i decided to take a crack at mazes and mahars tonight, and while in principle it's fun, i've yet to win a single game and can't help but feel like any time i get an advantage, i lose it almost immediately and the AI gets ahead. it always seems like unless the AI gets in a "skip turn" loop, it always plays cards that negate anything i can do, or just completely cut my effectiveness. like, how am i supposed to even remotely get close to winning? is it just me being bad/new at the game, or is this something other people have struggled with too?

edit: case in point, i literally got the padlock down to ONE hp and STILL lost the game. i just don't get it.

edit 2: i FINALLY won a round, after losing like... 5? eesh :/

I've gotten all the Mazes and Mahars achievements, and these are some strategies that helped me. Hopefully they're useful to you.

1. Ignore the Active Guardian. You win by destroying the Padlock, so direct every attack you can towards it. The only exception is if there's some sort of damage negating card in play, then you might want to use some of the cards that only hurt the Guardian.
2. Try to think a turn or two ahead. Have a rough idea of the order you'll play your cards in and how much you value them.
3. If the Maze is really negating everything you do, skipping your turn and just waiting out their effects is a viable strategy. That said, if you can, playing active effects cards to help you out while saving your attack cards is usually a better option.

hey, so sorry for the delay, thank you so much for all the tips! i was kinda doing some of those (mostly ignoring the guardian) but i'll consider skipping turns more - i'll see what i can do :D it's hopeful to hear that it's at least possible to get the hang of lol

Once I finally realized to attack the padlock, I found that I really didn't mind playing this at all :)