I have not been shy about my opinions on the state of ranked games in Splinterlands.
I think it's a shame low level players are pretty much forced into playing against people with potentially higher level cards.
It just spoils the fairness and fun of the game and didn't use to be like this.
I've talked about this in a few of my last Splinterlands posts as well as in this long comment right here which hasn't really been adressed yet.
Ultimately I don't really like ranked and brawls are too infrequent so recently I've turned to tournaments in order to get the pure and unadulterated Splinterlands experience and I just can't get enough of them.
I played some that were focused on the Modern format with Novice and Bronze level restrictions because that's what I can comfortably afford. It has been very fun but I wanted more so I tried this experiment of battling in the Wild format too.
Wild is an entirely different beast and generally speaking I'm not well equipped for it.
I do have a lot of Chaos Legion and Riftwatchers cards. Those assets of mine are actually in a weird spot, as I imagine it's the case for many people.
If they're not of the highest level it's difficult to rent them out for any meaningful returns so without any land or plan to use them in ranked wild they're mostly just sitting there gathering dust for me.
I figured it would make sense to at least try them out in Wild tournaments.
With Chaos Legion and following editions sufficiently covered, I still had to rent out key cards from Untamed and Beta, the OG editions. 😎
I never really experienced all those cards fully, if not for a brief moment in time, so it was definetely a blast from the past to revisit them and it was really my first time to use some of them in a competitive setting so it was definetely a bizarre but highly enjoyable experience.
Let me share now some of the more interesting battles.
Gauntlet Wild Novice Invitational
This was a battle against @sagemc with the following rules and restrictions:
And these were the teams we chose. You can watch the battle unfold here.
Owster Rotwell is a very interesting death summoner from the old days of this game and is well in keeping with the theme of his splinter to hinder the enemy rather than powering himself up.
He doesn't really do anything if the opponent focuses on melee and ranged units but against magic it's of course a great counter.
I was definetely a bit lucky here but it is exactly what happened and afterall magic is often an effective way to go if you want to win at the lowest levels.
It realyl came down to the last few units but ultimately I didn't really have to do much as the summoner did most of the damage for me.
This one was another interesting battle against @vindisel with thorns being the most impactful modifier along with the "Up close & personal" ruleset limiting our choices to melle units exclusively.
This is what we fielded.
I think it was definetely the right choice for me here to go with Uriel this time.
I figured I would be attacking less frequently than the opponent so with another passive setup, similar to the first battle I shared, I would have been able to take less damage and win.
A strong repair effect from EMP helped too, of course 😉
This battle was against @andyk12 and seems a bit weird to me in hindsight.
These were the rules.
I ended up winning but I think I could have made things easier for myself by picking Lorkus as well.
I think I settled for Fithe Bladestone instead because I was planning on using the Forgotten One as the main tank, which is highly susceptible to magic, and I figured the void effect would complement that card's weaknesses better.
Lorkus is very strong but a combination of taunt, martyr and other strong cards allowed me to get ahead of the curve and work through his lineup nicely.
This battle was a loss for me against @northtribe.
Sadly, because of the following rules I don't think I could have put up very meaningful resistance.
Might have been some combination of Lorna Shine and some specific melee units that could have given me some chances but nothing particular came to mind.
These losses against Tofu are particularly annoying because you can usually see them coming from the start but there's not much you can do. I definetely plan on buying that very expensive summoner soon.
Reklah and Bella Ratajowlski might have been decent tries too, come to think about it.
Definetely a good counter to Tofu in low mana battles, at least.
Need to keep that in mind for the future!
This battle here was against @reconnectnature, an opponent with an interesting name 😉
These were the rules this time.
My expectation was to put up some resistance the ant miners, one of my favorite low mana units.
Sadly this didn't work because of the high damage from Khaz'j conjurer.
Perhaps my opponent would have been better off not playing that card at all or at least putting it in the last spot.
