Hi there! yes you, the one reading this. Have you ever felt like wanting to reach the top and wondered how it feels like being one of the elites? Well, that's what exactly led me to this story. My journey to the realm of diamond and champion league.
How is it going, folks? 
THE BEGINNING OF A JOURNEY
I started playing in late August of this year around 6 days before the season ends at that time. The game reminded me of Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! & Magic: The Gathering TCG and so I immediately fell in love with the game. My first season was a total mess, I literally don't know what the cards are for, all I know is that when I see a card with high armor and hearts it's the frontline regardless of being melee, ranged, or magic. Well, you get the idea how messed up that was. I ended up at Bronze II at that time spamming Water Deck coz' why not!? magic is awesome and got 2100+ DEC from the season rewards chest.
Back then I was eager to learn and improve and see how far I could go. I watched a lot of youtube videos, read articles, and dedicated some time to understand the different skills and what works best for a specific ruleset. After that, I used the 2100 DEC plus the DEC I earned from battles and daily quest to rent cards, that's when I met good people who taught me how to rent efficiently (props to Mister_RKO, Dolmer & fifi). Check out our awesome DISCORD HERE.
RENTING STRATEGIES
You can always rent cards for the whole season if you want. That is if you have a lot of DEC to spend. Having to do so will cost you a fortune if you'll be renting maxed level cards for the whole season. Furthermore, there's a big chance that you'll earn less than what you spent.
What we highly suggest though is to rent maxed level cards for 1 day and grind till you exhaust your Capture Rate down to 30%. Make sure though that you have 2 daily quest stacked so you can maximize your daily chest. You might ask, "What 2 Daily Quest in 1 day, how is that possible, are we gonna cheat the system or what?". Of course not, there's actually a trick that will enable you to do 2 daily quest in 1 day. Follow the steps below;
- Let's say you finished your daily quest today (DAY 1) at 6 pm make sure to login tomorrow (DAY 2) at around 6 pm to activate your quest for the day. You'll know if it's activated once you see a quest available (Sneak, snipe, water, neutral etc.) just like the image below.
UPON ACTIVATING YOUR QUEST FOR THE DAY SKIP IT AND SAVE IT FOR THE NEXT DAY. ALSO DON'T CLICK NEW QUEST, DOING SO WILL KILL THE STACK.
- The next day (DAY 3) you can do your daily quest as per usual, after finishing the quest you saved from (DAY 2) you'll received another quest.
Now that you learned the secret well not much of secret actually, it's just stacking 2 daily quest within 1 day. You must do this stacking method within the timeframe of your 1 day rental and climb the league as high as you can before opening daily chest in order for you to maximize the number of chest you can open.
Once you're done with your 2 daily quest, then you can go ahead and exhaust your Capture Rate. If you manage to reach diamond league chances are you'll get around 9 - 13 DEC per win depending on Alpha/Promo and gold foil cards you used during battle as well as your win streak and if you are part of a guild. After all of these or when you're rental expires you can rest for 2 days to replenish your Capture Rate (roughly 25 % per day) assuming you stop at 30 % Capture Rate, on the 3rd Day you'll be at around 80%. All you have to do is repeat the process if you earn enough DEC to rent cards.
CARDS RENTED
I know this might be the only part you're most interested about. So wait no longer. I'll list down the cards I rented on both accounts they're actually pretty much the same with the exception of Death deck which I only rented on my 2nd account. Do note that all the cards I rented are in maxed level. I intended not putting the rental price per card because the price fluctuates from time to time. I guarantee you that the price during the time I rented them will not be the same when you rent them yourself. But to give you an idea I spent roughly around 3500 DEC for both accounts.
Note: I suggest you use peakmonsters.com when doing your rentals. The website's interface is easy to use allowing you to view multiple cards at the same time and filter your search to narrow down the cards you might be looking for.
FIRE
I use this deck if I'm anticipating a speedster opponents. If I'm gonna be against Valnamor, Prince Rennyn & Byzantine Kitty. The combination of Flame Monkey + Flame Imp + Goblin Shaman can often times match the speed buffs provided by those 3 summoners I mentioned
Summoner: Talia Firestorm
- Giant Roc
- Exploading Dwarf
- Serpentine Soldier
- Bettle Queen
- Fire Elemental
- Magma troll
- Serpentine Spy
- Kobold Miner
- Flame Imp
- Flame Monkey
- Fineas Rage
- Ferexia General
- Pit Ogre
- Goblin Shaman
LIFE
I use life deck in general matchups.
