Do you ever run into the same lineup over and over, each time resulting in your defeat? Do you constantly second guess whether or not you should've played that extra attacker over the tank healer?
With the "Train" tool on Splintertools.io, you can answer those questions and instantly boost your win rate!
In this guide, I'll walk you through how I personally use Splintertools in order to get better at the game.
I am not affiliated with Splintertools.io in any way. I just really enjoy using it as a training tool and want to share my experience.
What is Splintertools?
Splintertools is a website that you can use to analyze your past battles. It allows you to check what your predicted win rate would be and also gives you the option of adjusting your lineup to find your perfect setup.
Why does this matter?
At it's core, Splinterlands is a strategic card battling game and it requires you to wisely choose your optimal lineup if you want to succeed. This is especially important in the lower levels where special abilities may not be as prevalent and the majority of the users are using the starter set of cards. Because of this, you'll constantly see the same lineups over and over.
After you play Bronze for a bit, you'll be able to predict some of these lineups and choose the best counter. For example, a commonly used setup for Earth is a core of Obsidian, Unicorn Mustang, and Goblin Psychic. With the training tool, you can adjust your own lineup and find something that gives you a high chance of winning.
Of course, you can't be 100% certain that your opponent will play that lineup, but if their past battles show these specific setups, you can usually give yourself an edge if you go for the counter.
Generally, I think it's best to go with your strongest lineup at the lower levels instead of looking to counter your opponent and Splintertools can help you determine that.
Using the Tool for Battle Analysis
The Splintertools website is pretty straightforward but here's a quick mark up to get started:
- Choose either "Train" or "Custom" to analyze lineups
- Enter your in-game name here and click search to find your most recent battles
- Click "Train" to pull up the training screen where you can adjust the monsters and/or summoner played
The Splintertools website can help you analyze your lineup in two ways:
- Analyze past battles to tweak your lineup and give yourself the best chance of winning
- Create custom lineups and rulesets to pit different setups against each other
I'll demonstrate both methods below.
Battle Analysis Example #1 Using the Train Tool
In the example above, I went with General Sloan and the Life deck against a Byzantine Kitty and the Earth deck. I came away with the victory but as you can see, my expected win rate was only 67%. 2 out of 3 battles should go in my favor and that's a little too low for me to feel comfortable.
To me, this means there was definitely room for improvement.
By simply moving my Arbalest from the 6th position to the 5th, my win rate improved dramatically to 92%! This is because my opponent played Sandworm and the Poison rule is applied.
With Equalizer, all of my monsters have 11 health. The Sandworm deals 5 damage to the backline monster and with Poison causing 2 damage at the end of the round, my backline monster will die in the 2nd round. By moving my Arbalest to the 5th spot, it's protected and can dish out damage for a few more rounds. Even though I would be sacrificing the Supply Runner, the Arbalest's double strike makes up for the loss.
Before this battle, I was also considering an entirely different lineup all together. When choosing summoners, I was trying to decide if I should go with a Life Summoner or a Dragon Summoner. I was looking at General Sloan (+1 Ranged) and Daria Dragonscale (+1 Melee) because they both buff the attackers. For this example, I used the Dragon Summoner with the lineup that I was originally going to go with. As you can see, my win rate is at 100% and it was the better decision over General Sloan and the Life Deck.
You have to remember, however, that when I decided on the Life Deck, I made that decision based on previous battles that my opponent had. They used Camila Sungazer a few times which gives a -1 Melee Damage debuff to all enemy monsters. Because of that, I went with a Ranged setup versus a Melee setup. Unfortunately, Byzantine Kitty was played instead so my General Sloan lineup was not optimal.
Key Takeaway : Protect your strongest attackers.
Battle Analysis Example #2 Using the Train Tool
In this battle, I played a Thaddius Brood and Death Deck lineup against Lorna Shine and the Life Deck. I had a 2% chance of winning. Terrible, I know. It was an Earthquake and Fog of War ruleset meaning flying monsters are crucial and monsters are generally safe in the back (barring an opportunity or blast attack).
