Things are completely different on Splinterlands, because we had the same time and cards possibility to bring it to battle. I know that some player are so rich to have all the cards, but you have the chance as well if you want, because you can buy or rent it from the market. You are not depend on any random draw on this game, and this is what makes Splinterlands are best in term of fairness in my opinion.

How It's Changed After Souldbound Attack

Now let's talk about the souldbound card first, these are the cards that are not transferable and will forever bound to an account (or at least right now), and this is mean every account had different cards due to randomness on getting the soulbound cards. And since we can't get it from market, this makes some people had advantage on creating a strategy than the others, and I personally think this have made the fairness of pure strategy game is ruined from Splinterlands.

Other Factor

Well, randomness and chance is not just applied on the rewards, but also on the game. Things like poison, stun, and miss is the things that depend on a RNG, and sometimes it will ruin your strategy because the RNG that is not makes sense. This is because every attack or status is very important, on tight battle, that 1 miss could be a decider for a winner.
This has raise some issue from players, which telling the battle helper had a tool to count the chance based on RnG that will applied ! And if it's true, it's really ruin the game.

Conclusion

Splinterlands serve a great fairness rather than other strategy games, but with the soulbound cards are playable on ranked match, it cause a unfair condition for some players that not having the cards to get the best strategy on the game. Not just the cards itself, the RNG on poison, stun, miss, and any other status can cause an unfair condition with the bad luck could ruin your strategy, and any tools that could read the RNG should be banned if they are existed for causing unfair condition for players.

Final Words