### Full Deck Kaput

Prior to Chaos Legion, I basically had a maxxed out regular foil deck.  Post Chaos Legion, I decided to put everything on the rental market, and I'm getting good returns there.  As an offshoot of that, I decided to start a new deck from scratch and play around with that.  So here it is, @joshmansters. I was able to get to 412 rating with nothing but the Spellbook, and at that point I could not advance without 1k power.  

![20211211 08_01_31Window.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmSWFmWCkxwyQgdYaRiKjcA1bZDdgHaCBuhFjLCThfqSeH/2021-12-11%2008_01_31-Window.png)

If you can't grind your way to over 400 rating and eligible for BRONZE II only using the spellbook, you need to develop better game mechanics before you consider investing in the game.  For those of you who passed this test and want to invest in cards with the most flexibility and bang for your buck, please proceed.

### Building 1000 Deck Power For Bronze II

I want to see if I am able to advance with close to the bare minimum power.  The first area I am going to focus on is common and rare neutral reward cards that can help me.  Why neutral?  I can use them in all Splinters, so they offer the most bang for my buck.  Now that we've got the most versatile cards in the came out of the way, we'll address the most versatile splinter, the Dragon splinter.  You can make a lot of great combinations using both a Dragon Summoner, and Neutral Cards.  My only requirements for this experiment were the cards must only be 1 BCX, and the card must be reasonable to purchase or rent.  If you decided to buy or rent, you would need to deposit the appropriate amount of DEC or purchase some CREDITS.  I also decided for the time being to not go with Beta cards, but that is subject to change.

If you were doing similar, you might choose different cards than me and use a different premise.  My premise is choose inexpensive cards to rent that I can stick into the most situations.  Here were my choices for cards:

![20211213 11_56_55Splinterlands  Collect, Trade, Battle!  Brave.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmNtdhgWxM4BMNX67aytCNMgyoTWDAn2i8L2Ej6Yk42j6v/2021-12-13%2011_56_55-Splinterlands%20-%20Collect,%20Trade,%20Battle!%20-%20Brave.png)

- Creeping Ooze ($6.97 Buy / 0.19 DEC Rent)
The major benefit for this card is that it's 1-mana.  It's non-melee, so it will also soak up a sniper hit.  In 'Equalizer' matches it could potential soak up many hits. The fact it has slow is just an added bonus.
- Goblin Mech ($3.70 Buy / 0.10 DEC Rent)
This is just a versatile high-damage, high-mana tank.
- Gelatinous Cube ($3.20 Buy / 0.19 DEC Rent)
A high-health card that can be plugged into many situations.  It can absorb a lot of sniper hits and be used as a tank in 'Keep Your Distance' matches.
- Sand Worm ($1.90 Buy / 0.26 DEC Rent)
This is a devastating high-mana sneak card.  You can stick him in the middle of the pack and shred your opponent's back ranks.
- Prismatic Energy ($24 Buy / 1.88 DEC Rent)
The is a powerful high-mana / high-health magic card with 'Magic Reflect'.  While it's expensive to buy, it's useable in many situations.
- Furious Chicken ($24 Buy / 3.17 DEC Rent)
This is the most expensive card on the list, and for good reason.  It's neutral and zero mana.  It can be plugged into so many situations.  Think about when you were grinding up to be eligible for BRONZE II how many empty ranks you could have plugged this card into.  Make no mistake, a card that can soak up even a single hit can make the difference between winning and losing.  Given the price to buy it, it would probably make a lot of sense to rent it at this stage.
- Gargoya Devil ($0.35 Buy / 0.1 DEC Rent)
This card is still in print and is still being dropped, but it's so cheap, you might as well pick one up.
- Uraeus ($1.88 Buy / 0.4 DEC Rent)
This is stupid cheap for an epic card.  There's no reason you shouldn't have one. A shielded sneaker can be a great card in the back ranks

- War Chaang ($24 Buy / 1 DEC Rent)
This is a versatile card that is particularly powerful in Sneak and Melee Mayhem rounds
- Magi of Chaos ($3.90 Buy / 0.55 DEC Rent)
An inexpensive Chaos Legion Epic card with good magic damage.
- GEM Meteor ($3.45 Buy / 0.47 DEC Rent)
Another inexpensive Chaos Legion Epic card with the new Scattershot ability.
- Enchanted Defender ($2.50 Buy / 0.1 DEC Rent)
A card useful for guarding the back ranks, particularly in equalizer rounds.
- Djin Chwala ($2.28 Buy / 0.59 DEC Rent)
A cheap epic Dragon tank with thorns.  Good in the back ranks for high mana sneak rounds.
- Naga Assasin($0.38 Buy / 0.1 DEC Rent)
A fast and inexpensive ranged attacker.
- Twilight Basilisk ($0.35 Buy / 0.1 DEC Rent)
Never really got a chance to use this one, but it is cheap.
- Gloridax Soldier ($1.59 Buy / 0.2 DEC Rent)
This may have been useful in certain Earthquake rounds, but I didn't end up using him.
- Sepentine Mystic ($5.67 Buy / 0.34 DEC Rent)
Low mana magic card with Affliction
- Dragonling Bowman ($5.70 Buy / 0.7 DEC Rent)
A ranged sneak attacker I never ended up using.  

This collection brings my total deck power to 1085, but can I clear BRONZE II with it?.  So you could either pay $114 for these cards, or a mere 11 DEC per day.  Clearly it makes much more sense to rent most of them.

<hr>

### The Results

![20211213 10_21_28Splinterlands  Collect, Trade, Battle!  Brave.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmfWTKmMayxhD37YMyaqrVHRpeEMQiYRRie8uCiVgXy9F4/2021-12-13%2010_21_28-Splinterlands%20-%20Collect,%20Trade,%20Battle!%20-%20Brave.png)

Not being used to the Chaos Legion Cards, it took a bit of grinding to figure out good combinations to clear BRONZE II.  I found myself drawn to the Water and Earth splinters for the simple reason that they are the only ones that have healers.  I underutilized the Dragon splinter, but most of the Neutral cards I chose got used heavily.

<hr>

### Next Step

To get into BRONZE I, I'll need about 4k more power.  At this level I'll want to see how cheaply I can reach eligibility for Silver League, as well as how far I can climb up the Bronze League leaderboard.  This might require a lot of rebalancing and changing cards, but hopefully I can get a competive deck going for about 5X the DEC expense of BRONZE II.  But at this point I need to decide what cards I need to add, and possibly level up. We'll see what happens.

For now I've got some more cards to pick...