Is Renting For Diamond Profitable?

Last week I explored the possibility of renting cards in order to turn a profit in bronze league. This week it's time to ramp things up a couple of notches and explore that same possibility in Diamond league.

Is renting to play in diamond league on a brand new account (an account that hasn't earned reward cards yet) profitable? If so, how much of a balance do you need to get started, and how much can you earn?!

The Rental Deck

I wasn't exactly sure where to start and which cards would be essential for the rank I would be playing at, so I kept it simple. I rented all Chaos core set and first edition reward cards (not the soulbound ones). I also rented Arkemis the bear, a promo card that was extremely cheap, and a level 1 Moxian rebel for the weapons training. The Chaos set is the cheapest in the game, so it's simply a lot more cost efficient to use these cards compared to Rebellion cards or other promo cards

I also picked up 90k SPS from the Xbot rental market. This was cheaper than renting in game. I did have 10k in SPS rentals still active from my gold league rental deck, for a total of 100k staked SPS.

2 Day Card rentals: 772 DEC
7 Day SPS rental: 810 DEC

The Results

Let's cut right to the chase. How did this deck perform?

It performed spectacular. In 48 hours I climbed from mid Gold 1 to mid Diamond II and was still trending up. A Chaos only deck is absolutely capable of competing holding its own. In fact, that's what most of the decks are here. I ran across very few Rebellion cards here.

I earned a total of 286 SPS. Using the Xbot liquidity tool I instantly converted this staked SPS into 2,466 DEC for a total 48 hour profit of 884 DEC. Keep in mind that while my cards need renewed now, I still have the SPS for 5 more days!

64 cents in value over 2 days isn't much if you are trying to make a living, but it's certainly nice when it's the end result of time spent playing an enjoyable game! This did not include any soulbound account value gained.

Scattered Thoughts

I'm not sure how best to organize some of my thoughts, so let's keep in simple with a bunch of straightforward points:

• I started with 37 energy in the bank and finished with 17 energy in the bank. This can be looked at in 2 different ways. 1) Had I waited until my energy was full before renting the cards and then drained my energy to zero, I could have gotten 30 additional battles in. That's probably 75-100 more SPS I could have earned. Or 2) I spent 20 more energy than I generated over the 48 hour card rental period. If I were to rent consistently every day instead of staggering my card rentals I wouldn't earn quite as much.

• My biggest disadvantage was my lack of reward cards. There are some really key cards that I simply don't have and aren't really available on the rental market. An existing account that has spent the last few years earning soulbound cards would be able to perform significantly better.

• I feel like I could optimize my deck for increased efficiency. There are several cards I didn't use at all that could probably be dropped. There are several cards, particularly high usage reward cards, that would be worth renting in gold foil for the added bonus. There are also likely some key Rebellion cards that would likely be worth the price. I will have to play with these more next week.

• I am on a new account (I didn't want access to those reward cards mentioned above), but I am not a new player (see disclaimer below). I am not claiming a new player could do this in Week 1 like I am. While I'm a very good player, this is also a new rank for me, and the game doesn't play exactly the same. I believe my skill level being utilized here is obtainable by anyone who spends time playing the game. This is not something for show that is not repeatable by the average player. I truly believe anyone can duplicate this with a realistic amount of practice.

• I used the Xbot instant liquidity feature to allow me to earn DEC instead of staked SPS. This cost me a 10% fee, but allows me to play at Diamond level with only a startup balance of 3k DEC. I could be earning more if I put in more starting funds to give me enough runway to wait for my SPS earnings to unstake (25% every 7 days)

• I still am not in a guild. I have joined one for the next brawl though, which will boost my SPS earnings even more!

Check back next week for more updates as I grow this "Spellbook only" Splinterlands account!

*Disclaimer: For transparency (and to make sure I'm not flagged for multi accounting), this is a fresh account being operated by Bulldog1205 taking on the role of a new player as a guide to help show how Splinterlands can still be lucrative even for new players on a tight budget.

To comply with the curation TOS prohibiting multiaccounting the social challenges I will not be submitting social challenges for curation rewards under my main account.

Please do not upvote this post if you were linked to it due to its association with any of Bulldog1205's content or are otherwise biased towards supporting Bulldog1205. I would like the upvote earnings to be representative of what a true new player might earn. Thank you!