Today's NYT Strands hints and answer: solutions to game #746, March 19

Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? No shame in that, and you've come to the right place. Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #746 as well as the answers, should it come to that.

We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #746, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #746.

Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints

The official theme for NYT Strands #746 is... "Bring a plate".

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Anything I can bring?"

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:

• VERSES
• PIES
• TRIPE
• TROVES
• CASES
• PETS
• GOATS
• VOTES

Still struggling? The spangram touches two opposite sides of the board (but can start and end anywhere), and will give you a hint about the connection between the answers. Today, it starts with 'P' and ends with 'K'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's POTLUCK.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #746?

Drumroll, please...

• CASSEROLE
• DESSERT
• VEGGIES
• BEVERAGE
• APPETIZERS

...and the spangram was POTLUCK.

Strands #746

“Bring a plate”

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Hi Strands fans. A nice easy one today, though I did manage to draw a blank after completing the top half.

With the theme of "Bring a plate", this was likely to be about dining, buffets or similar. I found CASSEROLE in the top-right corner to confirm this, and then saw the spangram of POTLUCK to split the board in two.

Concentrating on the top half first, I found DESSERT below CASSEROLE, which just left VEGGIES to connect in the top-left corner.

The bottom half, however, left me stumped. I knew there were two words to find, which suggested longer answers, but I couldn't see anything.

Eventually, I folded and used a clue which revealed BEVERAGE on the left-hand side. That meant it was just a case of unpicking the anagram of remaining letters to find the final answer. It was, of course, APPETIZERS.

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Strands answers for game #745.

• STYLE
• HACK
• BLOOD
• PRESERVER
• CYCLE
• COACH
• LESSON

...and the spangram was AFTERLIFE.

Strands #745

“It follows”

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Hi Strands fans. Today's puzzle was really tough. Even with the spangram in place, it took me a while to figure out what I was actually looking at: many of my answers were guesswork.

So in a slight break from my usual style, I'm going to explain the puzzle before showing the steps I took. The 'it' that the theme of "It follows" refers to is "life". All the answers can come after the word "life" to make longer words.

I found my first answer without help, spotting STYLE in the top-right corner. This didn't help much, and I found myself two clues, which revealed HACK and BLOOD, both at the bottom of the board.

This left me none the wiser, but these two together made a clear path so I worked backwards to find the spangram of AFTERLIFE.

After that, the answers came thick and fast. I found PRESERVER in the gap along the left-hand side, with CYCLE above it to complete the half.

That left two answers to find on the right-hand side. COACH was at the top, with LESSON below it to complete the puzzle.