I resarted 4 days ago and am preparing for the SeeD-exam. I first made Quezacotl learn the card command and got Ifrit. I card a lot of 'Glacial eyes', 'Bite bugs' and 'Fastitocolon-Fs'. This way you get a lot of AP without the EXP and 'Jumbo Cactuars' and 'Elvorets'. Chalange the Card-lady (what's her name) to get the 'trade rule: ALL' this way it goes faster, play a lot of games but always check if the rule 'ALL' is active or you could lose it again. This way you get a lot of good cards. I got the first 5 pages and more, For some reason I haven't got the 'Jumbo Cactuar' card yet.

Learn the MID-MAG-RF as soon as possible to convert your magic to mid-level-magic (cura, fira, blizara, thundara) and keep drawing. and use the CARD-MOD ability transfer cards into items and convert these items into magic, but don't convert rare cards (quistis, minimog, Ifrit etc.)