Hello there.

A few days ago we had the Ranked reset of Splinterlands, and with it comes the new season of Survival Mode. This means that all cards are usable again. Having played around 1.5 seasons of Survival, I was pretty excited to start playing this season and apply what I've learned. The first one is that I applied is to wait a few days after the reset before playing. This is to give stronger players time to move up and away from where I am.

This season I'm hoping to finally get out of Bronze and make my way up in Silver. Since I finished at Bronze 2 last season, I start at 300 rating this season. There are no win streak bonuses, so I will have to win a lot of battles if I want to reach 1k rating. I remember that waiting too long doesn't matter much, so I decided to play 3 days after the reset.

The first three battles were what I expected. Facing off against low level summoners and teams. I was able to win my battles with minimal losses, and those that I think are more expendable; the tanks and filler monsters. Here they are below for more clarity:

I was surprised at their team since they just used few monsters. But looking at it, they had a good strategy in mind. Using Djinn Chwala with Amplify can deal a lot of damage, while Night Reaper is a good damage dealer and tank. I was being conservative, so I used some low level cards to fight it. It got close at the end, but just losing 2 is a relief.

For this one, I found it interesting that they used a Lookout monster which countered my team. The Fury ruleset helped me deal with their Taunt monster quickly though, so their strategy wasn't as effective. I also used a Taunt monster, but opting for Terraceous Hulk to try and outlive their damage. It died in the end but it was my only casualty.

My third win was against a mixed damage team. They have magic attacks at the back, but two melee double strike units in the front. I had a similar idea but went all in on melee damage. In the end, only the Halfling Refugee was defeated.

I already noticed it while playing Modern, but it feels like the AI of the bots are getting better. The battles have been easy, but not easy enough for me to win unscathed. Even though I lost a few, I was still excited to battle more because most of my core are intact.

That is when disaster struck. I lost three straight battles. The first one, against Psilence, was disappointing. I thought it was going to be an easy win with Quora so I played conservatively with my cards. I usually use Martyr cards with Quora on Equal Opportunity, but I thought having Lookout with Demoralize would be enough. As a result, I lost.

For the second battle, I got countered. My strategy was to go magic because of the Armored Up ruleset. But Baakjira completely shut down my strategy. With nothing to kill the Merdaali, my backline was easy pickings for their Opportunity monsters.

My third loss was very frustrating, and I mostly blame it on being tilted. I saw that my opponent liked to go for this magic team already, but I still went with my Possibilus team. Looking back, I could have countered it with a Thaddeus team instead. My team wasn't bad, but just risky. Kulu Mastermind missing on Ice Pixie was unlucky, and if it hit, Deeplurker would have killed Wavesmith and there was a chance I could have won.

I played two more battles after that. I was still on tilt, but at this point I didn't care. The two wins brought me back to my senses and I was able to decide to play at a later time when I'm no longer tilted.

I think the battles I lost were winnable. The biggest mistake I made was being too cautious and being to scared to use my main teams. Katrelba is my most powerful team for Helios, while Katie or Mirasol for Franz. But instead I opted for my second tier of Quora and Kharafax. The Quora was actually the right choice, I just didn't want to use my Martyr cards early on.

Always use your best teams

If there's anything I've learned, it's that I should always use my best team. I have a limited number of competitive Archons, and I just lost 3 of them needlessly. I should have went with my best comps, and went with them until the cores died. Only then should I have gone and used my second tier teams. Because of these losses, I have less options to play with, and I can see myself spiraling down and losing early on in the season. I'll probably play until most of my teams are gone, stop and wait for my summoners to revive, and then make a final push near the end of the season.

My Survival mode start has been pretty horrible. Losing good summoners and monsters early on is bad, and I'll feel it throughout the season. I've learned from it though, and I'll be a better player because of these losses.

Don't hesitate to let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for improvement. And as always, these are Not Financial Advice, and Do Your Own Research.

If you want to start playing Splinterlands, you can use my link:
Splinterlands Referral Link