I have started playing some anytime tournaments, and they've been very fun! I enjoy these much more than the regular single-elimination tournaments where you have to play at a certain hour. It never feels good to schedule a time to play, maybe even rent some cards, and be out of it in the first couple of rounds. For me, these have been much more satisfying to play.

This was my first time playing with Diamond level cards. I had to rent several cards and ended up spending over 500 DEC for all these cards. Since I already own a level 6 Kelya and several gold level Water cards, I decided to rent other splinters. I also went with Quix because that would allow me to play cards from any splinter, as long as Dragon was available. I rented the cards below the red line before playing the first day and the rest I rented for the second day.

Here's the prize pool:

In these tournaments, each person plays a number of game, usually 11, in a 24 hours period. The top X% (can be 20%, 30%, or 40%) advances to the next phase, which works exactly the same in the next 24 hours period. That means you only need enough time to submit all teams, twice, in two days!

I am excited to try playing with Diamond level cards! Let's see how it goes.

Crypt Beatle was a beast here! I quickly killed Hill Giant and that meant the only monster dealing damage was Goblin Psychic, doing 1 per turn.

We both stuck poison on the first attack and we both had heals. Thorns was countering the armor, making it a pretty even game. However, I had much higher health and more damage. Their only hope was me missing a lot but it didn't happen.

Diemonshark was just too good in here. I might have won if I had a lot of luck with stuns (not sure how it works with Retaliate), otherwise, I have no chance.

Free wins still count!

Super close game! The retaliate was the key to victory here.

Similar teams, but I had a little more firepower so I ended up building an advantage that led to the win.

I don't think I could even have beaten Baakjira alone. Nothing I had could win this game.

Another free win!

A perfect win where I didn't even take a single attack! Not only was there a level difference but they're also using 3 or 4 mana cards in a 99 mana battle while I have some cards over 10 mana.

Third free win! I'll take it!

I quickly killed some of their middle monsters, while they were attacking Legionnaire Alvar, because that was my lowest health monster. I didn't get any misses on Uriel but, at that point, it didn't really matter.

A 9-2 was a fantastic day 1 for the first Diamond level tournaments. I had 3 free wins, which is a big help but that's still 6-2 in played matches. Let's see how day 2 goes! I rented a few more cards because I expected stronger opponents on day 2. Just some Fire cards as you can see in the first image of this post.

Antoid Platoon was the MVP of this match. Very similar to my Crypt Beatle in terms of stats and abilities but having Scavenger in the Earthquake rule set, makes it very powerful. I probably should have gone with Fire and used it as well but it showed my inexperience with Diamond level cards.

Big difference in levels and I had 2 monsters attacking each turn against just 1.

Forgotten one quickly dealt with their tank, thanks to Retaliate, Arbalest didn't get a chance to attack. Their only chance was Blind making me miss a bunch of times.

I feel this game could have gone in my favor if I didn't get several misses and they didn't hit Stun every time.

I'm not used to seeing Grund with Trample and it's terrifying! The game looked good for me on the first turn but, Grund's survival with 1 HP was the key to this game.

A very close game that I won thanks to the Close Range rule set and Blind not affecting me.

I didn't miss any attacks on their flying monster and they didn't miss any from Blind, so the game ended in a draw.

I was able to get Retaliate and hit my attacks on Diemonshark, so the game was looking good. Their Diemonshark even missed the Retaliate. However, when Forgotten One didn't hit Diemonshark, that sealed the game. On turn 2, they started going crazy with Blast plus trample and that was it.

Grum is great against magic and in reverse speed, but having to attack each monster twice and getting poised early, was too much for him to handle.

This was a terrible game for me. My 3 back monsters were dead before they could do anything. I also played Zyvax Vuul by mistake as it is not a great card and is only level 1. I still don't think there was anything I could have done to win.

The teams were very similar, despite the different splinters. The big difference was the health and speed advantage of their magic monsters.

3-7-1 on the second day for a 12-9-1 total. It was a fun experience and the 24 SPS prize (20 SPS profit) was well worth the rental costs. However, given the prize structure, where 65-128 gets you 16 more SPS than the lowest prize, with the rest being just small increments, I don't think I should have rented more cards for day 2. In some tournaments with difference prize structures it might be a good strategy but not for this one. This is one of the best things about Splinterlands. Not only do I learn something new about the game but I also learn about the managment part of it! Congratulations to Bravetofu, the champion, and to everyone else who played!