A pro-tip had appeared to me from the great beyond while playing the Splinterlands Crypto Game: "3 mana cards are just as powerful as 4 mana cards in Little League". And so came my realization of how power distribution works in Splinterlands. The way a lv4 common card is not maxed for its league (Silver), but still gets abilities at that level, while others only get them at lv5. The way 3 mana works the same way as 4 mana monsters. Heck, the way a Sea Monster is rightfully equivalent to a Serpent of Eld. But how does this help me? It is useful at the team creation screen.
We're all familiar at how jumbled the creation page can get when you are working with a lot of cards. Over time, you get enough practice to find and choose some of them automatically. You just sort of scroll over and click before you even notice. But this can create a nasty habit of not properly strategizing. The human brain is inherently lazy, so it's no surprise. Consciously giving it some extra thought by adding a little logic to the process should raise your win rate.
In this case, I'm talking about grouping up cards by both form and function. Serpent of Eld is, situationally, just as good as Sea Monster. But "No Magic" will have you choose Serpent of Eld, while very high mana matches and/or "Super Sneak" will have you include Sea Monster as your tank or as your cover at the back. Having properly thought about this will make you scroll over them when it's time to decide. Instead of automatically choosing Sea Monsters, you will take quick notice of what team is best for that game match and the mana available, leading to automatically choosing one of them instead of defaulting to a single pick every time.
Of course, your mastery over this comes from a lot of experience. "Practice makes perfect", they say. This is why I know a Lord of Darkness in Gold League will pretty much always win in a 12 mana battle! It's also the reason I will automatically pick Serpentine Soldier and a Creeping Ooze in No-Magic battles. And this is what I have to fix, because doing this is so wrong. I no longer choose Cerberus as my tank in every Little League match. He's an okay pick, but it's far from the optimal choice, unless Beetle Queen is a part of the team, which is usually not the case. Do not be lazy! Understanding how to perform better is key to improving your win ration (aka meeting your ROI quicker).
tl;dr study cards by grouping up monsters by their similarities in power and function, so you make less lazy and more informed decisions on your future battles
In other news, I've finally figured out when Rusty Android can be useful: "no armor" + "no ranged" + one of these summoners: Zintar, Bortus, Mylor, Camila. And mana cap of maybe 16~22. Have you seen his HP? Because heals are a % of a monster's total health, he heals for a lot.
