As a new player to Splinterlands, climbing the ranks into Silver and Gold with a level 1 Summoner can be a difficult proposition indeed. With the current state of the game being no packs available to open, no new reward cards to claim, and Chaos Legion cards 2+ months out from actual new packs being opened, what's a new player with a starter deck and on a budget to do? Viable Summoners are an expensive proposition to level and investing in the wrong one for the long term is an unwise financial investment. Below I will break down how, for a reasonable $70 investment (at time of publishing), you can set your decks up for success into the Gold and Silver ranks for the foreseeable future.
Understanding Summoner Levels and League Restrictions
Before we can recommend a "good investment" for a Summoner, we have to first understand what makes a Summoner good (or at least better than their alternatives). A good starting point is to look at why a Summoner at a higher level than a base Summoner is advantageous to you. Monsters in Splinterlands start at a base level. This can be seen on the card itself.
This Elven Defender is at Level 1. However, we can see that if we purchased enough base Elven Defender cards to get him to Level 5 (60 cards, denoted by the BCX [Base Card eXperience] number in the stats), he would gain the Shield ability, a very significant "free" improvement for this card in battles. He would also gain base card stats such as Speed. However, if we leveled him up and immediately tried to use him in a battle with a base summoner such as Aldric, we would be disappointed to learn that he could not use his newfound ability or stats. Aldric at level 1 only allows Common cards of max level 1 (denoted by the white circle below). Only when Aldric reaches his card level 4 would we be able to take advantage of our Elven Defender's Shield abilities in battle at the Defender's card level 5.
League Restrictions
So now that we know we need leveled Summoners to take advantage of leveled card abilities that are essential to win in Gold and high-Silver tiers, let's just max level a Summoner and bash some heads! Well, not quite. Each League has restrictions on the max card level monsters that can be used in the League. For example, Bronze limits Common Monsters to Level 3, Silver limits Common Monsters to Level 5, and Gold limits Common Monsters to a max level of 8.
Bronze Monster Card Level Limits
Silver Monster Card Level Limits
Gold Monster Card Level Limits
So to maximize your monster abilities in the Silver+ leagues, you'll want a Summoner that can summon Common monsters at level 5+, Rare monsters at level 4+, Epic monsters at level 3+, and Legendaries at level 2+
A lesson in Rarities
So now that we are in the market to buy and level up our Summoner, let's check the market for some bargain buys:
The 5 cheapest Summoners go from $3.88 to $7 at the time this article was published. Great! So let's load up on those $3.88 Vera's and get to work! Well again, not so fast. Vera is the cheapest Summoner, but let's take a look at her stats. She is a Rare Water Summoner and as such, she can only be used in battles when using a Water deck. She can maximize her Silver+ card level requirements at her card level 4. This would require that we purchase 25 copies of her to level up for a current total market cost of $97 (25 x $3.88)
The next 3 cheapest Summoners (Qid, Contessa, and Drake) are also Rare Summoners and will require 25 cards to achieve the desired Summer card level abilities.
Drum roll please....
However, Kretch is an Epic Summoner that requires only 10 cards to reach his Card level which will unlock our desired Silver+ Monster Card level requirements:
So for $70 (~30% less than the next cheapest Summoner), we can field Kretch in Silver and Gold League battles and unlock our cards' true potentials, regardless of whether we rent or own the cards. This opens up huge possibilities on the rental market for newer players wanting to take advantage of leveled cards for cheap and climb the League ranks to gain more DEC per win and more Loot chests at the end of the season.
But wait, there's more!
Kretch also has the added benefit of being a Dragon Summoner. This means in League battles, you can choose him as your Summoner and then select your most powerful Splinter deck to choose leveled monsters from for the upcoming battle. If you had gone the route of leveling Vera, for example, you would only be able to use Water and Neutral leveled monster cards. With Kretch, all leveled Splinter cards are available to be played (*based on the battle parameters). This provides extreme flexibility at a bargain basement price.
Final Verdict
Run, don't walk, to your nearest Splinterlands market and get your Kretch's before they shoot up in price. With the drought of viable Summoners available to newer players, Kretch will be the answer to Summoner blues for the next several months. You can thank me later =)
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