Plymouth Argyle striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake outgunned Cardiff's quartet of international strikers, but could not quite inspire the Pilgrims to a first league win of the campaign.
The former Manchester United youngster put the Pilgrims 2-0 up before the hour mark, but Cardiff bounced back to gain a share of the spoils.
With Steve Thompson and Robbie Fowler off the bench to make a four-man forward line alongside Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Paul Parry, Cardiff equalised when Gavin Rae and fellow Scot Thompson scored in the final 20 minutes.
Ebanks-Blake lit up a dull first half just after the half-hour when Cardiff failed to clear a free-kick from teenage Argyle midfielder Dan Gosling. The ball broke to Ebanks-Blake, who steered it high into Ross Turnbull's goal.
It was not until Argyle manager Ina Holloway introduced Hungarians Akos Buzsaky and Peter Halmosi from the bench for the start of the second half that the Pilgrims hit top gear.
The two midfielders only returned from midweek international duty on Friday but looked fresh when they came on for Gosling and Serb Bojan Djordjic.
It was Buszaky's raking drive from outside the box that created Ebanks-Blake's second. Turnbull got down well to parry the ball, only for the Argyle man to notch his fifth goal of the season by whipping home the rebound.
Cardiff manager Dave Jones threw on Fowler and the ex-Liverpool legend gave the visitors momentum.
A sweet Cardiff move ended with Parry driving in a shot that home goalkeeper Luke McCormick could only push into the path of Rae, who walked the ball home.
Thompson came on from the Cardiff bench with less than ten minutes to go and had been on the pitch just a few minutes when he steered home Hasselbaink's flick-on.
Even then Argyle nearly stole the three points in stoppage time, but Trevor Sinclair deprived Nick Chadwick with a magnificent cover tackle to keep the scores even.