Hello everyone,
here is another post on my favorite TCG (Trading Card Game), Splinterlands. After playing for a month I decided it was time to open another account. Why? Well if nothing I will open few more chests at end of the season and few more daily rewards. Can't hurt right? 😎
These days it is getting more expensive to buy cards and renting is not cheap either. My previous post explained climbing with Magic using Water Splinter. Renting Mischievous Mermaid and Magi Sphinx became expensive. At the time of writing this post, for both cards, you would have to spend 45 DEC per day. That is equal to 4-6 wins in ranked per day if you are getting around 10 DEC per win. In lower rating Bronze you are getting even less(6-10 DEC).
I did not want to spend that amount of DEC. I wanted to climb as far as I can with as few cards as possible. In the process, I collected more than 1500 DEC in 14 days. Not bad for an account with only a few cards.
Bronze farming strategy
I wanted to maximize earnings with as little possible spending so I mostly focused on "phantom"(cards that are free to play - marked in "S" in your cards collection) cards and very cheap cards that I could rent. The cards that provided the most value to me are Furious Chicken and Creeping Ooze. When playing against opponents that are also restricted with the number of playable cards, every hit matters and it could be the difference between victory or defeat. Soaking "Sneak" or "Opportunity" attack with Chicken or Ooze will give you a chance of survival for your more important cards. I mostly played Fire Splinter because decent Magic or Ranged cards are rare at this level. This is my usual Fire setup when playing low mana:
Cerberus is an amazing tank with heal which will often survive multiple rounds. Creeping Ooze is second to give Kobold Miner another chance to attack if Cerberus dies. Serpentine spy is an amazing card that will clear the enemy's backline. Chicken is here to defend Serpentine Spy by soaking Sneak or Opportunity attack. For Summoner I will always choose Malric Inferno as I prefer +1 attack over +1 speed that Pyre provides. Other cards I like to play are Fire Beetle and Elven Cutthroat. Another great card would be Aganju but I don't want to spend that much DEC(maybe sometimes in the future).
When playing Fire at higher mana caps you can't go around Living Lava. One of the best tanks in the Bronze if you ask me. I also love to play Fire Elemental because of the Blast ability. Spark Pixie is also great because of the 5 speed and chance that the opponent's attack will miss. That chance is even greater if you play Creeping Ooze(if the opponent's monster speed is greater than 1).
You can check my Fire Splinter battle here.
If Fire Splinter is not available to play I like to give Water Splinter a chance. Renting expansive cards is not an option so we need to do our best with what we have. My usual setups look something like this:
I use Spineback Turtle as a tank. Health is not bad and armor is useful. Turtle can take some hits but 3 magic dealers will take her down. I am more than OK with that for a 4 mana cost tank. Pixies are placed in the middle of the team so they are not targeted by "Sneak" attacks. If you can, include Furious Chicken for some extra defense.
I mostly play Water and Fire splinter but cards in Life Splinter are also decent. I like to play Silvershield Knight, Feral Spirit, Cave Slug, and Luminous Eagle. In higher mana cap games Shieldbearer is also a good option.
Problems in the Bronze league
Sometimes it feels like there are no more Llama & Kron and Yodin plays in Bronze league. It seems they all got replaced with Mylor Crawling. Nowadays it is not rare to encounter a Mylor player 4-5 times in a row. Oooh that pain when you know you can't do anything because even Magic does not work as Mylor is often paired with Unicorn Mustang and Failed Summoner. The only escape that I see from Mylor is playing heavy Range setup and a tank with Shield ability in the first spot. I often use Stone Golem plus whatever damage I can find for the backline and I hope for the best.
If you can spare around 40 USD, Mylor looks like a good investment, not only for Bronze but for higher leagues too. If you pair him with something like Unicorn Mustang and Mushroom Seer you will get an outstanding combo. For now, it seems like a no-brainer when Earth Splinter is available for battle.
How I increased my DEC gains
Playing in the Bronze league has its advantages. You can play with level 1 cards that are not expensive to rent. The trick is in knowing what cards to rent. Amazing cards mostly come with an amazing price so they are out of the picture for me(unless I find an awesome deal). That is why I focused on Alpha cards and I did some math.
Let's say that you win 15 out of 24 games that you play daily. Most people can probably achieve this if they actually think when they assemble their team. Let's say that you are getting 7 DEC per win. That is 105 DEC per day(I lowered the reward per game to count in Capture Rate).
If you play an Alpha Summoner(or any other Alpha card) you will get an additional 10% when you win. It does not seem like a lot but through the season it adds up. With 1 Alpha card, you will increase gains by 10.5 DEC per day. and 147 DEC per season. You will get this bonus for every Alpha/Promo/Gold card that you play in the game. Some Alpha cards can be rented very cheaply, at a rate of 0.1 DEC per day.
Another piece of advice for all Bronze players is: take your time with quests. I often found myself rushing to complete the quest and spamming that one splinter no matter the ruleset and opponent. I lost valuable Capture Rate, win streak bonus, and in the end, a lot of DEC. Take your time. In 24 games you will find 3-5 perfect games to play that splinter and complete the quest in the end. It will save you a lot of DEC, trust me!
Summary
Splinterlands cards are getting more and more expensive. While you can #play2earn it is getting harder and harder, at least until the next expansion. Then we will have an amazing opportunity for all us new players to grab some amazing cards that will help us in our journey through this amazing game. Always try to think about a strategy your opponent could use. If you manage to counter him chances are that you could win against a much stronger set of cards. You don't have to play games to learn, you can also watch others play and find out which cards are often used. Be patient and enjoy this amazing #NFT game. #splinterlands forever!
If you liked this content and if it was helpful feel free to leave a comment. If you are a PRO let me know if I can improve my strategies with this low Bronze account. All ideas are most welcome.
If you are to become a new player consider becoming one by using my referral link:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=vjekich
Good luck and see you on the battlefield!
Short guide for the Splinterlands begginers on how to earn more DEC without any real investmant.