Good Morning Splinterlands Fam! If you're looking to move from Silver to gold and thinking about what splinters you want to work up first, I recommend Death/Dragon for the speed meta!

SPEED KILLS!

So my favorite combo in at gold level is the Dragon/Death speed meta. I believe speed is under valued by most players so we're going to break down the benefits that speed provides!

Generally speaking, Swiftness or +speed is better than Slow or -speed because speed can always go up but if a monster already has 1 speed it provides no benefit.
A dodge completely avoids damage so every miss is like adding that health to your monster!
You get your damage out faster which can result in their monsters dieing before they get to attack.
You improve your chance to hit!

Right now the death/dragon splinters are pretty cheap to level up.

quix stats.PNG

I know most people look at Quix and think he is too expensive... But math is your friend! When moving from silver to Gold you only need 3 more quix! Right now they are only $28 each which means it'll cost you $84 to move up to gold. And remember, Dragon can use any other splinters cards!

Thad stats.PNG

On the other hand, Thaddius is sitting at $2.67 right now and when moving from Silver to Gold you need 35 BCX to move up. That comes to $93.45! Significantly higher than Quix and for the speed meta Quix is preferred!

Once you get your summoners, you'll need some key monsters. I'll break down each one that I use and why or in what situations.

These are my top 3 that I used every chance I get.

NIGHTMARE

This is the crux of the team. At Lvl 8 he has Phase and Blast abilities with a base speed of 6 and a large health pool. Most magic teams are on the slower side and between the swiftness bonuses and quix debuff, you'll see a lot of magic misses and melee have the same problem! The 3 melee damage with Blast is also a key breakpoint that allows 2 blast damage meaning he will rarely miss and more often than not he will deal 5 damage per round! This card also is nearly unstoppable with the enrage ruleset. You'll be topping 12+ speed with 5 dmg and 3 blast dmg! Here are a few example battles that are worth seeing!

LIRA THE DARK

Lira is SUPER CHEAP right now! It's almost unbelievable and I've been stocking up! At gold(lvl 3) this card is a BEAST! 3 opportunity damage with snare and swiftness puts the base speed at 7! This card almost never misses and only when they opponent is using an enrage speed meta or dodge/blind. At it's current price, this is a no brainer!

SUPPLY RUNNER

Lvl 8 has swiftness which gives it a base speed of 6. You'll be able to pull a couple of dodges if they have sneak/snipers and still put down 3 dmg per round. But mainly he is just there to buff the team while dishing out decent damage!

Check out these ninja dodge skills!

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_6fa4d25c45d9039045d0b77a2962e143&ref=warshire

Dominating a full magic team!

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_a6e26379e4f97bfed29d2314ac832830&ref=warshire

Other key support cards for special situations:

Riftwing

I highly recommend this card even on a budget deck. You can roll Thaddius to help suppress magic then the Riftwing will suppress ranged with headwinds. Combined with the speed meta for dodges helps your nightmare last even longer!

Naga Assassin

With backfire and high speed for only 2 mana this thing is great for low mana or little league matches. It will put out 2 dmg per round and when they dodge you'll get another 2. I tend to put this in the back to dish out a few hits to their sneak monsters while still focusing down their main tank. I've even used this as an off tank with success against a slow fire deck.

Vampire

This is a beta card but this thing is great with the equal opportunity ruleset. Put it in the back with at least 1 card behind it and by the time it gets to the front it will have a ton of HP thanks to the life leach giving +2 per round. Flying and high speed also helps dodge attacks if he falls into the tank position.

Twilight Basilisk

This is the easiest/cheapest route to stun for the knockout ruleset. In silver it's hard to take advantage of the knockout ruleset but in gold you get this guy cheap and it is a game changer!

Djinn Chwala

This is a great tank for melee only matches or rear guard with thorns for sneak ruleset. Enrage means he will hit like a truck!

Soul Strangler

This is one of the highest DMG to cost ratios in the game. Low health means it's ideal for equalizer ruleset but in battles with no sneak or snipe you can usually get away with putting it in the back and hoping they don't run any opportunity monsters.

Magi Necrosi

This is great for matches with a medium amount of mana where they are more likely to have low hp monsters in their back row for you to pick off.

Harklaw

Hard counter to melee. Demoralize + Shield + Immunity... 'nuff said!

There are a few other cards for niche battles but these should cover about 90% of your battles. I hope you found this informative and useful! Please upvote and follow for more silver/gold content!

Why you should build Death and Dragon as your first Gold level decks!