Lets look at some interested things that have been said about Splinterlands and the game play costs.
New users have reportedly stopped playing because the cost of cards was too high.
The answer to the cost issue is RENTING your cards.
A Silver or Gold league team will cost anything between $500 and $1500 depending on your know how, battle style and overall management of your decks.
To rent the same decks it can cost somewhere between $30 and $50 for 3 full seasons. Lets go off an average of $40 for 3 seasons.
Now this is still seen as a big price to pay to not own anything. BUT!!!
In those 3 seasons You will earn 70 quest chests minimum with silver league status (more if you get potions in the chest for a 5 times bonus chest)
AND 30 - 50 league chests minimum if obtaining silver league status for the 3 seasons.
That's 120 to 150 chests for your $40 spend over 3 seasons ( 45 days roughly )
30 to 50 of those chests will have 5 items.
That is a total of 250 - 300 items. of which around 150 - 200 will be monsters or summoners.
200 cards is more than enough to start your collection (duplicates can be crowded so lets say 100 as an average)
NOW! That's not all. What if you get epic or legendary cards? It's a rare occurrence but none the less just 1 legendary card will refund your total costs and you still have hundreds of cards in your collection.
Lets say you don't get a legendary. So we will say 10 mid value rare cards will fetch $20 to $30. half of your investment minimum.
Now your 200 battle cards have cost you $40 or maybe less if you snag good selling cards along the way.
Finally. We can say that those 45 day average on the game cost you $40 in rentals. Less than $1 a day
You've basically spent $1 a day to receive 150 plus battle cards and your set for the next 2 seasons at least.
$40 for a 150 plus card collection over 3 seasons is more than worth it.
It's not too expensive. Your just seeing the cost as a set back without working out your return possibilities.