Hi guys. I was reading about self-improvement books when one sentence struck me: "If you're going to spend so much time on something, why not become the best?" That inspired me to try to climb the leaderboards. And let me tell you what I discovered while attempting to climb the leaderboards.

These are the five things I discovered and believe you should know before climbing the leaderboard ranks.

1.) You will still be playing a LOT against BOTs.

Yes! Even if you are in the top ten in the bronze league, you will still be matched against BOTS, the majority of the time. You must win against them, and in my experience, the best lineup to defeat them in lower mana cap games is LORNA SHINE or MYLOR CROWLING, while in higher mana cap games, a DRAGON splinter or YODIN ZAKU will suffice.

It will be different, however, when there are only 1-2 days left in the season. Out of the five games, you'll be competing against humans who will have the same goal as you.

2.) When you win, you will receive +3 ratings, and when you lose, you will receive - 20 to -40 ratings.

If you want to get into the leaderboards, you must spend a lot of time playing the game because you will be fighting against low rating BOTS who will only give you a +3 rating.

And if you lose to them or a lower rating enemy, you will lose -35 ratings, as shown in the image below. As a result, if you lose once, you may need to play 10 or more games to regain that rating. This is why defeating BOTS is so crucial.

3.) Someone will always try to pass you.

If you want to play and rent cards 4-7 days before the season ends because it's cheaper, I'm sorry to tell you that it's TOO EARLY. I got the top three rankings because I played and rented cards six days before the season ended, and I was confident that the top ten rankings were secure, so I only played one day and then stopped.
THE LAST DAY IS THE BEST TIME TO CLIMB THE LEADERBOARDS, and if that's too expensive for you, 2-3 days before the season ends will suffice. HOWEVER, before your rented cards expire, make sure you have at least 3100 ratings or are ranked first in the rankings.
THERE IS NO SAFE RATING; this is just my opinion that a 3.1k rating will get you into the top 20.

The highest rank that I achieved is rank 3.

At the end of the season, I was pushed back to rank 22

4.) You will need legendary monsters and summoners.

How do you dominate against your enemies?

Legendary summoners and monsters! and based on my experience these are the legendary monsters/summoners that you might need and might compete against.

1. DJINN OSHANNUS
2. SACRED LLAMA
3. KRON THE UNDYING
4. YODIN KAZU
5. BYZANTINE KITTY

• WHERE DO I GET THOSE SUMMONERS and MONSTERS?

I always rent my monsters/summoners from Peakmonsters, as it is the most convenient way to rent/purchase your cards.

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• HOW DO WE LEARN TO USE THOSE SUMMONERS/MONSTERS?

There are many tools available to help you improve your gameplay and practice, and these are the ones I used the most:

1. Splintertools
   This website is fantastic because you can try to emulate and counter any lineup. This, in my opinion, is the best website to use for improving and practicing your gameplay.
2. Splinterboard
   This website can show you the games that the top players have played, as well as their lineups on any mana cap, ruleset, and the league that you want to look at.

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• THE COUNTERS THAT YOU MUST BE AWARE OF!

A.) VS MAGIC DAMAGE
You'll be up against a lot of heavy magic lineups. And there are numerous lineups you can use to counter them. These are the abilities you must have when fighting against them.

These were taken from splintercards.

My sample battle against MAGIC.

Battle Link Here

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B.) VS MELEE LINEUP - SNEAK and OPPORTUNITY
After the magic lineup, the second lineup that you must know is how to counter a heavy melee lineup with SNEAKS and OPPORTUNITY monsters.
These are the best ability that can counter it:

My sample battle against a heavy melee damage lineup.

Battle Link Here

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C.) VS YODIN ZAKU

Fighting YODIN is difficult because his blast damage is overpowered. However, the following abilities will be able to counter him:

However, it will not be limited to the abilities listed above. there are other ways to deal with him. You can also use a high speed Sneak and Opportunity monster to kill his vulnerable range monsters before they can take their turn. And, in my opinion, the best way to counter YODIN ZAKU is to use LIP DEEPSWIMMER because of his abilities RETURN FIRE and +2 ARMOR; with just those two abilities, he will be a natural counter to him.

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D.) VS LAMA-KRON or LAMA-FLESH GOLEM

• VS LAMA - KRON combo
  To begin, you should be aware that a LAMA - KRON combo deals 5 damage per turn and heals 6 HP per turn. As a result, you'll need at least 7 damage or more to kill him along with a great tank capable of lasting at least 2-3 rounds.
  In a 17 MANA CAP game, these are examples of how to counter a LAMA - KRON combo.

These screenshots are taken from splintertools.io

• VS LAMA - FLESH GOLEM

The FLESH GOLEM, like the KRON, heals 6 HP per round. However, FLESH GOLEM will have lower damage of 3 but a faster speed of 6, making slow monsters miss. This combo is extremely difficult to counter, and with a 13 mana cap game, I only found TWO counters against him:

These screenshots are taken from splintertools.io

However, there are ways to counter him if the mana cap is higher. You can win against this combo if you have a first-position monster with armor and another monster with the REPAIR ability and damage greater than 6.

This is my sample battle against this combo:

Battle Link Here

5.) STUDY AND LEARN FROM THE BEST

The most important of all is to learn the 5 WHAT's.

• What are the cards that they use?
• When to use those cards?
• Where do you place those cards?
• Why do they use them in this situation?

These five whats must be learned. You should study the top 5 leaderboards players and their strategies/plans. You can do that by viewing their battles on the game website or in splintertools and study how to counter it. It will take time and effort to become the best, and it will never be easy, but working hard will get you somewhere and may help you become the best.

Sample Battles

G1 - My battle against ROGUEX

Battle Link Here

G2 - My battle against REYJU123

Battle Link Here

G3 - VS HAZELION

Battle Link Here

AFTER THOUGHTS

It took me a long time to compete and climb this rank; renting those cards alone took me about 30 minutes to an hour, and playing the game from 0 to 2.9k rating took me about 8 hours with breaks. If you're wondering how much DEC I spent renting the cards, the answer is around 1.1k DEC. My first thought was to rent all the legendary and overpowered cards just to try them out. As a result, I was only able to use 60 percent of the cards that I rented. The majority of the cards I used were the old cards ALPHA and BETA. I will try to climb the leaderboards again, but this time with this new knowledge and hoping to reach the top 10 this time.

The cover photo was made in Canva.
The images are owned by Splinterlands.
If you want to start playing the game you can use my referral here.Please note that @lurick and @kraaaaaa2 are my alt accounts.