Sometimes not actually battling

The Splinterlands crypto game is somewhat demanding for a lower budget player like me when I want to advance to Gold League as soon as possible. After all, I have to compete with leaderboard players and those with better collections before I'm finally able to climb after getting reset to Silver when a season ends.

What is treacherously expensive isn't acquiring a single strong splinter, but owning an entire arsenal that can get you to Gold League within just the first couple of days into the season. Still, getting there so soon is very desirable, because most players stay on much lower ratings, giving you access to much higher reward pool shares early on.

Despite understanding that, I just don't have enough cards from different splinters to sustain a wealthier rating. My Earth Splinter is actually pretty strong, my Water and Dragon splinters are all right, but I'll instantly lose every battle where I can't use them. What do I do then? Should I try to win anyway? I don't think so.

Whenever only splinters I can't compete with can be used in a battle, I give up. Not quite surrendering, because we lose double as much rating as just losing a match, I enter the battle with a single monster. This saves me time and stops me from getting stressed thinking of a battle I'd only have maybe 2% chance of winning.

Eventually, I'll own enough cards from all splinters so I never give up on a match, but throwing a few games lets me retain a strong mentality, which is a far more important resource in our daily lives. Not to mention I can use the extra time to either relax or make more money in some other way.

Supply Runner

This is a card everybody should own while it's not that expensive yet. Supply Runner has the Swiftness ability starting from level 5, which buffs your team for +1 speed, an instrumental stat in matches where you expect few or no magic monsters. Unfortunately, mine is still at level 4, but I'll upgrade it to level
5 as soon as possible.

images source: https://splinterlands.com/