Card Wars (episode)

"Card Wars" is the fourteenth episode in the fourth season of Adventure Time.

Synopsis
Finn and Jake play an epic card game, where Jake becomes overly competitive.

Plot
The episode starts at the Tree Fort with Finn eating sandwiches and drinking juice on the couch. Jake momentarily walks in with a box and sighs obnoxiously to get Finn's attention. Finn asks what's in the box, and Jake eventually explains that the box contains the cards to play "Card Wars." Jake explains that Lady Rainicorn doesn't want to play with him anymore because he always beats her, and Finn tells Jake that he wants to play. They begin setting up a table with snacks and BMO walks by. Jake asks if BMO wants to play with them, and he ominously replies that he does "not play such games with Jake." Finn and Jake then decide the stakes will be that the winner will be a cool guy and the loser will be a dweeb. Jake fills one cup with soda, coffee grounds, beetle butter, grape jelly, Kimchi, and Ham Chunk Juice. He labels it the "dweeb" cup. He fills another cup with soda, and labels it as the "cool guy" cup. Jake then explains the rules, which takes two hours.

Jake then sets up his kingdom and prepares to start the game, noticing Finn has fallen from the long-winded explanation of the rules. Finn says to start anyway despite Jake's protests, and the two begin playing. Both players "floop" their land cards. Jake then says to Finn to keep his cards hidden. He then begins his turn by activating The Silo of Truth, which shows him all of Finn's cards. Jake then takes one of Finn's cards, Cerebral Blood Storm, which magically flies into his hand. Jake then sets up what appears to be a devastating attack using Cerebral Blood Storm and Husker Knights. Finn asks if his Cool Dog and Ancient Scholar can defend against the husker knights, which Jake laughs off as obviously impossible. Finn then floops his pig card to activate its effect, and his pig marches into Jake's side where it begins to his eat corn field.

This is devastating to Jake's army, which is powered by corn fields. Furthermore, Jake's Cerebral Blood Storm only does damage to himself because Finn isn't attacking. Jake is upset at how well Finn is doing, even without knowing the cards very well. Finn explains that it is "just logic." Jake, however, excitedly states that Finn's "beginner's luck ends" on that turn. Finn then starts his own turn and uses it to send his pig to The Cave of Solitude where it will take a nap. He then sends his Ancient Scholar to study, and will attack on another turn. Jake plays many cards to kill Finn's pig, but none of his attacks take effect. Finn taunts Jake by saying that he is the "cool guy," but Jake excitedly plays a card that destroys both sides of the field and all creatures on the board with a volcano.

Happy that he finally killed the pig, Jake plays the "reconstitute landscape" card and grows back all of his corn with the extra effect of reviving his husker knights, as well as moving his Useless Swamp card to reveal the Immortal Mazewalker, a powerful looking card that can do triple damage with cornfields in its kingdom. Jake then prepares to attack, and Finn explains that his Ancient Scholar (who had not been killed in the volcano as he was in a building) had been studying the raise the dead ability. Finn revitalizes his pig and once again manages to completely refute Jake's attack by sending his pig to eat Jake's corn fields. Finn then notices that his tower is "doing a thing" and it takes over Jake's Immortal Mazewalker. Jake walks away and angrily grumbles to himself in frustration. Finn suggests that they might take a break, and Jake grows to a huge size and picks Finn up and orders him to play the game. Finn has a brief flashback of BMO saying that he did not play Card Wars with Jake, and says he needs to go to the bathroom (or the "boy's style room") so he can get away from the table.

He then goes to find BMO, who explains that the last time BMO beat Jake in Card Wars, Jake didn't talk to him for a month. Jake then pulls Finn from all the way upstairs back to the table and demands he play the game. Finn then decides to intentionally lose, and instead of sending the Immortal Mazewalker to finish the game, he chooses to attack with his pig a third time. The Pig moves into a mud landscape to attack Jake's Wandering Bald Man, and a pathetic, but suspenseful battle ensues. Finn's pig wins the battle, and as it begins to return to Finn's side, it gets stuck in the mud and cannot move. Jake then exclaims that pigs can't leave mud landscapes once they enter, and says "the pig is mine!" He then plays reclaim landscape which brings back all the corn he originally had in his kingdom. Jake then plays two monsters, one destroys all of Finn's infrastructure and the other gives Jake every creature on Finn's side. Jake then says that he has won the game, because Finn has no creatures left.

He hands Finn the "dweeb" cup filled with Jake's gross drink from earlier, and starts to drink it. He says it's good and asks if Jake wants to try it, and a surprised Jake obliges. He then immediately spits it out because it's disgusting, and Finn jokingly calls him a dweeb. The scene then closes with the two of them still sipping the gross drink, while BMO is shaking his head at them in disappointment.

Characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * BMO
 * Snail (cameo)
 * Lady Rainicorn (mentioned)

Trivia

 * A preview of this episode was shown on July 14 during Cartoon Network's Big Fan Weekend 2012.
 * Only thirteen cards in the game were used.
 * This is the first time Jake has referred to Finn as Finn Human.
 * The same music played in the title card is also played when the pig is activated and eats Jake's corn fields.

Cultural references

 * The card game contains various game attributes from popular trading card games such as Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokémon, and Magic the Gathering.
 * Jake's kingdom seems to have a similar structure to the Stonehenge and another one similar to the Colosseum.

Episode connections

 * The flame explosion in the long preview before the "Card Wars" title was also used in the "Princess Cookie" preview.
 * The Cup of Many Ales is seen from "Video Makers."
 * Finn calls a room a "boy-style room," which he called the bathroom in "The Silent King," indicating that the room may be colored baby blue, Finn's favorite color.
 * The music that plays during the scene in which Jake explains the rules of the game to Finn was originally used in "Too Young," during the "Prank Machine" scene.

Errors

 * At about 10:57 into the episode, Finn's schoolhouse and tower﻿ are still on the board after they've been destroyed, but when it zooms out, they're both gone again.
 * When Finn is done eating his sandwich, he lies on the couch. When the camera zooms out, it is seen that their couch seems a lot bigger than Finn.
 * If one were to notice, to floop a card, you need to turn it to the left, and to activate a card, it must be turned to the right. With this in mind, it's noticeable that Jake activated his land cards at the beginning, also, Finn activated the Spirit Tower and Cave of Solitude, instead of flooping.

Production notes

 * This episode was originally titled "Card Quest."

Videos
Adventure Time - Card Wars (short preview)|Short preview. Adventure Time - Card Wars (long preview)|Long preview. Adventure Time - Card Wars (sneak peak)|Big Fan Weekend preview.