Splinterlands has been experiencing an uptick in activity as the cryptocurrency bull run, and interest in blockchain gaming and NFT's continues to grow.
Over the past two weeks, and continuing this week, 
The tournament provides an easy opportunity to engage in a lot of matches over two days, which lets you better hone your strategy for future matches.
I'll spend some time with a basic walk-through of Splinterlands, followed by a step-by-step guide to entering in the tournament, and creating your Wax Wallet which is where you will be receiving your NFTs.
What is Splinterlands?
Splinterlands is a blockchain based digital card game built on Hive where you create a team of a Summoner and Monsters. The native token of Splinterlands is Dark Energy Crystals ($DEC). You can trade for DEC on LeoDex, TribalDex Diesel Pools, Uniswap, or Cub Finance.
All of the cards you accumulate from in-game rewards, opening up packs, or purchasing from the marketplace are yours to keep and sell. Plenty of people have been able to gather more and more cards over time and end up with some very valuable collections.
After launching and finding a game, you will take a look at and understand the rules of the match, and then go ahead and field your team. You can pick any of the cards you own within the rules of the match, and send them off to battle your opponents team. You can't manipulate the match as it is going on (yet), so you're job is to consider what your opponent might do and try to be a step ahead.
By default, Summoners and Monsters will take their actions by the order of their individual Speed. Monsters that have an attack (Melee, Range, or Magic) will hit the first monster on the opponents side of the field. Certain abilities and match rule sets can, and often do, change these default behaviors. Here's an example of how the Monsters on each side will attack, depending on their abilities:
Each match has completely different set of rules from the one that you played previously.
For example, in the match above, we have to consider:
- Match Rule: Earthquake: Non-flying Monsters take 2 Melee damage at the end of each round.
- Reverse Speed: Monsters with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks.
- Mana: A total Mana of 17 can be allocated amonst your Summoner and Monsters.
- Available Splinters: The Splinters are the factions of Splinterlands, akin to colors in MTG: Fire, Earth, Death, and Dragon.
Keeping these circumstances in mind, I have to go ahead and put together a team of Monsters that will be able to defeat my opponent. This was the team that I decided on:
Summoner:
- Brighton Bloom: This Summoner gives my entire team flying, which means that Earthquake does nothing to me.
Monsters:
- Unicorn Mustang: A beefy, hard-hitting unit that reduces magic damage taken by 1.
- Manticore: A beefy, hard-hitting unit with reach, which means that he can attack from the second position even though he is melee.
- Brownie: Provides 1 Speed to the entire team. This was a pretty big misplay, because Reverse Speed means that the slowest monsters attack first, and have the highest chance to dodge.
- Furious Chicken: This is a 0-mana cost card that is put in whenever a slot is available. I like to put the chicken in the back, to absorb any hits from monsters with Sneak.
Signing Up
You can sign up for Splinterlands here. Note: I included my referral link which allows us to both receive a free card after you purchase your Summoner Spellbook.
The Summoner Spellbook is most likely the first thing you'll end up buying on Splinterlands. This enables you to complete daily quests, earn Dark Energy Crystals, and ability to purchase Booster Packs. I am not positive if purchasing a Spellbook is necessary for entering the tournament. The cost is fairly low, being around $10 if you go with Credits, or 10,000 DEC. The DEC 'soft peg' is $1 for 1,000 $DEC. Currently, DEC is trading slightly below the peg, and purchasing via Credits will save you some time, and avoid any potential slippage.
Entering the Tournament
At the top of the homepage, click on the Events button (the little castle).
Hit Ctrl/Cmd + F and look for Spring Training.
You can then hit "Enter" on the next screen, and a pop-up will come up mentioning the 3 $DEC fee. This fee will be refunded to you after the tournament has concluded. Simply hit "OK" and now you are a part of the tournament.
I tend to add the tournament to my calendar, as I can be fairly forgetful.
That's it! You are now registered to participate in the upcoming tournament.
The tournament will play it in two rounds, each consisting of a number of battles that'll be determined by how many players participate in the tournament. Once the tournament starts at 8 PM EST on Friday, you will have 24 hours to field all of your teams for the first round of battles. This will take some time, as there will be a few hundred participants. It may be worth familiarizing yourself with the various rulesets before starting the process. Make sure you get all of your matches in as rewards are based mostly on participation, so don't worry if you think your cards won't get you enough wins. After 24 hours, the second round will begin, and you'll have another 24 hours to field your teams a second time. Anyone who fails to field automatically loses their battle (which can work out in your favor).
What do the NFTs look like?
Some of them are based around official Splinterlands cards:
While others provide some utility (like the raffle ticket and points card), or are just fun collectibles to showcase your participation:
Receiving Your NFTs
To receive your NFTs, make sure you join the TeamPossible Discord. There, you can navigate to the '#nft-room-spring-training' channel and follow the instructions on how to receive your NFTs.
You will also need to register an account on wax.io. Once you create your account, you will see your wallet ID on the right hand side.
This will be the wallet ID that you send over to
In Conclusion
Hopefully this was a helpful introduction to Splinterlands if you've been thinking about playing (you should, I'm new to the game and it's a blast). If you end up playing, or already are, you should definitely jump into these tournaments as it's a fun way to get a little collection of NFTs going.
If you have any questions about starting up in Splinterlands, feel free to ask them below. I am pretty below average in the grand scheme of things, but I can try to answer any basic questions you may have as a new player.
Here are some useful Splinterlands links for people starting around:
- https://splintercards.com/
A list of cards and abilities in Splinterlands. - https://monstermarket.io/
A simple to use marketplace that kick-backs 60% of the marketplace fee back to you. - https://discord.gg/5kEm2frR
An invite link to the Splinterlands Discord, which is a great place to ask questions. - https://splinterlands.fandom.com/wiki/Novice/Bronze
The Splinterlands wiki has been receiving a lot of updates recently. I linked directly to the Novice/Bronze strategy page.