A beginner’s view of card rentals & my 2nd reward card.

Maybe I am unlucky with the reward chests, but a little more than two weeks into Splinterlands and I have just finally snagged my second reward card.

I am happy for the addition, but this seems like a support card that doesn’t fit in with how I am currently building teams. That’s fine, I will see if I can someday level it up and see if it ends up working in combination with cards I someday acquire.

But for today, the art on the card, specifically the maniacal grin and hand rubbing, calls to mind something I have been thinking about - total world domination. Well, at least winning a few more Splinterlands matches. And that’s where card rentals come into the picture.

When I first started playing I assumed that, as a more casual player, card rentals would not be for me. But seeing first hand that reward cards can be a slow way to improve my deck I finally took a look at the rental selection and found my original assumption was dead wrong.

My first surprise was that rental payment is in DEC and, at the low end, costs start at 0.1 DEC per day. If a card can turn a loss into a draw - so my rating points don’t drop - or if it turns a non-win into a win - so I take home the DEC prize and extend a winning streak - then a low cost card can certainly return more than it costs, even for the beginner.

So, the next question was can any of these low-end cards really improve my all starter deck? My first indication that the answer to this question is ‘yes’ came from this card…

The crystalsmith, renting for 0.1 DEC/day, caught my eye because I often play high mana teams that include the Divine Healer.

For one more mana, the Crystalsmith is faster and can deal a little damage of its own. I wasn’t - and am still not - keeping detailed records, but I am confident that the results have been positive and my Light teams that used to include the Divine Healer are performing better with the Venari Crystalsmith instead.

That brings me to the philosophy I have used when evaluating cards I could afford to rent. I think about the teams I am already playing, especially the ones that seem to perform near 50/50, and I ask myself ‘if I substitute the potential rental card for a card I typically use, will that make the team stronger in a noticeable way?’ In my typical Light teams that includes the Divine Healer, that card typically stays in play for several rounds - maybe 4, 5 or more. Using the Crystalsmith, that’s potentially 4, 5 or more points of additional damage applied to my opponent, and the healing comes quicker, and in a max mana match, the extra cost is meaningless. It is logical to expect that upgrading from the Divine Healer will make some of my Light teams stronger.

My thinking is not to reinvent the wheel and rent an unbeatable team (although you could do that if you had the DEC, I suppose), but as a beginner, it’s about making small incremental improvements that can add more DEC to my wins then it costs for the rentals. If my DEC balance rises, I will consider looking at higher cost rentals while I wait for the elusive reward cards to come.