Here is a STEP-BY-STEP guide to selecting a WINNING “Lineup” in Splinterlands

Best regards Splinterlovers 💚

In the previous post, I gave a very basic overview of all the fundamental aspects players need to learn in order to line up and/or create card combinations on the battlefield that can win many battles and achieve very good winning streaks; however, this requires more study and practice than it seems because, if you recall from the previous post, I discussed the conditions and/or rules that appear in each battle so that, based on them, we can decide which cards to select and play. In that post, I explained mana limits, the elements to select—also known as Splinters—and, of course, the “Modifiers/Rules” that drastically change the battlefield and how we play our cards.

But beyond the basics I mentioned earlier, there are also other very interesting details that will help you improve your selection of the necessary cards for each specific battle you face. Of course, what I’ll discuss and/or explain is just the “theory”—it’s up to you to apply this and practice, because the game is actually quite easy to understand even if it doesn’t seem that way. However, the important thing is to know your cards—a basic concept—their abilities, and, of course, the rules. But if you want to know more details about this, keep reading, especially if you’re new, because this will help you a lot as you progress through the game.

If you want to read the first part, click HERE, and if you want to know more details, stick around until the end of this post because it’ll be interesting:

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Essential Elements for Building a Winning Lineup

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Creating a lineup that gives you the best chance of winning isn’t that complicated; however, to get started, you need to master the information from the previous post, which is quite simple and can be summarized as follows:

• Understand and/or manage Mana Limits correctly
• Know how to choose the right Splinter/Element for the situation
• Understand the modifiers you’ll face depending on the League you’re in

If you learn this, you’re on the right track—though it’s only part of the picture, since there’s much more to learn. However, these are details or aspects to keep in mind if you want to improve your card selection skills. Even though it doesn’t seem that complex, the reality is that winning depends heavily on this aspect when choosing your cards and building your strategy.

So, to achieve this, keep the following in mind:

Essential Elements for Mastering “Card Selection”

• Checking Your Opponent’s Battle History: Before selecting your cards, the first thing you should do in every battle is review your opponent’s battle history. While this isn’t a decisive factor in a battle, it can reveal patterns that players sometimes follow because a certain combination works very well for them. You can use this information to improve your card selection for the battle and counter their strategy.

• Prioritize the Dominant Modifier Over the Rest: Depending on the league you’re playing in, you’ll need to use 2 or 3 modifiers in a single battle, and this is where combinations and/or strategies get a bit more complicated. When modifiers interact with one another, they may cancel each other out, or one may dominate the other—and this is key to choosing the right cards. For example, if you draw the “Aim True” modifier and it’s paired with modifiers that help evade attacks—such as Phase, Flying, or Evade—those modifiers will have no effect, and all attacks will hit their target.

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How Do You Choose the “Summoner and the Rest of the Cards”?

This is where we must choose the rest of the cards that will help us in battle, and one of the main choices is the “Summoner or Archon,” since, depending on the Summoner, we’ll gain certain advantages for ourselves and our team—or, conversely, it will work against our opponent’s deck—but it all depends on the modifiers, the available Splinters, and all those details I mentioned earlier, But what I want to explain is what’s needed for each type of card we require in a standard or general lineup.

For example, the first step is to understand the Summoner’s functions:

What Are the Roles of a Summoner?

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• Granting bonuses to our team: This is pretty straightforward, since it can be a summoner spell that gives us speed, attack, armor, etc.

• Apply debuffs to the opponent: This is another function of the Summoner; rather than focusing on boosting our own stats, it aims to reduce the impact of the opponent’s combo on the field, thereby giving us an advantage as players.

• Define the Element(s): This is basic, but it determines what type of cards we’ll play—specifically referring to the Splinters.

• Control the Maximum Level of Monsters: This is also basic, but almost no one knows it. Depending on the level at which you play, Summoners and/or Archons allow you to play the rest of your cards at the appropriate levels. Therefore, the idea is to have this Summoner at the highest possible level to take full advantage of the power of the cards in your deck.

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Remaining Training

• Tank 1: This is the first card we need to protect the rest of the cards, so it must be strong, with high durability and great attack power.

• Secondary Tank: We need to play with a backup tank, and this is great because it should be a durable card but focused on offense; this ensures that if our main tank falls, the second one can take its place.

• Attacker 1: Here we should place the card with the highest “Attack” stat in the deck, to protect it as much as possible from enemy attacks.

• Support: Here we could play our Support card—the unit that protects either our entire team or our main defense, which is our “Tank.”

• Attacker 2: Here, we can place our strongest secondary attacker and hope it achieves its objective.

• Rear Guard: The idea here is to play a card that’s both “Defensive” and “Offensive” at the same time, so that it not only protects our entire team from sneak attacks but can also deal damage and support the rest of the team.

Conclusion

With this, I think it's become clear how we should choose our cards for any deck we want to build and, in addition, try to increase our chances of winning. Although I've explained a fairly general combination, the same principle applies to all other combinations, so it's all a matter of practice and trial and error.