steemmonsters - How I reached over 1000 points with only level 1 cards

Hi guys,
I wanted to articulate some ideas and give a small guide for players who are in a similar situation to me. I believe I got the gist of the game and my success validated my believe.

Written on 19 October, since then had problem with making a post, allegedly due to RCs though steemd tells me enough for 3 comments.

First of all, I looked at all tabs of the game to make me familiar with the options and what was going on. Especially I had a look at my collection and clicked at all cards to see which cards I am lacking.
Currently I only lack 4, I bought 1 cheaply on the market. That might be worse for some of you.
The cards in grey at the end are like neutral cards which you can use with every Summoner. They are weaker than the specific cards.

(strg + to enlarge)

To the tab Battle!
There you find the HOW TO PLAY Your Guide to the Game! Button.
I absolutely recommend to click and read it, to make one familiar with the basic like summoners, tank and the special abilities at the bottom of the cards.

Basically I used two strategies to build a deck/team

• build along the strengths of a Summoner
• build against a specific other deck to target it.

The second strategy is advanced and comes later. You will only use it if you have played several games and if you made out specific teams which are currently employed by your enemies.
So let's focus at the first strategy.

Everyone of you got 4 of the Summoners (the ones with the extra effect). Their rank determines how high of a rank you can use other cards.

Formally Tyrus Paladium seems strong because his +1 shield is always active. Cards who have only heart, no shield, get one shield, and that is what often can be enough to succeed. However, I couldn't build very successful decks with it on level 1.
Lyanna Naturas effect also is active always but +1 life is not very strong.
Malric Infernos effect +1 Melee for Melee cards is only for specific cards and usually it doesn't make sense to build a complete Melee deck because some of your cards will not be active. However, at the beginning I could win some games. A reason may have been Elemental Phoenix and Serpent of the Flame are strong legendary and epic cards.

Zintar Mortalis makes a strong build at level 1 possible. Together with the Undead Priest with the ability weaken it reduces enemies Melees -2 and their health -1. Position the Undead Priest so that he is protected (middle or last position). Against Malric Inferno this often is a win and also other decks often use Melee, so when the enemies cards Melee attack goes to zero this is very strong.
Sadly I have no screenshots available. Didn't think of it at that time.

I build:

With Alric Stormbringer (every magic card + 1 magic) I found an even better type of deck at level 1. First of all, very few cards have a defense against magic on level 1 (like Clay Golem of Tyrus) and you can ignore every shield, also the special ability shield.
This strategy directly attacks tanks. Healing is often not strong enough or simply can come too late. Also tempo 1 (the blue ball) cards of the enemy were often too slow.

We had Mana 17 games, so let's look at some great wins here at first:

https://steemmonsters.com/?battle=79bbbe51e4f58cd6a6a08c9fba599297a4a3cd35&ref=hhh-fan

https://steemmonsters.com/?battle=b08f81c299485d11e577ce2df1b3e7faba1e5ddf&ref=hhh-fan
Although the enemy had level four cards I won both of these games.

The next game I won 2 out of 3 times. So there are games were chance definitely plays a role. I had to look at it deeper to figure out what the quotes may be, but let's say 50/50. This is against up to level 5 cards and against a similar build.
Initially I also had Spineback Turtle instead of a Medusa as a tank because Spineback Turtle has very strong stats for 4 Mana. But I switched and in general I would say Medusa was better because of the extra magic damage and the tempo 2 (level 1 turtle has no thorns and no 2nd Melee of course).

https://steemmonsters.com/?battle=ff8b8cfc6369a10b440f20087a90543d2755bbc7&ref=hhh-fan

Later we had a switch to mana 23. If you are already familiar with a Mana build or quick on the uptake and have a good build ready, so you don't need experimenting, I would recommend to play some game as fast as possible because everybody else is still trying out and experimenting and necessarily there will be worse teams/decks than normal.

I checked out, if I can get a similar built with Alric Stormbringer and the magic on 23 mana, and found it.

Now the Spineback Turtle as (first) tank. The Cocatrice as a filler, as I had 2 Mana left (and such a protector for the other cards), also may evade with Flying. Medusa as a second tank (but more importantly as a third magic attacker from the start like before). The stronger Mischievous Mermaid at the last position because of the few attacks which attack the last position and she might have a chance to survive one more round (and or attack before getting killed because of tempo 4 instead of 3 of the Magi Sphinx).
Example of a win:

https://steemmonsters.com?battle=4362f66d84c242f8eb0d5ca50001fbf87d0cd5a7&ref=hhh-fan
Another example:

https://steemmonsters.com?battle=262d6da37aa41f809aae1d15e54ec9fbe8e01fe9&ref=hhh-fan

Beware that the situation which are the best cards changes with the levels of cards you can play because of the additional special abilities and sometimes some effects which are strong on their own (e.g. healing for two or three instead of one).

Don't underestimate the effects of tempo (the blue balls).

I stopped playing, because my goal was the 1000 points - points only drop again if you loose and reaching the top 100 with level 1 seems too unlikely -, this is a good moment to refresh RCs and at this point in time we do not get XP for playing.

summary

• read the how to play guide
• At the lowest level focus on the effects of the Summoners.
• Whenever you get a level higher pay more attention to the special abilities of your cards.
• Consider other often played decks and their strategies (and thus how to counter them/their weaknesses).