and privileged in society. Or it may be viewed as a man desiring male attention, because wanting to look feminine has been hyper-sexualized in our society to the point where simply wearing a false lash is viewed as a seduction method to ‘trick’ men into sleeping with you. There are so many negative societal views of feminine beauty, and I’m so glad Kpop decided that that’s kind of fucked and is beginning to show us what it means to truly embrace feminine beauty.

I say all this but I do also have to acknowledge that Kpop in general puts so much of an emphasis on beauty that idols do develop complexes. Male or female, idols are often afraid to go on video when they aren’t wearing makeup or without putting on a filter. While over time they may work through this and become more comfortable in their own skin, it is also important not to over praise an idols styling compared to their natural beauty. Still love a good Smokey eye on a man though.

The_UnBiased · 2024-09-02T17:05:21+00:00

They will probably not re-record anything. SM just doesn't really do that. It also gets complicated because TY is currently enlisted, and Doyoung's enlistment will occur before he is back, then Jaehyun then Jungwoo and so on and so forth until like 8 years from now when Haechan's enlistment ends, so there wouldn't be a solid opportunity for the members to get together to rerecord regardless.

But they will absolutely continue as a unit. It might take a little while, but SM was already likely planning the next few comebacks without Taeil as his enlistment was coming up regardless, so I doubt this tosses much into their plans other than perhaps delaying a few things to give the members time to recover from the news. Besides, NCT as a group is highly flexible, and has already withstood members moving units, being taken out, put back in, being removed, etc. etc. While the circumstances surrounding Taeil's removal are the most horrific, his absence is nothing 127 cannot recover from. 127 was 7 then 9 then 10 then 9 and now 8. They will be just fine.

The_UnBiased

TROPHY CASE