Yesterday I decided to do something that has caught my attention ever since renting 
Hive account@steemmonsters cards became available. And with some inspiration from 
Hive account@jacekw (he did a similar speedrun), I gave it go.
I opened 
Hive account@peakmonsters and instantly began renting cards (the cards I personally own are around level 5).
I took a similar approach to renting cards as Hive account@jacekw with the exception of a few small modifications. In short, I maxed out all cards for the red AND green team that I deemed to be the best. Fortunately, I was able to rent Plado but Prince Rennyn was unavailable. I then added a few essential cards from the water, dragon (Selenia Sky was available) and neutral splinters (to see similar cards I used check out Hive account@jacekw's post, he has pictures of the cards he rented).
Although some cards are limited and not available to rent, the overall process using Hive account@peakmonsters is UNBELIEVABLY awesome and simple! I had many maxed legendarys and the grand total came out to 35 Steem. As Hive account@jacekw mentioned in his post, I too could have cut down on costs. I rented all my cards for a whole week (because I want to see how high I can climb for the rest of the season), so if you were only renting them for 1 day the costs would be much less.
So off I went- I ventured into the Splinterlands and started around rank 2500.
In a matter of no time I caught fire and went on a crazy winstreak.
Then without noticing, I reached Diamond 1.
This is where the climb got a little more difficult. I sat back and downed a few drinks...
NOTE: I was also busy doing other stuff at the time such as tending to my fruit trees.
Cleaning the hot tub.
And looking at Mene (while probably texting 
Hive account@goldmatters)
But after drinking several more gatorades and eating a few boxes of Cheez-Its, I finally arrived at my destination.
Champion!
I also made about 5,000 DEC in the process which was a nice bonus. I will continue to try and rank up further the next few days until the season ends.
But thank you 
Hive account@aggroed and 
Hive account@yabapmatt for all the hard work you do to make this game a success. It feels like just yesterday I was buying alpha packs like crazy; not even knowing what abilities monsters had or what the game entailed: https://steemit.com/steemmonsters/@goldfashioned/5-reasons-why-i-3-steem-monsters
And again, if anyone is interested in renting cards on Hive account@peakmonsters I highly recommend it! It's super easy and very cost efficient.
See you all on the ranked ladder :)
Earn $5 in Mene credit by signing up for Mene with this invite link: http://mene.com/invite/0WKAXG
