Remember that there are cards that can help you get your Grarrl Gladiator into play. Take a Dip for instance allows you to search your deck for an Experienced Neopet and put it on the top of your deck, and because upgrading a Neopet is a free action, you draw the card, and BOOM – Instant Arena Domination. Don't have a Grarrl in play? Bank a Yellow Paint Brush and you can search through your Neopet stack to find a Grarrl and replace a Neopet in play with him.

Even if your opponent doubles up in the Strength Arena, the Gladiators ability to win on a 5 or a 6 means that you are going to win a third of contests regardless… using less resources than your opponent.

A good tactic (and one that was employed recenly in the office), is to have Neopets that are strong in Strength, Agility and Intelligence, and then throw Darigan into the Magic Arena due to his amazing score of 21. Not only have you locked that arena down, you should now have the advantage in the three remaining arenas (especially with that +1 bonus).

Remember, if a challenging Neopet rolls a 6 they will automatically defeat a villain, but if your opponent decides to try this tactic against Darigan it's going to take them quite a while. Let them attempt to take Darigan down, it will be futile. By the time Darigan falls you will have drawn and banked so many cards, you'll have a HUGE advantage.

The beauty of Master Vex is due to the rolling-a-6 rule, there is always a 5 in 36 chance (14%) that no matter how strong your Neopet or Hero is, you will lose the contest regardless. If your opponent doesn't get to roll a die, there is no way he or she can roll a 6, so your victory is near-guaranteed. We wouldn't advise playing him in the Strength arena however, all those years of playing Cellblock meant he didn't have much time for physical exercise.

There are a couple of cards that count on you winning a contest in order to achieve some result. Take Ferocious Negg for instance. It gives you +2 to Agility and Intelligence for a single contest, and if you win you can search your deck for any one Negg and put it in your hand, not a bad card to play if you are 100% certain of winning the contest!

Remember, Master Vex also counts as a Mynci, and as a Neopet – so any cards you have on the table that modify either of those categories will also modify Master Vex.

Koya is one of the more interesting heroes in the first set. You can combine her with effects like Aisha Myriad, How to Cheat, or a number of other effects that you can get an additional benefit if you know what is coming. One of the more interesting tricks is to use her to check and arrange for a Villain for Cardboard Enemy, which lets you flip a villain from the top of the deck as a surprise. And while Yellow and Green Korbats couldn't punch a hole through a wet copy of the Neopian Times, Koya is actually fairly strong and also good in Agility and Intelligence.