A beginner's limiting factors in the Bronze league

When I say that it's a beginner's experience, I'm not just talking about the game Splinterlands. This is actually the first blockchain game I have played. The difference is that, in the other games I have played, I didn't really put in anything so that I could play. I was first hesitant whether I'll try this game, but, from one of my favorite quotes I've read...curiosity was greater than fear.

After playing in the Practice option, I bought the Summoner's spellbook to play in the Ranked game to earn rewards from quests and battles. I've been in the Bronze III league for a month already and just this week I rented out cards to increase my Power rating. I plan to rent out a few more cards this week to advance to the Silver league. The recent update now favors the players with higher Power ratings which is very understandable.

In this post, I would like to share how I prioritize the limiting factors that are imposed for each battle. As a beginner and a player in the Bronze league, there's not much in the options I could choose from, I am limited with the playable cards that I can use.

Mana cost: I find it difficult to win in battles with maximum mana cost (99) since I don't own epic to legendary cards. But when I had a few of those cards, I had better chances in winning.

Enemy's previous teams: Some players are consistent in choosing the same splinter over and over again. This makes it easier to predict what cards I'll have to battle with. I always try to make variations in the splinters I use when I play just to leave no clues for my enemy. I'd have to give credit to this technique for some of the battles I won.

Positions of the monsters: This is very important for me, I had experiences of winning or losing in battles when we have the same set of cards but placed it on different positions. There are a lot to consider in this area, but, I always look if the enemy uses cards with Sneak ability especially when I would relying most of attack to ranged and magic monsters. I usually put the most vulnerable monster on the 3rd row since it's a blindspot unless the enemy's monsters have abilities like Snipe and Opportunity. A very unusual technique I've learned and heard from a friend playing a different tactic game: Sometimes, the tank (1st row) can be of low health too. I usually choose the flying monsters, they have low health but have chances of missing attacks. These monsters can last 'til Round 2 or more.

Here are some battles I'd like to share when I was playing in the Bronze II league, the difference of this level from Bronze III is that I encountered restrictions like specified combat rules and splinters I can use.

This is a slowly but surely splinter type. I usually combat the Death Splinter with Fire or Death too, Water Splinter has a great chance of winning against Death. However, I was limited with the mana cost I can use for this battle (20). We have the same set of cards but we placed our cards in different positions. I placed the card responsible for reducing the life of the enemy's monsters in the middle so it can be protected from the attacks coming for the first and last rows. Since both have decreased melee attack, the Haunted Spirit would be difficult to defeat, it restores health for each round. This would result to a draw if I don't have enough attack damage on my team.

Like the first battle, we both have the same splinters, however, I got Pyre and my enemy got Malric Inferno. I have been so curious for a very long time already, what would win? Greater attack damage or greater speed? I always go for Pyre whenever I have to use the Fire Splinter. When the mana cost is limited (15) I always put the Serpentine Spy on the 2nd row, it will be able to discard a card or two before being attacked.

My first weeks of playing Splinterlands trained me to use the Earth Splinter because of the daily quests. However, when I focused on working on the Water, Death, and Fire Splinters, I had difficulty of using Earth on my battles. I only chose this Splinter because of the combat rule specified for this battle. An earthquake will occur on each round and non-flying monsters will have health reduction by 2. I have to choose a summoner that will give a health buff for the monsters I'll choose and I have to limit it to mostly with flying ability. My enemy chose the Death splinter that reduces my melee attack by 1, my edge was that I take into account the damage from the earthquake that will occur for each round. My enemy lost most of his cards on Round 2. With limited attack damage, I relied again on the earthquake in order to defeat the Haunted Spirit which is tough to beat. Although there are times when I get annoyed with specified combat rules, this also gives excitement and a possible turn around for players like me who are still relying on playable cards.