As a relatively new player to Splinterland, I find that I am not competitive against many of the older players in tournaments. Part of this is due to them having many more cards than I have and also having them upgraded. A lot of it is also experience in using those cards that they own.
Tournaments
Novice and Bronze
I have found that I can compete in some Novice and Bronze tournaments. Especially when it involves the "Chaos Legion Editions Only" with no legendaries.
My deck is a level 2(Bronze) deck which has a copy of all Common, Rare and Epic cards. I also have a few legendaries(fiends) but not all of them.
With a copy of each card I am purely going up against the same cards in Novice tournaments and have just a slight disadvantage when entering bronze tournaments.
My epics are mostly at level 1 and not level 2 for max bronze participation.
Novice SPS
Here is a tournament where you need 206 staked SPS to enter. I don't have enough staked to enter most of the tournaments. This one also gives you money back if you are in the bronze league or below.
Holding first place for awhile
Midway though the tournament I was holding first place during the first round.
Final Round
In the final Round I had dropped to 5th place with a couple of battles left to be played.
Completion
In the end I had dropped to 15th place just 2 wins behind the winners.
Conclusion
I was paid 6 SPS for my 15th place. This was equivalent to my entry fee of 400 DEC so I broke even on the tournament and had a lot of fun.
These tournaments are also practice for the modern format which will be starting soon.
If you wish to try out Splinterlands you can use my reference link.
https://splinterlands.com?ref=ijat