I was perfectly content playing Splinterlands in the bronze league. The rewards were adequate, the matches were quick, and I didn't have to deal with the broken rental system to enjoy the game.

Seriously, WTF am I supposed to do with 3 credits?

Unfortunately, the Splinterlands team decided on some economic changes that have made playing in any of the bronze leagues unviable. Rewards have been nerfed into the ground. While the change is to combat bots, it has also made it increasingly difficult to upgrade real accounts in a natural way.

My old plan

When the new reward cards were released, I was ecstatic. Finally, a way to progress my account! I was so excited I decided to open 2 alt accounts as well that could slowly gain power through new reward cards. I would keep two accounts in bronze III while my main would stay in bronze I. Once I could buy chaos legion packs, the plan was to move the main account into silver leagues and the other two accounts to bronze II or I.

I play all three accounts by hand. I don't use bots. Playing all three has helped me gain a ton of knowledge about how the starter decks work and helped me progress as a player.

With the change to the reward structure, this plan is no longer feasible. I don't want to give up on the alt accounts, so the alternative is to rent and get them up to bronze I at least and silver III at best.

Why Does Bronze Suck Now?

While you can stay in bronze, the rewards are trash now. The removal of DEC and the huge reduction in card win percentage can be devastating to any deck growth. While you can still earn some DEC for every win, you are losing out a ton on daily quest rewards and season end.

Upgrading to Silver league restores your rewards and will let you progress your team. Every day you will get two quest rewards. The quest rewards will give a 50% chance of a card and can give your DEC as a reward. You also won't receive a worthless amount of credits as a reward. DEC per win is also much greater and you should have no problem offsetting the rental costs to stay in Silver.

Renting is annoying and broken but will have to do for now.

Trying to rent cards with the in-game market is a nightmare. It seems like no matter which card I pick, it's already rented. This makes for extremely frustrating gameplay. Luckily, Peakmonsters exists.

Peakmonsters rental systems are a godsend. I can't thank the developers of this tool and website enough. All I have to do is add the essential card to the "my favorites" list and click rent. Using Peakmonsters will get rid of most of the headaches associated with renting cards in Splinterlands.

Anyways, I don't feel like ranting about the rental system today. Let's just figure out what to rent to get a starter deck with enough power and ranking to reach silver for as little DEC as possible.

Let's Take a Team from Zero to Hero

This strategy should let you quickly blow through ranking points and reach 1000 ranking in less than a day. You will need 2-5 DEC or the equivalent in credits to start the journey.

No Suprise Here, We Will Play a Water Team

This first set of card rentals will easily get you to a 1000 ranking. It will also get you enough power to reach Bronze II.

Venari Wavesmith and Kelp Initiate are essential for this team to work. I added Torhilo since there are so many other magic teams out there doing the same thing. You probably see a ton of guides suggesting Captain's Ghost, but honestly, he's overkill for low levels. After these rentals, you'll still need over 700 power to reach bronze II. I decided on a gold Gelatinous Cube.

My total daily rental cost for these 4 cards is .066 cents or 6.5 DEC.

Combine these cards with the meta-magic squad and you will decimate your foes in bronze. Once you hit 1000 rating, you're ready to add more cards to reach the 15K power needed for silver.

1000 ranking in less than a day is simple.

I have a 1000 Rating, Now What?

You now have two strategies you should employ.

Strategy One for the Peasants

If you are really struggling with DEC finances, you can stay in bronze II or rent some extremely cheap trash cards to reach bronze I. At the time of this writing, you can rent two gold foil untamed cards to reach 5000 power for a total of 5 cents a day. You will make that back in a few matches in bronze I. Jumping to bronze I greatly increases your chance to get reward cards and should be completed as quickly as possible.

Strategy Two for Kings and Queens

If you have a little DEC saved, you should just get your team to silver. The reward difference is huge and you will recoup your rental costs quickly.

If you plan to jump directly to Silver, I encourage you to rent gold cards and cards you plan on actually using first. Yes, this will cost more, but you will gain 10% for every gold card you play. Renting a gold summoner will also let you benefit from higher-level cards.

You could also just add a ton of cheap gold foil cards to get up to 15K. Add them to the team mentioned above and you will still see ample wins and rewards even in Silver.

What About the Daily Quest?

Rent for that as well. I won't go into detail about what you should rent, there are plenty of other articles explaining the best teams for each splinter. But you should be able to find the cards you need, rent them and collect the loot!

What about Season End?

OK, everyone knows renting on season end is going to suck. Prices inflate, card owners, cancel cards and it will be extremely difficult to rent any card.

If you want to stay in silver, you will have to bite the bullet and pay the toll to rent enough power to receive silver III rewards.

I'm actually considering letting most of my rentals drop the last day and keep my accounts in bronze I. I lose 2 season loot boxes but don't have to deal with the stress of renting during season end.

So does this work?

You tell me. I'd love to hear your strategies to stay out of the bronze league. Is there a better option than water? Do you prefer renting gold or regular foil cards? Is silver III the best or should I continue higher?

Thanks for Reading!

If you made it this far I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time out of your day to read my post. I hope it was informative and helps you make better teams in Splinterlands!

A little about me...

Currently based in Siem Reap, Cambodia, I'm a solo-traveling digital nomad. Due to the pandemic, I've been living in Siem Reap for almost 2 years now. While I'm hoping to get back on the road soon, I'm not in a rush.

I'd love to connect with other travelers, digital nomads, gamers, or residents of Cambodia. Don't hesitate to say hi or send me an upvote!

You can learn more about me and my company at OneZen.me.