Splinterlands- Level 1 Summoners and Monsters Success!

I play a lot of Splinterlands and was fortunate enough to have @johndoer123 allow me to play one of his accounts. This is a level 1 based account where all monsters and summoners are 0 bcx. Not one of the cards is leveled up but most cards of Splinterlands' sets from beta/promo/reward/untamed is in this deck. At first it may seem silly to play a deck such as this, but as time went I come to realize this type of deck is a niche that many players are adopting.

The main reason for not leveling any of the cards is their resale value will often be higher than cards that are leveled up. There is no way of breaking down higher level cards. Also there are more players who are starting out than veteran players so demand for 0 bcx will likely be greater. On top of all this a player owning a level 1 deck will not have to put in a ton of money to collect as every single card is just one summoner/monster.

Initial Struggles

I was interested in learning what good a level 1 deck could be in earning rewards and and DEC in a season. As many veterans know when a season ends their ratings are reset lower for the next season. The start for me was a struggle due to this reset. For most of the first 7 days of the season I was battling opponents that had summoners and monsters above level 1 in the silver II ranking. This was a blockade for me in reaching big potential in earnings using the deck.

I constantly would only be able to complete daily quests at silver II ranking which comes out to 3 reward cards. The amount of DEC I was earning on a good day was close to 200DEC daily. The amount of battles daily require to meet the quest and DEC thresholds took over 20 games. Some days it felt like not playing was better as I would be on 5-10 losses streak. Barely get quest done with less than 50 DEC earned. However by day 8 apparently things turned for the better.

Success With Level 1 Deck

As I started out the second week of the season most of the higher than level 1 decks had moved up and out of silver ranking. What was left amazingly was mostly level 1 decks! Whether they were robots or other players similar to me I had an opportunity to win as I had most opponents on equal playing field.

The results were amazing to say the lease. In less than two days I got from Silver II to Gold III. Basically a rank up each day. With that higher rank I was also earning more DEC per a win. With it being easier to play and win I got on a decent streak and even got away with a battle where I should have lost due in part my opponent had mostly a level 3 formation. Yet I picked the right level 1 cards and set them in a decent position to steal a win.

The battle link here.

Conclusions

Initially I thought playing a level 1 deck was meaningless when I struggled to win, but as the season progressed any high level players got back to their respective rankings there were a lot of level 1 decks in the silver/gold ratings. I was unaware of how much level 1 decks since I have been playing with a level 3 deck. Down the road I will definitely think of creating a level 1 deck. This is a niche that many players are doing and with decent success. When there are enough players doing this it sort of makes sense that this type of deck works. If there were too many higher level summoners/monsters in rank silver and below it will definitely be a challenge to be profitable with level 1 deck. However there are just so many level 1 decks playing that there is easily found once the season continues into week 2.