Learning from mistakes: Don't rent Valnamor and assume you'll be awesome.

Thanks for joining me for this 3speak video, the below is roughly what is said - with a few ad libs to the script. I hope you enjoy learning from my mistakes.

Good Afternoon – and welcome to another Splinter Chat – a chance to talk all things Splinterland – coming to you via 3speak.

Today, I want to talk about being dumb – getting excited by a card, but not really grasping that cards, in isolation, are not battle winners.

I want to talk about Valnamor – he’s a water summoner – and honestly, he looks mouth watering delicious.

• Want more magic damage? Check.
• Want more health? Check
• Want more speed? Check

He’s certainly checking all the boxes, and with a face like that, who wouldn’t want him on their team? I have a couple of magic cards, I thought it’d be an easy win – put him with Djinn Oshannus, throw in a River, maybe even the Venari Wavesmith.

At $650 USD for a single card though, I’ll be blunt, I’ll never own him – but I thought to myself, why not take a rental for a whirl and dominate in the water splinter? It was a little bit cocky, but I learned a valuable lesson.

I actually have a really decent water team that can compete in Silver with the best of ‘em. I was confident with Valnamor that I would elevate. But I didn’t. The reason: renting a level 1 summoner might be OK if your cards aren’t levelled. I do this trick in FIRE, I rent a Level 1 Yodin and off I go. But in Water, it meant by playing the legendary summoner. My cards were becoming useless, and I really got all muddled up in strategy.

Have a look at my go to tank, Diemonshark –
From epic – to a bit of a loser. Look at how his attack fell, and he loses the enrage skill.
Same with the Pelacor, a card which I’ve built up, because he is super useful, at a lower card level, he’s a bit of a dud.
Even playing Djinn Oshannus, a magic card, I thought I might have gotten some traction – but nope, by dropping him down from Level 2 back to Level 1, I actually put myself at a huge disadvantage.

I played Valnamor in a few battles and lost every one of them, my water team is based on melee attack, and so by playing a magic summoner, I really went backwards. In this particularly battle, I put Serpent of Eld as my tank – figuring maybe he’d dodge – but the tank choice aside, I was utterly bamboozled.

I lose this battle, and others – but the lesson stands:

• Don’t rent 1 card and assume it will be the bees knees. You need to work at synergies.
• Level 1 summoners don’t always help you, if you can’t play your levelled cards.
• Strong cards and a weak summoner, will beat a legendary summoner with weak cards.

So until next time, I’m going to be focusing on building my deck, and levelling cards – if I keep doing this, I reckon I might finally get to win a battle. Have a super afternoon, and thanks for joining me.