Do you want an easy way to increase your rating? Looking for cheap cards to rent that can boost your rating out of Bronze? We’ve got you covered! In this guide, we’ll show you which cards you need to have from the Water Splinter in Splinterlands.

Splinterlands has been steadily increasing in popularity ever since NFT games became a huge hit. Apart from it’s very low paywall compared to other blockchain games, players have praised its card battling system. So with more and more players signing up each day, there’s bound to be a lot of competition in the lower leagues. We’ll show you one of the best strategies to stand out and force your way into getting a higher rating.

Why use the Water Splinter?

The Water Splinter is easily the strongest Splinter when you’re just starting out. A lot of players in the Bronze league often use a lot of melee monsters and use frontliners with high armor. This is where magic attacks come into play. Since magic attacks ignore armor and damage a monster’s health directly, it’s inarguably the most efficient form of offense in the game. The Water Splinter has a lot of easily obtainable cards with magic attacks that you can use without having to spend much. In fact, most of the cards we’ll show here are readily available and come with the starter set. 

Things to know

This guide is aimed for players in the Bronze League. It is not guaranteed to get you into a higher league since you’ll need to amass a certain number of Collection Power. This is just a strategy guide that shows you how to get your rating high enough that it can qualify for the Silver league. There are plenty of other ways to increase your Collection Power but we won’t be covering those in this guide. 

So onto the cards.

Cards to Use

All the cards we’ll be using are all Level 1. Despite being able to use higher level cards in Bronze, we find that unnecessary with this strategy. We’re focused on how you can maximize the use of the starter cards and a few cheap ones you can rent while spending as little as possible. 

Summoners

Summoners have buffs, debuffs, or abilities that can affect either your monsters or your opponent’s. You can only choose one summoner per game. Picking the right summoners are important as your choice can make or break the match for you.

Alric Stormbringer

Alric Stormbringer is a rare summoner card that gives plus 1 additional magic attack to all your monsters. Even at level 1, this is one of the best summoners in the game. Most monsters used in the Bronze league have low health so when pairing Alric with a bunch of magic attack monsters, their DPS significantly increases. 

Bortus

Bortus is another rare summoner from the water splinter that is a great alternative to Alric Stormbringer. Instead of increasing your team’s magic attack, Bortus decreases all the magic attacks of the monsters from your opponent’s team. It’s pretty handy since you’ll be running into a lot of players who also use magic attack monsters in the lower leagues. Just like Alric, Bortus is available in the starter set. 

Monsters

Monsters are the cards that actually do battle in Splinterlands. Some of them have melee attacks, ranged attacks, and magic attacks. Some monsters don’t have attacks at all but have useful abilities that can turn the tides in their favor. For this guide, our focus will be on monsters with magic attacks. 

Venari Wavesmith

This is probably the best low level, budget monster card from the Water Splinter. It has everything that synergizes well with sets that use magic attacks and Alric Stormbringer as the summoner. Venari Wavesmith has 1 magic attack, 2 speed, 3 health, and only costs 5 mana to summon. It also has the Protect ability, which gives all the monsters on your team +2 armor. Not only does this card give you good offense, it also has great defense thanks to its ability. This card is so versatile and can be included in a lot of lineups. This is the most important card that you need to have for this guide. Fortunately, it isn’t all that hard to acquire. Since it’s not part of the starter set, you can spend a bit of DEC to rent it for a day. Or better yet, if you can afford it, just straight up purchase the card from the market as it is very useful and can be used even in higher levels of play.

Kelp Initiate

This is your go to first position monster when using a magic attack focused lineup from the Water Splinter. It has no attacks whatsoever but at level 1 has 5 speed and 5 health. Not to mention, it only costs 2 mana to summon it. It’s also worth mentioning that monsters with high speeds have a higher chance of evading attacks so yeah Kelp Initiate is probably one of the best frontliners in the game. 

Ice Pixie

Another low mana cost magic attack monster, Ice Pixie packs a punch when used with a summoner like Alric Stormbringer. Despite having only 1 health, Ice Pixie makes up for this weakness by having good speed and the Flying ability, which increases its chances to evade attacks. 

Crustacean King

Crustacean King is a great support monster card. While it doesn’t have any attacks at level 1, it does have 1 armor and 2 health. Plus it has the Tank Heal ability, which restores the health of the monster at the first position. The best part is that this card, like most cards on this guide, comes with the starter set.

Medusa

Medusa is a low cost magic attack monster with 2 speed, 3 health, 1 magic attack, and costs 4 mana to summon. There’s nothing too special about her at level 1 but is a great card to fill out your lineup of magic attack monsters.

Torhilo the Frozen

Torhilo the Frozen is hands down one of the best frontline monsters in the game. It has 4 melee attack, 4 armor, 8 health, and the Void ability which reduces the damage of magic attacks it receives. All these great stats at level 1. The only drawbacks is that it costs 9 mana to summon and it only has 1 speed. It’s a great first position monster especially in high mana games. We’d recommend still renting this card out as it is relatively cheap and can be successful under the right conditions.

Enchanted Pixie

Okay, we’re cheating a bit with the next two monsters since they aren’t actually part of the Water Splinter. But that shouldn’t matter since they are neutral monsters. Neutral monsters are monsters that can be used in all splinters. Enchanted Pixie is one of the best neutral monsters from the starter set since it can be pretty handy in a magic attack lineup. It has a low mana cost at 3 and has the Flying ability like the Ice Pixie.

Elven Mystic

Another neutral monster with magic attack that you can use to fill out your lineup. Nothing too special about it at level 1 and can be interchangeable with Medusa during certain situations. It also comes with the starter set so you wouldn’t have to worry about spending anything to get this card.

Positioning

A lot of players tend to overlook the importance of positioning in a game like Splinterlands. Positioning is very important as it can dramatically alter the results of a duel. In most games, your positioning should look like this:

• First Position: Kelp Initiate/Torhilo the Frozen
• Second Position: Ice Pixie/Kelp Initiate
• Third Position: Venari Wavesmith
• Fourth Position: Enchanted Pixie
• Fifth Position: Crustacean King
• Sixth Position: Medusa/Elven Mystic

Keep in mind that these positioning isn’t absolute so you can change them up depending on the ruleset and matchup you find yourself at.

Final Thoughts

The Water Splinter has probably the best starter set cards that can deal a lot of damage. Since most of these cards are free, you wouldn’t have to worry about spending too much. The only cards that you’d need to rent are Venari Wavesmith, Kelp Initiate, and Torhilo the Frozen. If you were to rent them, it would cost you about 9-10 DEC per day depending on the prices available.

So there you have it! That’s everything you need to know on which cards to use from the Water Splinter on Splinterlands. Be sure to check back with us again for more awesome guides on your favorite games. Have fun!