Everyone wants to advance quickly in Splinterlands right off the bat. One way I found myself advancing to Bronze II and then Bronze I is by utilizing the summoner Mylor Crowling along with Fungus Fiend and Furious Chicken. Mylor Crowling costs 3 mana, while Fungus Fiend and Furious Chicken both cost 0 mana each. I can't stress enough how often Fungus Fiend and Furious Chicken have both saved my hide in battles as a back of the line defense. When players use monsters with opportunity, Fungus Fiend and Furious Chicken get targeted first and provide 2 damage to melee monsters attacking bc of the thorns ability given to Fungus Fiend and Furious Chicken from the summoner Mylor Crowling. If Fungus Fiend and Furious Chicken are the last monsters in your lineup, they work well against monsters with sneak too. By having 2 monsters that cost 0 mana that can potientally provide 4 damage (2 damage each), due to the thorn ability provided by the summoner Mylor Crowling, can be a total game changer. It sure has for me. Sometimes you need that one extra turn or that one extra hit. By utilizing these cards, you can achieve this. Instead of having Fungus Fiend and Furious Chicken as the last two positions to protect your back side, you can put them in position one and two to utilize them as sacrifices. By doing this, your higher mana requiring monsters can have more opportunities potientally to have turns without them taking damage until Fungus Fiend and Furious Chicken are knocked out. I rather the 0 mana cards, that can also utilize the thorn ability with Mylor Crowling, take the initial damage instead of my mana requiring cards. Consider trying the above strategies and let me know if they work for you!