Challengers is a card-drafting auto-battler game. Luck determines the cards offered and the order in which each card appears. But there are still important and difficult decisions to be made.

General Strategy

The goal of the draft is to maximize your deck's power and size while minimizing the likelihood of "benching out" (having to put a 7th card on the bench). With that in mind, the following is implied:

• Drafting duplicates is crucial. These will increase your deck size and power without making you bench out. Synergy between a pair of 2-power cards is as good as a single 4-power card. The 2-power cards are sometimes better on the attack but worse on defense. The 4-power is sometimes worse on attack but better on defense.
• Synergy is key. Cards like Vendor, A.I., Stable Boy, Make-up Artist, Band, Blacksmith, etc. can be strong if the rest of your deck supports them. Learn what all the cards do and what your "outs" are.
• Winning later rounds is more important than early rounds. It's okay to take losses with a bloated deck early to maximize your odds of getting lucky later. Winning only rounds 5, 6, and 7 will almost always get you into the final.
• Redraw if your deck has a lot of one-offs, and you're not offered any duplicates.
• Generally speaking, you want 6 or 7 unique cards. Until the last few rounds, sticking to 7 or 8 can be okay to have more potential opportunities for pairs on the next draft. In the last round or two, you should have doubled up on enough that having more than 6 types of cards is too risky to be worth it. If your deck's overall power is low, you may need to sit at 7 and hope you draw a low on the last card.
• Relying on bench cleaners is risky. If you draw them before any singletons, then their effect is wasted. Usually, you're better off cutting the one-off cards like Vacuum Cleaner or Butler. Only play them in duplicates.
• Check which set is removed at the beginning of the game. This can influence what to look for and what to avoid.

Sets

Keep in mind that individual card effects are more helpful than set synergy. Some cards crossover, but early picks will reflect these themes.

Each non-starter card has 4 copies (unless otherwise stated).

• City (buildings) - Depends on cards in other sets for boosts
• Castle (castle) - Boost cards in other sets
• Film Studio (clapboard) - Focus on attack
• Funfair (balloons) - Rearrange deck
• Haunted House (mansion) - Remove cards from bench to either your deck or exhaust pile
• Outer Space (planet) - Replace themselves or other cards in your deck
• Shipwreck (anchor) - Focus on defense