Splinterlands Mystery Card Challenge #4

Last week's Mystery Card Challenge was quite difficult. It was the toughest puzzle thus far by a huge margin, so it's unsurprising that the key to decoding the secret message remained unsolved. I mentioned last week that I'll be using the same trick again until someone figures it out. But not for this round; expect it in the next.

@marleyroots got the correct answer by jumping from one idea to another. The cards from the puzzle were all from Death Splinter, so it was correct to assume that the prize card was, too. Even if the secret message was unclear, marleyroots eventually settled on the Vampire card and bet on it. And it got 'em a win of two cards! There was supposed to be only one, but the players were very enthusiastic that round, so I got motivated to give more.

This week's challenge is relatively much easier. So perhaps, it'll be a race as to who gets to see this post and the puzzle first. If you want to quickly try solving the riddle, go ahead and skip to the end of this post. The middle part does not offer any hints. If a time comes that it does, I'll be upfront and mention it.

Good luck!

Diamond League Goal Dashed

There's only a day and a half left until the season ends, but I'm still behind my Rating target. I'd need to be above 2800 to reach the Diamond League, but I kept losing so my Rating score barely makes any progress.

My 2600+ Rating only qualifies me to Gold I at most

I'm playing in the Silver Leagues and I noticed that I kept encountering Silver greats like Ueyuey, Schanpoon, and many more from the top ten. Those guys are legends with an above 90% win rate, a far cry from my 60%. Of course, I'll keep losing. 😅

So I just gave up. I decided to just try next season. I settled for the next best thing, Gold I League, and rented for just enough Card Power to reach that level. Diamond III is often my target because it has better Booster Pack drop probabilities. Of course, leagues beyond that have much higher odds. But that's really beyond what I can handle.

Here's a table of the pack's rate probabilities per league. Note that it's not guaranteed, but it's a "very likely" possibility to get one pack for every X chest opened.

League	Expected One Booster Pack Out Of
Novice	Not Applicable
Bronzes	Not Applicable
Silver III	400
Silver II	200
Silver I	133
Gold III	100
Gold II	80
Gold II	67
Diamond III	57
Diamond II	50
Diamond III	44
Champion III	40
Champion II	36
Champion I	33

But Then I Was Able to Catch Up?!

I accepted that I'm missing my Diamond League target this Season. But amusingly, after I did, my Rating shot up and eventually got back on track.

Since the season started, I was battling in the Silver Leagues. I got cards maxed out in Silver so I know I can evilly lord it over other Silver players. 😆 My gameplan was to rack up as many Rating score as I could in Silver, then rent for a Card Power boost by season-end and jump to Diamonds.

But when I gave up battling in Silver and just moved forward to the Gold Leagues, I got into much easier match-ups. I initially thought that I'd get more wins staying in Silver because all my card levels are maxed out to Silver only. So I assumed my Rating would go lower if I fought in Gold. But the reverse happened?!

The reason: Within the Gold Leagues, my score goes up to the top 350 player ranking. Thus, I am appropriately matched up against middle-rank players. Compare that to the Silver Leagues where my score is within the top 50s range. The matchmaking mechanic pits me against the best of the bunch in Silver. That's why it was easier for me to snag wins in Gold despite my lower-level cards.

I'm back in business! I got the required Rating; I'd just need to rent more cards to reach Diamond III minimum Power prerequisite.

With 40 chest rewards by Season-End and another set of 10 chests from one daily quest, I'd get a total of 50. Diamond III has a Booster Pack probability of 1:57, so having a 50-chest count is good odds. All this planning just to get that one booster pack, lmao.

I luckily got one during today's Daily challenge. 🥳

But the cards were quite meh when I opened it. 😩

I hope I get another shot to open this season-end.

The Mystery Card Giveaway Challenge

Basic rules:
Only active players of Splinterlands may join.
One or multiple answers per comment.
Maximum of three answers per player (was previously five answers).

The Challenge:
Figure out the secret Splinterlands Card hinted by this image:

Guess the Card

Hint #1: The answer is a name of a Splinterlands card.
Hint #2: Life Splinter/White is used in the custom card, but it could be any Splinter color.
Hint #3: The card stats do not relate to the mystery card.



_{Previous Challenges:
Mystery Card Challenge #1 - Answer: Lava Launch(er); Prize: Lava Launcher
Mystery Card Challenge #2 - Answer: Venari; Prize: Venaris Bonesmith, Wavesmith & Crystalsmith
Mystery Card Challenge #3 - Answer: Dracula; Prize: 2 Vampires}