Learning From Your Losses
In Splinterlands you will experience a good amount of losses, especially in the beginning. Losing is an essential part of the game as it allows you to grow and learn, ultimately helping you to understand the game better. If you are just playing a large number of matches trying the same strategy over and over, you probably won’t make it too far in the leagues. If you are not trying to learn from your losses it will be exponentially harder to get better at the game.
Why Did You Lose
The first and most important step to learning from your losses is understanding what made you lose in the first place. Once you know why you lost you can address the issue for next time. There are numerous reasons for losing a Splinterlands match, let’s take a look at some of the most common.
- Simple Mistake- You knew what to do, but misclicked or placed a card without knowing. I would also consider overlooking rules to fall here, like forgetting about using Sneak on Fog of War. Typically this occurs when you are rushing or multitasking, it's the easiest to learn from as you just need to slow down and focus.
- Lack of Knowledge- When you encounter a ruleset, ability, or strategy you are unfamiliar with. These losses can be some of the best as they offer the greatest wealth of knowledge. If you know you lost because of a specific ability or ruleset, you know what to be prepared for next time and likely know where you went wrong in retrospect. If you don’t, you can always look on the Splinterlands Wiki, Discord, or wherever you feel has reliable information.
- Card Placement- You lost because of the position your cards were in. Perhaps, a monster couldn’t attack because of position or a vital card died to sneak way too early. If your cards had been just a little different, you would have won. Card Placement is basically a mind game between you and the opponent. Knowing how your opponent is most likely to place their cards can be golden knowledge. Try to consider how they are likely to use Sneak, Snipe, Opportunity, and sometimes Blast.
- Out Leveled- You lost because your opponent simply had better cards. There isn’t much you can do about this, expect rent or buy higher level cards yourself. Sometimes the level advantage can be overcome through skill, but it becomes increasingly difficult as you increase leagues/rating.
- Lack of Options- A bit different then your opponent having better cards. Due to the random nature of rulesets, mana caps, and available Splinters, you need as many options as possible. If you frequently feel like you can’t establish a stable team, you may need to rent some more cards. You would be surprised how many additional options a few extra cards can provide.
- Outplayed- Sometimes you simply get outplayed. You think you have a sound strategy, but in the end you are destroyed. Try to see how they outplay you. Was it all magic damage against your shield tank? Was it outhealing you on poison? Did they predict your summoner? The possibilities are nearly endless, but you typically see why by the end of the match. If you think their strategy was inventive, why not try it yourself?
Conclusion
Normally a combination of these factors come together to result in a loss. As long as you can identify where the match went wrong, you can plan for the future and decrease the likelihood of history repeating itself. Just keep playing matches and trying to understand the game, you'll see improvement in no time.