Hello! Before I start, I want to be completely honest - this is not so much a guide as a list made for fun, as this is not comprehensive in any way. Instead, I am going to name a card from each Splinter that I feel gives me the most wins out of experience, so that you make sure you don't miss out on it!

My idea is that I will name cards that are actually affordable. Having a level 8 Serpentine Spy rented would be great, but getting the hundreds of DEC back spent on just one card isn't pleasant work. You won't see things that you can barely make back in a day by playing non-stop or hoping for big hits from daily chests - only affordables!

I will probably focus on each splinter in the future once I have more experience doing so with each of them, but for now - here's six cards that are my staples when renting to gold: one for each splinter! No summoners, as I just take the ones that are cheapest - usually the Untamed or Beta rares.

Fire - Grum Flameblade

Spoiler alert - most of the monsters on this list will be frontliners, as I feel having these increases your chances drastically, especially in current meta, where most players or bots simply rent a lineup or two to play and are not too flexible.

Grum Fireblade is the first one because he is just a machine. With a whopping 19 effective health that is further empowered by his Void Armor ability, he will always withstand a lot before he finally falls. At level 3 for Gold, he also has Void, which means that magic attackers are going to get extremely frustrated trying to get through this meatshield.

The best part is that even when Grum gets low on health, the Bloodlust ability might let him survive an extra attack becausehe will recover an extra point of armor! Finally, Giant Killer helps get through notorious threats such as Kron, Grund and much more!

His low speed can be a nuisance, except.. it can be turned into an upside in Reverse Speed, while in normal speed, he'll still get to attack at least once due to the immense health pool.

Water - Baakjira

Tank number two on the least is Baakjira - continuing with the threat of Void tanks, Baakjira has the big downside of having no attack. That, however, also means you can ALWAYS use this monster. Whether it's Keep Your Distance, Broken Arrows or Lost Magic, it's never out of the roster.

The Void ability on Baakjira makes it the perfect choice whenever you expect magic, but it can also be used as a huge meatshield for a mere 6 mana, if you need a card to tank it all. 13 health with Strengthen on top is crazy and keep in mind that at level 3, this monster gets Heal, becoming even more difficult to kill.

It also works great for your whole team, as the Strengthen can potentially save your backline units from Sneak, Snipe and Opportunity monsters, or even help you survive an extra turn in the Noxious Fumes ruleset. Finally, Slow means it fix in most teams, so long as there is no Reverse Speed ruleset.

Earth - Pelacor Mercenary

Pelacor Mercenary is a bit of a middle ground between Grum and Baakjira. At 7 mana, it does not cost a fortune, but it brings both damage, as well as survivability into the mix. 3 melee attack might not seem like much, but it is still 2 through Shield and it does contribute to slowly incapacitating the opponent.

The most important part of the kit though is the Heal ability. With it and 10 health, Pelacor Mercenary will heal for 3 even through one Weaken ability - making it a bit of a Flesh Golem for the modern ruleset coming so soon. Flying means it is also the perfect tank for Earthquake, especially if your opponent is not playing magic.

When it comes to Earth, this was a fairly difficult decision, as I was also considering Nectar Queen, due to her Retaliate, as well as Venari Seedsmith, which is criminally underrated in Gold!

Life - Silvershield Paladin

I feel like I do not have much to say about this one - Silvershield Paladin is my favourite choice simply because I often struggle to find the right card to use in the front line for Life. Pelacor Conjurer is just so small, while Chaos Knight is so vulnerable to magic.

This monster just does it all. It has a high health pool for a 5 mana card, while being a reasonable tank against both physical and magic damage: having Magic Reflect to kill those pesky casters AND Shield to survive longer against melee and ranged opponents. It is just a safe option against less predictable enemies.

Death - Venari Bonesmith

The time of tanks is over! The next two will not be frontliners. For Death, my choice was Venari Bonesmith, as it is a monster that is extremely cheap while providing heaps of value in so many scenarios.

With Life Leech, this can be the perfect choice as a 3rd position card, becoming a sort of 2nd offtank, once your main options are down. Two magic damage for 4 mana is also nothing to scoff at, especially taking into consideration that it is not the only offensive capability of this card.

Poison means that Bonesmith remains useful even against enemies that have the Silence + Void combination, which is the bane of many magic damage teams. In this case, however, the Death Venari will not be stopped, unless Cleanse is put into the mix.

Dragon - Dhampir Infiltrator

Finally, we get to my second favourite splinter - Dragon! We also get to my favourite newly released reward card, as my suggestion here is the extremely cheap to rent, but also to put in your team - Dhampir Infiltrator.

Double Strike is one of the most rare abilities for "safe" monsters - Infiltrator does just that with her Sneak! On top of that, when you rent her at her Gold level, she also gets Cripple, which can make a big difference, because it synergizes even more with Double Strike. Sometimes, you'll hit a monster with armor, Cripple it down to 2 hp and finish them off with the second strike!

Dragon has a lot of good cards to rent, and some of the runner-ups and considerations here included Twilight Basilisk, as well as Djinn Chwala.

Closing Words

I hope this quick list helps you make sure not to forget any of these - they are all great cards and I cannot stress enough how many they've helped me win in a way no other card would! Next time, I'll try to write more in-depth about each of the Splinters!

Since it's a gaming-related post, here is a bunch of referral links of mine - if you're not playing any of the games I've written about, give them a try! I wouldn't write about bad games.. well, not without saying they're bad anyway. So, here they are:

RABONA - Join the football management game through my referral link to receive a large RBN bonus!

RISING STAR - Here's the referral link to Rising Star. Start your way to mega stardom now!

SPLINTERLANDS - Splinterlands is the poster child of the HIVE blockchain. Join now through my referral link to get a few cards from me!