This made me think of Riftwing followed by the Gargoya Devil. My thought was that while they worked on killing my frontline, my Gargoya Devil could slowly take out their frontline from relative safety. Each time a monster died, the Riftwing would gain a life, becoming a bigger and bigger tank as the battle continued. It didn't work out too well for me because my opponent went with Lorna Shine who provides all monsters with Divine Shield. With only 1 attacker, I simply couldn't get through the Divine shields quick enough.
With a slight tweak of replacing Riftwing with Pelacor Deceiver, however, I would've easily come away with a victory (100% chance!). In the future, I'll remember not to be so passive and try to have a second attacker, especially if I know my opponent has Lorna Shine in their arsenal.
Key Takeaway : Be more aggressive when faced with Lorna Shine. It is crucial that you have at least 2 attacks or you'll get picked off.
Using the Tool for Custom Battles
With the Custom Battle tool, you can select your league (for max monster limits) and up to 2 Rulesets. You can then enter 2 lineups and receive the odds of which lineup would win.
This tool is powerful for determining the ideal setup for the lower Bronze leagues. Since you'll be playing by the Standard ruleset, you can make different lineups at the same mana and see which one comes out on top.
For example, I saved common lineups for each splinter that you may encounter using only the starter cards at a 20 mana battle. I then put them all against each other to see which one had the highest chance of winning.
In this Novice/Bronze league setup, you can see that at 20 mana, Kelya is bar far the most consistent splinter. The lineup is as follows:
| Position | Monster/Summoner | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Summoner | Kelya Frendul | Extremely strong summoner that gives +1 Speed and +1 Armor. In my opinion, speed is the most important stat because you get to attack first and potentially dodge attacks |
| 1 (tank) | Serpent of Eld | Very fast tank and has the Dodge ability to help evade melee and ranged attacks. Health is a little low and weak to magic but the speed will allow you to take out some of their attackers before they get a chance to kill your tank |
| 2 (attacker) | Deeplurker | Fast, hits hard, and has opportunity. If you aren't up against Kelya, it's highly likely that Deeplurker will be getting a kill from the beginning. The other teams generally do not have shields on their backline so Deeplurker will feast |
| 3 (attacker) | Ice Pixie | Although not the strongest, Ice Pixie is fast and has a magic attack. That mean she won't miss, she gets under shields, and with flying, she can potentially dodge attacks launched in her direction |
| 4 (meat shield) | Hardy Stonefish | With 1 mana left for this lineup, you don't have many options. Hardy Stonefish isn't particularly strong but extremely important in this lineup. He can take a minimum of 2 hits from a melee sneak attack which allows your Ice Pixie and Deeplurker to keep working |
This lineup isn't necessarily the best since it can be countered but it's extremely strong and will help you bring up your win rate and rating!
This was just an example that I came up with going off of memory from when I first started playing. I don't know if the early Bronze meta has changed so if you have encountered other common lineups, use those instead and try to come up with something that gives you the best chance of winning.
Remember, you won't be able to find the #1 best lineup to be used against all others with just the starter deck. You can, however, find a lineup that is optimal in most battles. Once you determine that setup, I recommend that you play your strongest lineup every time. Without any rulesets to keep things interesting, it is too difficult to try and counter what you think your opponent will do.
Once you get into the rulesets of Bronze I (and up), things will get VERY interesting and you'll have a lot more homework to do!
"Renting" Cards with the Custom Battle Tool
Another great use of the Custom Battle tool is to build a lineup with a card you don't have but are thinking about picking up. You can essentially place the new card into a lineup that you intend on playing and see how it fares. All cards from the game are able to be used.
Think Grum would help you out in those Melee battles? Instead of buying or renting, "test" it out for free! Maybe you'll find out that Grum is an absolute beast that you can play in nearly all lineups or that he's actually only useful in certain rulesets. The great thing about Splinterlands is that there is no 1-size-fits-all solution and studying the game is how you can gain an edge.
Final Thoughts
To get better at Splinterlands, it is important that you study the game and Splintertools makes it extremely easy to do so! I highly recommend you check it out and play with some of your lineups. The more you use it, the more it becomes second nature and when certain rulesets pop up, you automatically start thinking of what you know to be the best setup.
I hope you enjoyed the guide and happy battling!
Thanks for reading!
Referral link : https://splinterlands.com?ref=at.bui89
If you decide to use my referral link, I will send you a few cards to help you get started!