Summoner: Lorna Shines
- Silvershield Warriror
- Silvershield Paladin
- Divine Healer
- Herbalist
- Peace Bringer
- Cave Slug
- Silvershield Assassin
- Silvershield Sheriff
- Crystal Jaguar
- Shieldbearer
- Clay Golem
- Crystal Werewolf
- Angel of Light
- Lone Boatman
DEATH
Death is good for poison & earthquacke ruleset. If you expect a heavy-healing team, you can throw in this lineup. It's also decent against magic due to the void buff provided by Mimosa.
Summoner: Mimosa Nightshade
- Lord of Darkness
- Corrupted Pegasus
- Twisted jester
- Skeleton Assassin
- Shadowy presence
- Maggots
- Soulstorm
- Undead Priest
- Octopider
- Undead Badger
- Boogeyman
DRAGON
I rented a few dragon cards for versatility. If it's a high mana battle you can do Daria + Fire or Daria + Life to get that extra 1 melee damage. You may also use Daria + Death if it's low mana battle and death is the only deck you can use.
Summoner: Daria Dragonscale
- Fiendish Harpy
- Manticore
- Serpentine Mystic
NEUTRALS
I like having a couple of neutrals for versatility if ever a certain deck is not available and I need a specific skill to counter the opposing deck.
- Chicken ---> This 0 mana cost card is very useful if you have an extra slot that you need to fill in but doesn't have mana left. It can also serve as a tank in an equalizer ruleset
- Creeping Ooze ---> A low mana cost utility card that provides slow
- War Chaang ---> An absolute beast in Supersneak, Melee Mayhem & Blast ruleset
- Enchanted Pixie ---> A low mana utiliy card that buffs melee attack by 1.
- Gelatinous Cube ---> This card is a must have in every Poison & Earthquacke rulest due to it's Scavanger skill
- Parasitic Growth ---> A backup damage dealing neutral card
- Lord Arianthus ---> A very usel tank that can soak up a lot of damage due to its defensive skills.
CONCLUSION
Renting cards is one of the best features in Splinterlands. It allows players to use cards which they don't have via renting in order to strengthen their deck. Almost all player do it, even those with deck value of more than a hundred thousand USD so why not do it too. It's design in a way wherein players with little to spend are still able to play at a competitive standpoint while allowing those who truly invested in the game to earn some profits from their assets.
Now, if so happen that you reach the higher league. "Make sure that you can hold the power rating requirement of the league you are currently in until the end of the season to get those season rewards chest." What I achieved by doing this gave me self gratification. Unfortunately though, I wasn't able to hold the power requirement for diamond and champion league because all my rental terms got cancelled 2 days prior to end of the season by the card owners. By the time I got refunded for the reminder of the contract in DEC, the price for renting power increased almost 9x compared to when I rented them initially and sniping those cards is a struggle during that time of the season. So I ended up having diamond and champion rating but got bronze season rewards.
Give this a try if you have a lot of DEC to spare and if you don't care how many rewards chest you'll get after the season. I can't guarantee that doing this will be rewarding in terms of loots gain, it's still depends on RNG. IMO, especially after the changes on season rewards, it's better to stay at the lower leagues where maintaining power rating is manageable and won't cost you much. As the saying goes saving money is also making money. Managing your hard earn DEC and cards properly will yield you some profits in the long run because card values appreciate.
There you have it guys, my journey to the top leagues. It may not be a story with a happy ending but I can say it was fun along the way. I can say that I'll be staying around for a while in this game.
By the way, this is my 1st article here and will definitely be not the last. I know this article still has a lot to improve but I hope you like it. If you find this post helpful or you have some thoughts you wanna share please do comment down below or just simply comment "Up" just to let me know that people read this. Upvotes will also be very much appreciated. Thanks and I'll see you on the next post.
If you're a new player and decided to register in the game, you can use any of my referral links below to get started.
https://splinterlands.com?ref=kaylerfaye
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If you have questions, suggestion or simply want to talk about splinterlands you can DM me on my discord CalmOcean#0031