Collecting a diverse deck can be an expensive proposition. Renting cards is an option on a budget, but can you still stay on the positive side of earnings?
Inspiration
I was inspired reading the latest post from 
If you are like me and prefer to slowly add to your collection but still play at a higher level, the rental market is your answer. In fact I would highly suggest renting out cards and getting a feel for how they fit into your preferred method of play before making any purchases regardless of your budget. There has been more than one time that I have been excited by a card and after renting realized it wasn't my style.
After reading Luke's article, and considering my preferred deck building style, I was inspired to research what it actually takes per day to rent a balanced deck capable of being competitive in the Silver League and if that cost can be overcome with daily chests, end of season rewards and battle winnings.
Research Notes
1️⃣ I won't list out every card I used to research this post to keep the post more tidy, but if you are interested in the data here is the Google sheet detailing each card, the DEC rental fee per day and the cards CP value. These cards will not run you to the top of the Silver leader board, but a set of similar cards has helped me finish the past three seasons with a rating above 2000.
2️⃣ If you are thinking of playing in the Silver league you likely have at least a few cards in your collection. For my comparisons I went with the assumption of a player that doesn't own any cards. If you already have some cards, or as you start to add to your own deck, the costs will obviously come down.
3️⃣ Statistics don't always work in your favor with a small data set so I also used some of my actual gameplay data to see what a small set of real world data shows. When using my own experience I'm using my last three seasons totals. This past season was particularly good, the prior season was average and two seasons ago was terrible, so I feel I have a good average to work with.
4️⃣ I took rental prices two days before this most recent season ended. Prices skyrocketed for the last day of the season, but were considerably cheaper for the previous 12 days so again, I think I have a good average to work with.
Data
⭐ The short version, 100 DEC a day allows you to rent the following for each splinter: The Chaos Legion summoner at level two, the most effective commons at level three, a few rare cards at level two and a Legendary or two. This includes the Fiend for each splinter, as well as the most effective Neutral monsters at a level that can be played by each summoner. I've included Quix the Devious, Brighton Bloom, Zintar Mortalis and Mylor Crowling at level one as well. The total CP is over 18,000, more than enough to advance to Silver III.
🌟 An extra 100 DEC a day could take you above 70,000CP and into Silver I.
Splintercards has broken down each level of daily and end of season chest values. Here is the relevant data at the Silver level
Daily chests
The below data is the liquid average of the chest as the potions won't help if you have to sell some of your winnings to stay afloat.
Silver III daily is chest worth an average 33 DEC
Silver II 36.3 DEC --> 42.9 more than silver III due to an extra chest
Silver I 39.7 DEC --> 49.9 DEC more than Silver II due to an extra chest
EOS chests
Silver III: 441 DEC
Silver II: 601 DEC
Silver I: 781 DEC
📅 The past three seasons spanned 42 days.
Statistically Worst Case Scenario
Worst case scenario I'm going to assume four days to grind to Silver III and a 16 day season. The four days in Bronze average expected liquid earnings is 42 DEC. The remaining 12 days, if advancing only to Silver III would net an expected 792 DEC. EOS rewards would bring the total to 1275 DEC.
💡 What cannot be forgotten however is the earnings from battles. This is where real world data needs to come into play. There is no equivalent to chest data for battle winnings at each level, and for good reason. So many factors go into battle winnings; size of the DEC pool that day as well as win streak, guild and gold card bonuses.
I looked at my worst days over the past seasons and came up with a worst case scenario of 30 DEC a day from battles. This includes the four days of slogging through Bronze. This adds another 480 DEC to the total for a grand total of 1755 DEC.
Worst Case Scenario With Real World Data
So how does the statistical data match up with what I have experienced in actual gameplay?
| My earnings converted to DEC | |||
| My earnings in $ | |||
| Per day DEC average |
Oddly enough the 12 day season wasn't my worst in the case of market value of cards won. Days like the right hand side happen and can bring any average down 🤦♂ For a worst case scenario I took the lowest value of cards and the lowest value of DEC I gained over an entire season and came up with $5.22 or 1741 DEC.
Results
Even at a worst case scenario averaging over 100 DEC a day should be expected. Statistical averages and real world data both suggest to expect at least 1700 DEC of winnings from a season in the Silver league. That means for a player starting from scratch it is entirely possible, and statistically likely, to rent cards to advance to the Silver leagues and still make a profit. It may be small earnings, but it will compound quickly.
Now I wouldn't encourage anyone just starting to play to use this technique as there is a lot of strategy that should be learned before diving in head first. However, if you have a decent grasp of the abilities and gameplay there is no reason to not expect similar, and likely better, results.
Further Thoughts
I looked at this experiment from the beginning as a worst case scenario. I intentionally added cards into the fold that diversified each splinter. In reality you would be well served renting 2-3 of the splinters in a similar configuration and cutting the rental fees in half.
This wasn't a total oversight on my part in designing the experiment, I was actually quite curious how a more diversified deck would cost out on the rental market. Win rates should theoretically increase with a more diversified deck and could potentially lead to more battle winnings. It would also offer you the ability to play with more cards and get a feel for the cards you want to purchase when that time comes.
Renting isn't always fun. It takes some work to renew rentals, find new ones when they are cancelled and you are always at the mercy of the owner come the end of the season. However, it has worked for me and allowed me to play at a higher level, while still slowly building up my own collection.
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Thanks for reading!