Summoner prices have been very high in recent months, and since it's almost impossible to avoid using leveled summoners to advance to higher leagues, this has been the biggest hurdle for many players. However, in a few days, the Chaos Legion release is finally coming and we already know of some summoners that will probably be available at a much lower price as long as the packs are opened in large quantities in a short amount of time.
The more proficient players will already be giving plenty of thought to the future meta and planning their favorite cards from Chaos Legion Edition into their decks. But beginners, for whom Chaos Legion can be the entry point into Splinterlands, may not be experienced enough to understand the relationship between leagues, summoner level, and monster level and adjust their purchases accordingly.
This is because these three factors are directly related. Each league sets a maximum level for summoners of different rarities. These, in turn, determine how high the levels of the monsters he can summon can be.
In what follows, I'd like to go through each league with you and look at what level limits are in place and how they can affect purchasing decisions. I'll highlight things I've noticed in particular, and explain the rough approach to what things you should look for when buying summoners and monsters.
The Novice League will be irrelevant for most, if not all players after the first day. For the sake of completeness, it is mentioned that only Level 1 summoners can be used here. So rare summoners are superior to common summoners, epic is superior to rare, and legendary is superior to epic, as they are each able to summon higher-level monsters. If you need to get out of Novice as quickly as possible at the start of the season (for whatever reason), a legendary summoner would be your best choice 😁
Starting with the Bronze League, the whole thing becomes more relevant. Because here there are now gradations to ensure that only monsters with similar levels are summoned. In the following, we will go into the individual rarities of the summoners and compare the maximum levels of the monsters that can be summoned. What is not taken into account is that legendary summoners often have better abilities. This is something everyone has to decide for themselves and compare them with their deck and the actual market prices when legendary summoners are available after the Chaos Legion Air Drops.
Both legendary, rare, and common summoners are able to summon Level 3 common monsters, Level 2 rare monsters, Level 2 epic monsters, and Level 1 legendary monsters in the Bronze League, as long as you utilize the maximum level allowed in the league. Only epic summoners seem to have an advantage in that they can use level 3 rare monsters.
This can be quite relevant, as some rare monsters gain an additional ability already at level 3. For example, if you look at Temple Priest, it gets "Dispel" at level 3. Cyclops gets "Shield" at level 3, or Kelp Initiate, that gets "Cleanse" at level 3. Of course, this can give you an advantage and should be taken into account. On the other hand, it's often not too essential a difference, as long as none of your main cards are affected. Rarely, rare monsters get a new ability at level 2 so that they can be used by all summoners, such as Dark Ferryman getting "Cripple" at level 2.
As far as I could sift through, no common card gets a new ability below level 4, so if you expect to play in the Bronze League, don't plan on adding abilities to your monsters, because you won't be able to use them in the Bronze League.
Epic monsters also rarely (if ever) get a new ability before level 3, so again, don't expect a big upgrade in the Bronze League.
Note: It's always important to be realistic about which league you'll be playing in and then look at the cards up to the usable level. On the other hand, you should always leave some room for advancement when buying, in order to be able to move up to the next league or even the one after that, because it can take quite a while until the next pack is released and cards will probably just go up in price after the supply goes down. Of course, it also quickly becomes a question of money, because the price of the cards increases exponentially with each additional level.
Let's take a look at the Silver League. Here, there is no longer any difference between the levels of the summonable monsters. Even the epic summoners now line up so that common level 5 monsters, rare level 4 monsters, epic level 3 monsters, and legendary level 2 monsters can be summoned equally by all summoners (at the league's maximum level).
For common monsters, it should be noted that very many monsters do not gain a new ability (often their strongest) until level 6, so it is not yet usable in the Silver League. An exception is for example the Phantasm, which already gets "Return Fire" at level 5 and thus becomes quite a bit better. So it could be a relatively good pick in the Silver League.
The situation is similar to the epic monsters. These usually don't get their next ability until level 4.
Rare monsters are a little different. Here, the majority of monsters get their new ability at level 4 or level 5, so the new abilities of level 4 monsters are usable in the Silver League, while those of level 5 monsters are not. So you may be able to use some monsters better in this league because they have already acquired another ability, while others will only become stronger in the Gold League. For example, the Venari Bonesmith gets the "Poison" ability at level 4, while the Venari Seedsmith gets "Poison" at level 5.
Legendary monsters can be particularly relevant in the Silver League, as many gain a second ability at level 2, resulting in a significant boost.
For example, Djinn Oshannus is already very good and popular at level 1. At level 2, however, his strength to counter magic teams improves drastically with the ability "Phase". Or Djinn Biljka who doesn't fall victim to "Magic Reflect" so easily anymore with his "Void" ability, so his secured position with "Camouflage" is even stronger.
Note: The mindset this article is meant to teach is that you always compare the monsters in combination with the maximum summoner level of the league, otherwise you won't be able to use them as planned. Also, some monsters may be more usable in certain leagues because they have certain abilities already unlocked. For example, if you plan to play Pelacor Mercenary with his ability "Heal", you must also plan to play in the Gold League. In the Silver League, the ability is not usable because there is no summoner that can summon common cards of level 6, and Pelacor Mercenary only gets this strong ability at level 6.
In the Gold League, a small difference can be seen again. The epic summoners again have the advantage that they can summon rare monsters of a higher level. All summoners can summon level 8 common monsters, level 5 epic monsters, and level 3 legendary monsters. Level 6 rare monsters can be summoned by common, epic, and legendary summoners, while epic summoners can also summon level 7 rare monsters.
However, skimming through the rare monsters, I noticed very few that gain a new ability at level 7. Here, another new ability is very often only available at the max level. However, an example would be Kelp Initiate again, which gets "Triage" at level 7. All in all, it doesn't hurt to check this out when planning a deck, because it might make a big difference to your new favorite card.
Most common monsters also don't get a new ability until max level. However, there are some that get another ability at level 8 or 9 (more often than rare monsters). Here, monsters with new abilities at level 8 are relevant for the Gold League. You can count Tortisian Fighter with "Repair" or Harvester with "Enrage" among them. Again, certain cards with that level 8 upgrade can slide into the Gold League meta more easily than others that don't gain their new abilities until level 9 or 10.
With epic monsters, you can't say any more than with the other rarity levels already mentioned. Most of the time, a new ability doesn't come until max level. However, a few cards get a new ability as early as level 5, such as Lobstradamus with "Thorns".
Legendary monsters differ in that many of their kind get an additional ability with each level up. This is certainly a big part of their strength, along with their usually improved stats. For example, Phantom of Abyss gets "Demoralize" at level 3 and Dark Ha'on gets "Void". This happens at level 3 without exception as far as I could tell. On level 4, which cannot be played in the Gold League, some legendary monsters do not get a new ability.
The Diamond and Champion League are not to be considered. Here, all summoners with their maximum level can be used. Accordingly, monsters of any level can also be used.
Just remember: It's a hard and probably very expensive way to reach the higher leagues, so it might not be profitable for you to buy level 10 monsters directly. As I said, the price increases exponentially with each level, so you might be better off getting, say, 2.5 level 8 common monsters for the Gold League instead of one level 10 common monster for the Diamond League. On the other hand, if you like a card more than average and plan to invest a large amount of money and actively play the game for quite a while, it may be worth investing in a level 10 card, because the price will probably increase in the meantime, making it harder for you to get the level 8 cards to level 10.
I hope this article (which has become way too long) could help one or the other beginner who is facing some important decisions with the release of Chaos Legion. As always blah blah I'm not a Splinterlands and or finance expert xD
Just some some bonus tags :p
