Quick Wins: Quickdraw Chev's Guide to Budget/Free Deck Build to Rekt before Rating 500 (Cost 17 or less)

Heya!

I'm Quickdraw Chev

Nice to meet ya!

So, you're new to Splinterlands, eh?
You wanna rekt newbs and get a good grasp of the game before you hit 500 rating? Don't wanna buy stronk cards this early? Well, you're in for a treat! Let me introduce you to my friends. And they're all free. wink wink

When I titled this "Quick Win", I mean it. The deck builds imma teach you right now are 17 cost or less, winning you games even as early as turn 3. But first, before our friends here, we gotta call their boss that enables this strat to work.

Pyre is arguably the best free summoner in the game. The increased speed allows you to end games even before the Eek bros hit you.

I call Malric and Alric Eek bros because, you know, nvm. Anyway.
It doesn't matter how much damage they have if they're dead before they can even hit, right?

Lemme show you how it works.
First off, COST 15.

As you can see. Pyre (3), Cerberus (4), Fire Elem (5) and GobSham (3) sums up to exactly 15 cost. The main function of this combo is to destroy your opponent's hitter behind their melee wall before their Snipers/Opportunists can even hit you.

With 2 ranged damage, FireElem can deal a significant amount to the wall and instantly kill the 1 hp splinter hiding behind it with blast damage. Plus, having 4 speed is already super fast but you know what's better? Getting that additional 1 speed from our boss, Pyre. 5 speed is no joke. FireElem can easily outspeed other speedsters, they won't even know what hit them.

But Chev! but chev! What about 2 HP backliners like

Waaaaaah! FireElem's blast can't take em out even if she hits first! She won't even last a turn!

Worry not! FireElem's nanny is here!

GobSham is that nanny in the park you hate so much because they let their kid do stupid annoying stuff without telling them off. In this case, FireElem is the bratty kid flinging fire blasts in the park and GobSham uses her ability so the kid can annoy everyone more you wonder why its not allowed it kill kids... in Skyrim.

Ahem back to the topic.
So, Weaken. Since you won't see high HP cards in low cost fights, a -1 HP debuff is super significant especially for speedsters who can easily take out a unit even before they get a chance to attack. Coupled with FireElem's blast, she can even take out 2 enemies at once! This strat enables a second/third round KO with Cerberus hitting the front line at first turn while Fire Elem kills both 2nd and 3rd units during turn 1 and 2. Sweet!

Speaking of our gudboi Cerberus

and his gudboi ability.

From personal experience, I think Heal is the best low cost ability. Healing yourself 2 HP per round with decent speed 3 SPD and health 5 HP at a super low 4 cost is awesome. Being a goodboi as he is, Cerberus will stall the melee frontliner of your newb opponent allowing his master, FireElem wreck havoc from behind. There are other better uses for Cerberus in higher cost games but melee tank is the best for him in 12-17 cost matches.

I'll cover his other uses in a future guide.

Now, it is important to keep in mind that the positioning should be exactly like this.

Cerberus is upfront for obvious reasons and GobSham must be the last sandwiching FireElem in the middle.

But, but, shouldn't she be at the back? She's ranged!

I'm glad you asked, padawan! Come closer, I'll tell you.

You see, there's this nasty ability called sneak

and it can kill squishy FireElem's 2 HP at turn 2! (Sometimes, even turn one!)

Luckily, GobSham's butt is big enough to cover FireElem's rear! 4 HP should be more than enough to cover 1-2 Damage Sneakers while FireElem's blasts take 'em out.

Sweet, huh?

That pretty much sums up the strat for 15 Cost BlastPyre build but we're far from over. Since you stuck around this long, lemme share variations of this strat at Cost 12 and Cost 17.

This is my alternate build for 12-13 Cost fights.
I tried using Cerberus/FireElem before but it doesn't work as consistently without her nanny. FireElem is too squishy that she dies at turn two even if she kills 1 enemy on turn 1.

This way, Kobold and Spy provides two sources of damage even if one of them goes down at turn one. And with Pyre's speedbuff, we can rely on both of them hitting or even killing the opponent's backline hitters before they can even react.

Again, POSITIONING IS IMPORTANT. Against sneakers its imperative that Miner stays at the back to possibly tank 1 damage with its 2 HP instead of Spy dying in 1 hit.

Here's another build.

COST 17

Whew, that took a bit! Do you feel different? Like, you suck less? lol I hope so!

Lets see each other in the matches! Tho, please let me have the win. Thanks in advance!

-Quickdraw Chev
PS: If you like this, please leave a like or comment if you want me to run other strats! Thanks! <3