My SPLINTERLANDS Journey

The Hydra is not a Dragon. It is a despicable and terrifying creature that is as cunning as it is destructive. Since arriving in the Splinterlands, the Hydra has aimed for nothing but total domination through any means necessary. He has an array of formidable defenses, healing, and Dragon-force attack.

How did you discover Splinterlands?

My Splinterlands journey started either at Digg or Reddit back in the day when I first read about Bitcoin. Being a big Ron Paul fan and supporter I was all about a payment system that was decentralized and went around the banks. I clearly remember reading a post about what a big deal it was that Bitcoin was now worth $1. I'm still kicking myself for not capitalizing on that time, but now that I'm 45 years old, I know that I didn't have the maturity or self-discipline to not destroy myself as a billionaire in my thirties. I would have ended up dead if I had that kind of cash back then so it's all good. I now have a lovely family and a happy life so I don't think about it too much.

I also remember a fellow teacher at my job bragging about how she had a whole Bitcoin and dismissing her saying I have more than one. She then told me that it was worth thousands of dollars. I had forgotten about Bitcoin for years so I quickly logged into my ~~Coinbase~~ account to see if it was still there. It was, but they had frozen my account due to their KYC rules. I was living in Bangkok, Thailand, and only had a passport for an ID, which they didn't accept so my Bitcoin was stuck in ~~Coinbase~~ until I was able to get back to the States and get a driver's license. I then had to take that stupid selfie photo with my ID and date on a piece of paper like 30 times because the iPhone 5 I had wasn't taking clear enough photos for them. I also remember giving them the finger in most of those selfies. Once I got control of my Bitcoins I immediately took them out of those devils' hands at ~~Coinbase~~ and diversified them into lots of Shitcoins. Most of them were a big mistake, but I did buy 1,000 ~~Steem~~ tokens and started blogging.

~~Steemit~~ was on fire back in 2017. I remember people making $700 to $1,000 a post simply by taking a hike up a mountain, expressing their feelings, or just giving out random advice. I was hooked. I thought that since I could speak Thai fluently and was a popular teacher in Thailand that my popularity would instantly convert to my new ~~Steemit~~ account, @TeachinThai. That sadly did not happen as there weren't that many Thai speakers. I did come across a lot of people posting about a cool new game on the ~~Steem~~ blockchain called SteemMonsters that only costs $10 to get started so I got the starter pack and started battling.

What was your first card?

I had just missed the Alpha launch so I started the game when it was in Beta so my first cards were the free Beta cards you get when you start the game. I can't remember what my first market purchase was, but I do remember the first card I lusted for. It was the Hydra. I thought that if I could buy the Hydra it would solve all my problems and that I'd win every battle. Since it was around $100 per card it took me a while to get one to MAX-level, but that's not how the game was designed so it didn't make much of a difference.

The Hydra is still a cool-looking card and I'm proud to have it in my collection, but my favorite card, and the first card I got to MAX-level was the Sacred Unicorn. It's a beautiful card and was completely dominant back in the day, but sadly doesn't win as much as it used to.

A lot of the cards from back in the Alpha and Beta days look pretty lame when compared to more modern cards we see today, but this Unicorn has really held up beauty-wise.

Although the Sacred Unicorn isn't the powerhouse it used to be, it is currently kicking ass on my land. It alone is earning more than the rest of my Chaos Legion cards combined so it's still useful to me today. That's because older cards get more rewards on land than the newer ones.

How has your strategy evolved since you started?

I've come a long way in my strategy and thinking about the game since I first started. In the beginning, I was a total Life Splinter player because I relied on shields and strong melee attacks to win, but now I'm more of a magic attack guy. Magic is great because it flies right past those shields and goes straight to the heart. I also used to think that having key Legendary cards was the path to success, but now I feel that having the most diversity is the best way to get in the wins because you never know what combination of rulesets will be put out and if you have the most cards to choose from you'll have the advantage. I don't have every card in the game, but I do have every cheap card in the game and most of them at MAX-level so it helps both me and the bot have options when it's time to battle.

What are your goals in the game now?

I'm pretty happy with what I've achieved in the game so far. I have a MAX-level summoner for every splinter. I'm currently in the top ten percent of players in both Modern and Wild at the moment and I've got the game running pretty much on autopilot with my Wild deck and the bot.

I would still like to make it into at least the top 50 players and not be such a chump in the Survival mode in the future. I'd also like to have a million collection points and at least 10,000 Champion points. It would also be cool to have a hundred thousand SPS. Thanks for reading about my Splinterlands journey and future goals today. I hope you find success in your Splinterjourney as well!