I posted about how terribly I was doing at learning how to play Splinterlands a couple weeks ago. I got involved with Splinterlands as part of the PIZZA token community. My knowledge about Pizza is significant, but when it came to Splinterlands I was a total rookie. I was constantly hitting long losing streaks and getting knocked back down to Novice league. So I took some time to read several posts about some of the best starter monsters to have and how to properly set them up for success. I suggest checking out the #splinterlands tag to find some good strategy and newbie content. The Splinterlands community has been great at providing strategy help. It turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks as I have been steadily rising in the ranks and am sitting comfortably in the middle of the Bronze II league for the past several days.
As I've ranked up, it's become obvious that players are much more attuned to the battle history and countering my previous strategies. One of the most fascinating things about Splinterlands strategy is just how many different ways there are to setup a battle. I have yet to really figure out on the fly how best to counter some of my opponents, especially those relying on cards with strong magic attack stats.
My new strategy is to keep grinding away at the daily quest and maintaining my current rank while I learn what cards I should be targeting to make a run for the Silver league. When I spend 30-60 seconds strategizing my battle lineup for each fight, I tend to do much better than when I try to setup a standard card group to battle.
Mylor Crowling and Furious Chicken
I've been having a good amount of success with Mylor Crowling and the Thorns ability that takes care of just about any Melee monsters on the opposing side.
Here's a recent battle that I used Mylor Crowling to dispense with the Melee monsters:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_6f2335981af336b747e55c5a6f645e7a&ref=shauner
Another favorite card that has led to some of my growth in rank has been the Furious Chicken. The zero mana cost of the Furious Chicken makes it a great distraction or blocker and has made all the difference in some battles on whether I win or lose.
At the moment, all of the cards I am depending on to win my battles are being rented. I haven't brought myself to do much purchasing of cards since the rental market is still relatively cheap compared to the cost of ownership. Now, it's always possible that the value of cards will continue to rise quickly, so I'd be better off buying but I just can't bring myself to do it yet.
The Mylor Crowling card is currently going for $50 for level 1 and I'd probably want to pick up a level 2 since I could use it in the bronze league at full power. At level 2 it's a $220 card.
Furious Chicken is another $45. However, by renting it only costs me 10 cents per day for the Furious Chicken and 27 cents for the Mylor Crowling.
It just seems to make sense to rent at these lower league levels before I need to start using higher level cards that are harder to come by on the rental market.
If you've made it this far, congratulations. **If you take anything away from this post I hope it's that you can see there is still hope for learning to play Splinterlands even if you struggle at the beginning like I did. **