Just want to share some of the more interesting combos I met on the leaderboard, to give some insight to builds, give ideas, it will be random and incomplete, and might expand later:
-Order matters, always use 'if initial' cards first -Cleanse is useful, use it first if your axie is debuffed or under health limit for a rune. Some cleansing cards are Confident, Gecko and Bidens that work on others -Topaz damage is based on banished cards. Other than normal banish cards that are strong like Nimo or Cottontail, revenge cards go there, used up Blackmails (doesn't depend on you) but a quick way to boost this is Watering can and Timber, which give cards for each hit and you can use up to 3 a turn but then it's banished so boosts Topaz damage counter (might get nerfed to be exiled). -Energy guru for birds is quite strong card, in some instances, might be better than the epic Raven's Tactic, you can kill Mavis/Robin/Mushroom and other summons by dealing AOE damage, also it's a good way to see how much shield they got, since it shows it once they take any damage from any source, also it doesn't trigger reflects or other secrets. Best cards are like doubletalk on the backline/midline using a stamp, or kestrel. Frontline is usually tankier so even if you lose 10% it still worth using on back. -Carrot doesn't give energy, since it's using an energy, also you might hit a shield. So use it after other attack cards if possible. Pangolin can't have shield so carrot always succeeds. Another good use is extending damage on first turns, or using before a Ronin, which still counts as a 4th energy used up for the final attack bonus. Might require some draws on your team to have a variety of combo options. -Goo. One of the most annoying curse. Snail shell gives the opponent one on hit, unko gives one on attack and ear breathing shots 4 random and gives 1 per unique hit (yeah summons too). It costs 1 energy to remove so it's not permanent as daze and won't destroy energy as goda, but if they don't remove, it will disturb them for long. One thing that backfires, ronin can use 2 of them to still scale up ronin bonus at the end. -Blackmail is the only card that takes first position in draw and forces out a card from opponents hand. Even if they draw, it's blackmail, and it will go back to draw and hits another out from draw, so effectively denies 2 draws. And you can have more Blackmails on your team, it's actually an archetype. -You can use Tricky to bring back a blackmail and save your frontliner. You can summon one unit in the back (keep space back and front if you got summons) and use all blackmails to taunt the same summoned unit. -There are some good charms with effects, but you need higher purity axies to use more of them. -Aquas can use bubble paste to increase bubble count and deal 20 AOE damage after stakced up. -Plants can use Leafpots, giving a leaf for all team, which heals 4 hp a turn or used by the card Leafy for 10 extra damage up to 3 used (with miracle leaf 6 more for aoe) and the charm on it adds up to 56 or more with better multi attack charms. Since Leafy and Clover are both ears, you can't have all axies having both, so charms are the main way. -Beasts got frenzy runes for rage production and Birds got feather stacking. -Cucko is giving 65 flat bonus for the next attack, it can be used on another axie, like a bird or beast with 20% attack bonus for extra strong hits. Won't apply for AOE hits, and it's really strong applied to backline or midline with stamp charms (on kestrel or doubletalk) or targetable skills like scarab, shrimp. -There are 4 cards with healing on hit, Zigzag, Razor, Mosquito and Catfish. Same effect that they heal 50% of the damage caused. Normally that's just barely 30, since they are on tankier axies. But you can overcharge it with cucko, I think feathers or bubbles won't work, but Miracle leaf with leafs will. Cucko can also stack, so instead of 30, you heal 62ish or more. -No reason to use earth stamps on normal cards, I saw a lot of people doing this, it decreases the damage and won't dodge taunts, and you hit front normally. The only reason to use Earth Stamp is to redirect random hits to front like ear breathing, pocky or rosa. -Tiny Dino is one of the most effective damage card, for a single energy can deal 120+bonus damage (154 on a healthy raven bird) and keeps the bonus each time drawn. -Tricky card, if you use it as initial, it can be swapped with a card that was banished, on top of healing 50 hp which is kind of low otherwise. Options are carrot, nimo, cottontail and many others. With 2 or 3 Tricky, you can get back your used up Tricky and heal over and over, but only once a turn since it's not initial otherwise (can be sent back to deck for 1 energy but then even lower efficiency). For the Mystic neutral Shady exchange rune, which gives an energy in even rounds, you might be able to use it more effectively. -The mystic Dusk rune Gloomy dice gives permanent enabler for the epic Malediction, which requires debuffs on opponents to give 15% defense and 15% offense against them. No other rune gives both, pangolin 15% reduction is strong, raven gives 20% attack above 50% hp and 20% def under 50%, but this gives both since all opponents are debuffed with hex or fear. This would make dusk tanks strong, but havent seen any of them on leaderboard. It's a rare and expensive rune to have the Dice, one youtuber bought in for 1000 dollar toward the middle of the season. -You can reduce the damage of opponents who got Hearthy Warrior, Dominant Predator or Ravens tactic by targeting them to reduce their health. Same goes for aquas having Lam. -You can keep alive a Mavis with Nimo, Cottontail or other heals, even leafs, giving permanent energy until hit. -You can put a shield on a summon like Clover or Trunk. 75 damage and taunt it's already hard t ohit trough but with a shield might take 2 hits and all the debuffs so you slow down opponents, and the same shield on your axie would break easier, any excess damage is also lost on the summon, trading 1 summon for 1 hit is good, trading a shield and a summon for 2 this usually better (except against shoal star). Probably why the Incubator rune is 14 since it would be 89 hp trunk vs a 90 execute shoal star. -You can use Potato leaf to redirect an attack to your midliner/backliner, they will heal over time from leafs or other heals, then it's worth dodging a hit, especially if you are infected with Vulnerable or Fragile, so they can't follow up on it. It mgiht be a bug, but if you other axies die while you are in stealth, you won't show up anyway and they can't target you with any other card than revenge cards. -Potato leaf is an attack card, but with a defensive effect. It requires over time healing and a slightly tankier midliner tho. You can spread damage evenly for an eggshel or other taunt backliner, with a leftover potion or regenerator reptile, or even a bloodlust aqua. -If poison kills after the turn started, the opponent loses cards from hand and won't come back, if you kill them on low hp, they get revenge cards or other cards instead. So better weaken them but don't kill to empty their hands. -The Mystic Holy Prayer for Dawns removes a curse card. Even if you put that into there, like risky fish confuse, or Shady exchange dazes, so if you got a few, you might get unlucky but you might heal and get boosts from it each turn. -The new Mystic plant rune used to be the aqua Mystic, when they saw how strong it is, they took from aqua and gave to plants (give 50 hp to all axies). It's also Solo now, so only one per team. The old Mystic plant rune, was the same name Gaias embrace, now the effect is on Rise and Ruin, which used to be the Epic effect, and one was removed, which gave a defensive and offensive card. Funnily enough, people breed plants with 6 beast cards, to use beast cards but get extra hp from this plant rune. -Rise and Ruin heals full for shield value and gives 33% less shield, so 66% of the shield. Lotus used to give healing, now it's removed, no card has now 2 effects from base, maybe an effect. This rune can use cards like leaf bug or pumpkin and other shields to heal and shield some on top, which is usually a strong option. Since it used to be a mystic with a bit less reduction, probably one of the stronger epics and some cheaper plants can use it effectively. -Hermit and Snake Jar stay over turns, can only be removed with arco or oranda, so it's a bit more effective than normal shields, since it won't be affected by fragile or pure dmg. Only that it's quite bad value against AOE dmg. -Kingfisher and Cerastes reflects 85 on next hit. That's quite useful against backliners that hide behind others and have low hp.