With my focus being on rentals, especially for Wild Tournaments, prices have become very attractive as I presume sellers need liquidity for Rebellion. Whether these are weaker hands, or simply those making tradeoff decisions for newer editions, it doesn't matter. Cards that I never thought I'd practically be able to get are now in my deck. Since Summoners will typically be in the highest demand if more play the game, I feel that these are solid long term investments.
Using DEC from rental income, which can range in the $50-$55/day range on weekends, and $15-$30 on normal weekdays, plus my liquidity pool income, I've been consistently scooping up deals. With demand being so low on more expensive cards, I've been able to let card prices slide, and then strike with funds from outside the ecosystem when external funds are performing well. This extra purchasing power has been a big help, as well as messaging sellers directly to negotiate packages.
While I've bought plenty of "Monsters" in this fashion, here are the Summoners...
Untamed Legendaries:
- Max Mimosa Nightshade: $1,010 cost
- Level 3 Yodin Zaku: $1,443
- Max Chanseus The Great: <$1,000
- Max Scarred Llama Mage: $2,198
- Level 3 Byzantine Kitty: $2,200
Total Cost: $7,851 (ouch... but let's see how that looks in a year or two + nice passive income along the way)
While I won't play much, until Bots stop draining Wild, I feel that the strong demand for Level 3 and Level 4 Gold Untamed Summoners will play in my favor. The supply of these at these levels is paper thin, so I can essentially name my price. From experience, these cards almost always rent for 2-3 days on the weekends. For those who routinely rent them, thank you for your business. While weekends are the hottest time, I consider any weekday rentals of these larger cards nothing but a bonus. I won't fiddle with price levels to encourage weekday rentals... they're set for those who want to win tournaments on the weekends.
To this point, I paid for them the hard way and deserve a good return. I joined late to the SPL party, but have made up more ground than most by bringing new funds into the ecosystem.
I'll ultimately want to max out Yodin and Kitty, because who wouldn't. They're elite cards to likely never sell, unless there were offers that I couldn't refuse. If fairly priced BCX do present themselves, I'll soften the blow with rental and LP income, bring in external funds, and merge them to rent faster than you can blink. I'll then have permanent bragging rights over @Blewitt, despite all of his land, cards, titles, nodes, and SPL tattoos.
Untamed Rares:
- Max Bortus
- Max Owster Rotwell (love this card since it helped me place 4th in the Splinterfest tourn)
- 2 Max Mylor Crowling, 1 @ Level 6
- Max Qid Yuff
- Max Lorna Shine
- Max Brighton Bloom
Most were acquired at solid prices, except the Mylors, which I bought at relatively good prices, rented well, but have since taken a hit on after being moved to Wild. Can't win 'em all. I've been tempted to lower my average total cost via recent deals, but would rather diversify. There's also a fair amount of supply on the rental market, so it's better to focus where that's not the case.
Nothing too fancy here otherwise, as this set was mainly bought for playing... which, again, I'm not incentivized to do right now until the team fixes some things, and SPS shows more stability.
Chaos Legion Legendaries:
- 3 Max Quix The Devious
- 3 Max Grandmaster Rathe
- 3 Max Conqueror Jacek
- 1 Max Lux Vega
- 2 Max Possibilus The Wise, 2 @ Level 3
- 2 Max Immortalis, 1 @ Level 3
- 3 Astral Entity, 1 @ Level 3
- 3 Max Lily Shieldpaw
I feel that these will be big winners during the next bull run. I've tried to give myself options in that I can keep one max copy, rent another, and sell the rest. If prices go crazy, I'll let myself sell the second max copy, while retaining one for the long haul. In the near term, I'll likely grab 1 more Level 3 Immortalis.
Chaos Legion Epics:
- 2 Max Aquatus
- 2 Max Dallan
- 1 Max Fernheart
- 1 Max Skargore
- 2 Max Ilthain
- 1 Max Sthispa
I'll definitely be grabbing second max copies of those I don't have yet, but no rush. I'm not sure how these will do in the long run, except the pair of Ilthains. I'm treating the rest as nice-to-haves.
Chaos Legion Rares:
- 2 Max Kelya Frendul
- Max Thaddius Brood
- Max Obsidian
- 2 Max Tarsa
- 2 Max General Sloan
These are the old faithfuls I grew up on when I started playing. I'll grab a second Thaddius and Obsidian fairly soon to complete the sets. I'll likely cap it at that, or snipe more max copies to rent. The supplies are high, but they're good entry level cards for new players, who'll likely routinely need them until they're pushed out into Wild.
Overall:
My plan is to keep a set of everything, or most, for the long term. I'll rent everything for as long as I can, and then sell many of the dupes during the next euphoria phase. I'll hate selling, but I'd like to recover some of the external funds I put into the ecosystem -- which allowed plenty of people to exit over the last year. I don't know how wild rental income will be during that time, but it's decent enough for now to hold out for a while, and it pools up nicely after the weekends. I'm not sure that I feel the allure to play, although that might change if I can max out my L3 Yodin and Kitty.
Bull Market Priority: exit SPS Liquidity Pool where I've been hammered on impermanent loss. I've held through the thick and the thin, thinner, and thinnest, and would love to come out even on that. However, I have little expectation while SPS continues to be printed faster than USD. I'd think that SPS should have a few weeks in the sun to allow me to do this. If not, it'll always feel like a mistake.
No Rebellion cards for a while. I bought one max gold common before prices surged, but prefer to buy with leverage as others sell off their older cards.
Current Gold Collection Power: 12,475,793
I'm writing this to look back on down the line to either see if my plan was sound, or if it was a resounding failure. There's not much point to invest further except for topping off, as I think I've paid the price for admission to a solid position in the economy going forward.
I'll write another one or two for the Monsters at some point.
Thanks for reading if you caught this and got this far.