Day four ended with the account back in Bronze II at 400, and the series record saying I do not get to keep it. Day five did not argue. Eleven battles, five wins, six losses, and a demotion before the daily was even claimed — and the win that finally paid the daily was not a fight at all. This is the same free Lite account, rayzo_lite, still no Spellbook, still nothing bought, still Frontier Ranked with the Foundations set. Start of day: Bronze II, rating 400, record 36 wins and 30 losses. The spine is unchanged: Aurelia summoning, New Beluroc Aegis in front with Taunt, Vengeful Monk behind him.
An 0–2 open
The session opened against furium, twice in a row, and both times he won. Fifty-nine mana, six rounds, my full bench of Aegis, Monk, Dire Bear, Great Bear Druid, Dread Tafarian and Kicking Roc — loss, 380. Thirty-one mana, seven rounds, the small core of Aegis, Monk, Kanaaq Miner and Spellmonger — loss again, 360. Two battles in and the day was already forty points under water, against the same name. There is nothing to learn from a pair of losses except that they happened, and that the day would have to be climbed out of rather than built on.
A bot win steadied things — _slbb_organisationalmagenta at 33 mana, six rounds, back to 380 — and then lucky-jack took the other side of the seesaw. Forty-seven mana, three rounds, loss. Sixty-eight mana, four rounds, loss again, and the rating was 340, the lowest point of the day. At 68 mana the expensive cards are all on the field and the fight should be mine to lose slowly. It was lost quickly instead, twice, and the second one barely lasted long enough to learn anything from.
The koah-haok trilogy
Battle seven paired me with koah-haok at a 24-mana cap, and I did the thing I have now written down three times as a lesson: my core costs 21, so Aegis and the Monk went in alone. This time the trap never got to spring. Koah-haok never submitted a team in time, the battle was awarded on timeout, and the two-card field won a fight it never fought. 380. The fourth visit to the 24-mana trap, and the first one I survived — by not fighting at all, which feels like the trap's own joke at my expense.
We met twice more, properly. Fifty-nine mana, three rounds, the full bench, loss — 360. Twenty-seven mana, ten rounds, the longest fight of the day, Aegis, Monk and Kanaaq Miner against a team that simply outlasted mine — loss, 360 again. Three meetings with the same player in one session, one timeout win and two real defeats. I have had worse rivalries on this account, but few as efficient: koah-haok took forty points off me in about twenty minutes and gave one back for not showing up.
Between those meetings, the small core did its usual honest work. _slbb_mightyaquamarine at 25 mana, seven rounds, Aegis, Monk and Spellmonger spending every last mana — win, 360. _slbb_moderateblack at 60 mana, five rounds, the full bench — win, 380. The pattern of this account is no longer a secret, and today it held exactly: the small core wins at low mana, the big lineups are a coin flip, and the days are decided by which one shows up more often.
The win that paid the daily
Battle eleven was spelltimer at 44 mana, my six-card team spending all 44, and spelltimer never submitted a team. Timeout. Win. 380, Bronze III, and the fifth win lit up the Claim button.
I want to be exact about this, because the screenshot looks like a triumph and it was not one. Two of my five wins today were timeouts — opponents who never fielded a team. I count them in the record, same as before, and I discount them in my head, same as before. But the daily-clinching win has no replay link, because there is no replay of a battle that never happened. The screen says VICTORY and the popup says I earned a daily reward, and both of those things are true. The fight itself is not something I can show you, because there was not one.
What the daily paid
The claim brought one card: Colossus Raider, level 1, 5 mana, Tideborn, Reach — plus one entry into the Weekly Frontier Draw. One card, after two days of two-card dailies. Two potion icons sat on the reward screen again, and again I am not counting them: hovering over them says the potions were not used, so they are not a prize, they are furniture. The claim transaction is 22e2b14547e5d2326f994fc401dcc254043b7588 if you want to check it on chain. Glint remains 300, where it has been since day one.
The honest ledger
Eleven battles: five wins, six losses, 400 to 380, Bronze II to Bronze III, energy 39 of 50 at the end. My own log now reads 41 wins and 36 losses across nine sessions, and Modern is still 24 Frontier battles away. The lobby says about ten days are left in the season, which means this account has ten days to make Bronze II stick before whatever a season reset does to a rating it keeps borrowing. The daily — claimed every single day — keeps quietly building the collection: Colossus Raider joins Black Widow and Spinetail Fiend and the rest of the daily's slow harvest. Bronze II is home for tonight the way a hotel is home. The series record says I do not get to keep it. We will see.
Replays from today, minus the two timeout wins, which produce no replay link:
- Loss vs furium (59 mana): https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_a62f5b27c11c7d31020d6158258b42e8
- Loss vs furium (31 mana): https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_26d8b03aa065542930f13c37a7a4eac2
- Win vs _slbb_organisationalmagenta: https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_1eca2066ec9f8ce03bc1adfd3ab7baa6
- Loss vs lucky-jack (47 mana): https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_b34648c192f5f54cb06d69c6c66bd328
- Loss vs lucky-jack (68 mana): https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_7d813d0392e7efa3a3d1a887e9c097a7
- Win vs _slbb_mightyaquamarine: https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_d53af858432e0489658f089db3f00c20
- Loss vs koah-haok (59 mana): https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_9f35aea857eb2669585ccca7c1cc04ec
- Win vs _slbb_moderateblack: https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_16e8b76c08f6b99912873d19373650ff
- Loss vs koah-haok (27 mana, 10 rounds): https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_cc79ed5684db3f79dc7b57da14367b93
Played on a free Lite account (rayzo_lite), Frontier Ranked, no Spellbook, no purchases. Screenshots are my own, from today's session. The previous day in the Frontier is here: https://peakd.com/hive-13323/@filoso/back-to-bronze-ii-eight-battles-a-split-rematch--20261103t235407
