Playing in which LEAGUE based on your deck?

Playing in which LEAGUE based on your deck?

• Common Question of which league should I be in?
• Bronze Deck --> Silver or Gold League?
• Underleveled Cards impact the WIN/LOSS Ratio and RP awarded.
• Advance gameplay: My power compares to others.
• Advance gameplay: When Summoners.
• Advance gameplay: MAX Deck?
• Final Thoughts

Common Question of which league should I be in?

In #Splinterlands, should I move up or build a strong deck??

This question is pervasive for beginners and those playing #Splinterlands for under a year. After you get out of novice and into bronze, you realize the game has many choices for you. In novice, it was mostly the MOST optimized cards to play based on the ruleset, and usually, you LOSE because you might be facing a BOT.

As you add more cards to your deck, you will realize even with many bronze-level cards, you can move into the Silver league. If you stick to this method of only having bronze cards, you can even move into the GOLD league at the end of the season.

This can be done using only Chaos Legion's Bronze Summoners! Some of the reasons for this is due to rating inflation that happens as the season moves toward the end of that season.

Bronze Deck --> Silver or Gold League?

Let's go back to the question now. I do not have a max CL bronze deck. That means I'm missing plenty of EPIC and Legendaries cards at the BRONZE level. Otherwise, I have enough cards to play maybe 85%-90% of the ruleset. That doesn't make I can win because sometimes I lose because of my summoner choice. Other times you can lose because of the counter-play of the other person's deck.

Just because I can go into GOLD, should I? I once made the mistake of moving into GOLD too early into the season and losing more than 60% of the battles. I realized I lacked many LEVEL-UP cards and faced much STRONGER competition. I ended that season with very little daily chest and a low EOS chest.

Underleveled Cards impact the WIN/LOSS Ratio and RP awarded.

One of the most significant factors is how the UNDERLEVELED card impacts your WIN/LOSS ratio and the RP amount earned.

Is it worth it if I can only win 3 matches out of the 10 (30%) and get a heavy penalty for using STARTER cards and/or underleveled cards?

If I stay in Silver, I might win 4-6 matches out of the 10 (40-60%), and I will experience a minor penalty for all my cards that are not MAX for BRONZE. Ultimately, you will most like get more DAILY chest and EoS chest.

Advance gameplay: My power compares to others.

When my bronze deck reached 50K CP, I told you I advanced into Gold as soon as possible. This is a mistake. This means by deck had very few cards and few summoners.

Always consider your deck to others and how you are doing using your deck. Below is a template of what I'm doing with my bronze deck based on my current experience against others.

A better method:

• Bronze Deck with ~50K CP. Stay in Silver. Get more chest.
• Bronze Deck with ~60K-80K CP. Alternative Season EoS Chest (Silver/Gold)
• Bronze Deck with ~90K CP. Cross into Gold EoS on the last day.
• Bronze Deck with ~120K CP. Cross into Gold mid-season.

Bronze Deck with ~50K CP. Stay in Silver. Get more chest.

Just because you have enough CP does not mean I had enough cards to fight. My deck has about 5-10K CP from Soul Bound/Gladius cards. This means many of my cards can't even be used in battle.

The temptation is to go up into GOLD. And if you need to, do it and see for yourself. The best thing to do is NOT advance and stay in your league. You will be winning more and collecting more Silver chests.

Bronze Deck with ~60K-80K CP. Alternative Season EoS Chest (Silver/Gold)

One method I like to do is alternate between the EoS chest. I can end in silver every season, but I like to push into GOLD on the last day of alternating seasons. This can also benefit those who want to BUY energy for more chest.

I never buy energy when my EoS chest is GOLD because it costs 50 DEC. On the season I stayed in Silver, it only cost me 10 DEC for energy. After doing this for a few seasons, you will see that the odds between the two chests "look" the same. I like this method because, in some seasons, you go for a few GOLD chests with better DROPS; in other seasons, you go for more CHEST, hoping one of them is lucky (Jackpot SPS, Merit or GF Legendary).

Bronze Deck with ~90K+ CP. Cross into Gold EoS on the last day.

At some point, your deck should win 52+% of the time. If your deck is winning more battles in Silver, it would mean you are earning 50+ EoS chest. At some point, you realize your deck is going well against many other players. When that happens, you are earning more and more chest. I believe that is an excellent time to finish in Gold each season.

Bronze Deck with ~120K CP. Cross into Gold mid-season.

The next phase is to build your cards to be in Silver Level. At this point, you can see how expensive things get. A max bronze CONQUEROR JACEK is only 1 bcx at $12, but a max silver CONQUEROR JACEK card is $36 (3 bcx).

A better way might be to focus on leveling up MAX bronze Common/Rare to be MAX Silver cards. For example:
Bronze: 14 BCX PELACOR BANDIT is $0.18!
Silver: 60 BCX PELACOR BANDIT is $0.90!
While it is still a 4X increase, it is only a 0.80 increase.

Advance gameplay: When Summoners.

This is the classic: CHICKEN vs EGG question.

Should I upgrade my Summoners first to Silver or my cards?

• Can't use Silver level card without a Silver Level Summoner.
• A Silver Level Summoner adds no value without upgraded Silver Level cards.
• Most people can't do both at the same time.

Using the previous example: I can spend $24 to upgrade my JACEK to Silver Level!! But at this point, I don't have any cards to use that are in Silver! To take advantage of JACEK, I need to upgrade the FIRE splinter cards!!

Doing both simultaneously makes sense, but most people don't have the money to do that. This is true when you have many different summoners. Part of the game is for us to figure out how best to play the card that we have.

I'm mostly focusing on SB rewards cards to fill in the gap. I need to wait until I have enough cards to be played in Silver before I decide to spend that money on a Silver-level summoner. I am focusing on COMMON RARITY first because you can upgrade them to max Silver between $.60-$20.00 per card (not BCX).

The least expensive commons are these:

The most expensive commons are these, with two being promo cards. You need a total of 46 x .40 = $18.6 for Max VRUZ at Silver.

Advance gameplay: MAX Deck?

Whether you have a max BRONZE deck or a max CL DIAMOND DECK, you don't have a different problem. It is the same. In the beginning, the advantage is often some have more robust or more cards than me. They have a slight edge over my deck. As they enter the MAX BRONZE deck, then that advantage is gone. If both players have the same cards and level, then the player can build a counter-play set or a more useful set of cards for that ruleset. This is the part that comes down to skill. The frustration can be in BRONZE or the CHAMP league!!

I watched TRULS go down from Rank 5 on the CHAMP LB to Rank 21 with a 3-game losing streak. Even a TOP player like him expresses how hard it can be to stay in the TOP 10 of the CHAMPION Leaderboard.

Final Thoughts

The league you are in is often based on how well your deck does against others. You can play in a league above your deck level if you are not going for LB. I think Leaderboard players have a max deck with every card to give them the best chances of winning.

There isn't a right or wrong way to build a deck:

• focus on the key cards you need first.
• focus on the strong splinters you like first.
• focus on the promos and/or GF for the RP bonus.

Playing in the correct league based on your deck and skill level will improve the player experience. Of course, I want to move into GOLD using my bronze deck, but it's NOT the best experience. I still need to stay in Bronze while doing guild brawls. I stay in silver when playing rank battles. This is an essential part of my gaming experience.

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Are you doing something similar?
Comment below and let me know what strategy you are doing.