It really seems like it did more harm than good to him and I must say that in general I'm always a bit hesitant to rely on cards with the burn mechanic because they mostly seem to backfire.
Also important to note here, I wasn't renting the chicken yet at this point in the tournament but that would have been an important inclusion in such a battle and increased my odds of winning. Very key card along with the fiends from the various splinters.
The last battle I want to share from this tournament was against @teejays who ended up doing very well in the tournament. Well done to him!
I rented some very strong cards for this tournament and I think it was my first time for me using both Llama and Kron, a combination that will induce PTSD in many OG players.
This was indeed a good lineup against an equally strong summoner from the old days of this game, Yodin Zaku.
Sadly, that fire summoner relies quick damage but in a long drawn-out battle other cards are superior and this was one of those cases.
Overall 188 people participated in this tournament and I came in 40th with 13 wins and 8 losses.
Gauntlet Wild Bronze Invitational
This was a very similar tournament but this time around there Bronze level restrictions instead.
I had this battle against @yatiki with the following rules.
I don't remember why I didn't pick a gladiator card but ultimately here Lorkus carried me against Quora and Kron. We often think of Lorkus because of his damage buffs but affliction can be extremely valuable too as an effect. It certainly was here.
I was able to win thanks to Lorkus and some cards that do well against magic attackers!
Similar consideration can be made for this battle too . The opponent was @elarag and these were the rules:
Another satisfying case of Lorkus taking down Quora! Arachne weaver is also incredibly synergistic with Lorkus, what a card!
However, in this battle against @pikylol I lost to Lorkus too.
Riftwing and noxian rebel, what a combination from my opponent. Yet another case of magic being incredibly strong but this time around I couldn't get the upper hand with the chosen lineup.
In this low mana battle against @warrentrx I was able to withstand his magic attacks.
Both of us could have chosen better teams with more zero mana cards but ultimately in cases like these Fithe Bladestone does a good job countering magic! Very strong summoner.
This was an exciting battle against @olaf.gui who I know from his posts in the C/Splinterlands community as well as from his outstanding tournament results.
Lorkus vs Lorkus. Not exactly surprising, this summoner is incredibly powerful.
I tried to use some counters to magic while leaning into the stun synergy, based on the ruleset, and I was able to achieve a nice win here.
This was an entirely silly tournament submission by me.
Battle was against @arrrpirate and we had these rules.
I was oddly fascinated with this idea of Legionnaire Halvaar executing high-powered piercing armor strikes but I never was in time to pull of that plan and I don't think it's a strategy I will try agan in the future.
Akane is definetely a strong summoner but perhaps with a different team I could have avoided this loss. Pity..
This time I played against @thanatose.
I saw Lorkus coming and figured Immortalis would potentially be a counter to it.
Lorkus is still quite strong but this is definetely something I wanna keep in mind for my next wild battles!
Unlike with Fithe Bladestone the void effect is applied to the whole lineup regardless of bloodline synergies and it can be a significant counter if the opponent relies too much on magic.
In this battle against @emp-warden we had these rules.
Sadly, this time Yodin had the better of me.
Magic allowed me to work through the tank easily but the splash damage and Yodin buff were too much for my team.
It was close in the end but I lost.
This is the last tournament battle I want to share and it was against @horsebox
I personally played quite a bit with Conqueror Jacek in the past. It's a very strong card that can take people by surprise but I've found him to be lacking in very high mana battles where the scattershot effect often works against you and it'd be better to choose where the damage can go.
There was heavy damage from both sides but my frontline resisted for longer and I won.
This other tournament had 176 people in it and I qualified as 55th with 11 wins and 11 losses. I hope to improve on that in the future but the second round of the tournament was particularly tough.
I haven't done a good job of accounting but by eyeballing it I think I was able to cover the entry fee as well as the rentals for these wild cards and it was an overall enjoyable experience. Great fun.
I hope you found the battles and the comments I made interesting.
I will definetely participate in more wild tournaments in the future.
If you have suggestions to help me improve my strategies, do let me know 😉