For me Splinterlands has been a love/hate relationship really. When I first started playing the game I loved it because it was a fun easy way to earn NFT's and even crypto. But you could take all that out and it would still be a fun game to play. I was immediately captivated by all the dynamics of the game. I joined a guild after a little while. I still have yet to do any tournament and I am okay with that.
My love for the game started about half way into the untamed 'season' if we can call it that. I was playing most of my daily quests and earnings a few crappy cards or credits. But I very quickly at this point hit a wall where it seemed like I was destined to not progress any further past Bronze 2. I thought that maybe I just really was not that smart with how I was playing and maybe I truly didn't understand the game dynamics all that well. I still don't know everything but I know enough to play decent hands and win some games. The more I started to lose regularly though the more I stopped playing as much. It slowly turned into me just playing enough to get out of the Novice division every season to earn some rewards at the end of the season. And honestly that has continued for a very long time.
I have read posts of people making a metric crap ton off of Splinterlands. I know people who have thousands of dollars worth of cards and even SPS. They play this game almost as a source of income. I play this game just for fun and there is the difference. I do not perfect my craft when it comes to how I play. What Splinters I pick and what cards I choose to use with them. For the longest time I just picked a melee or two card(s) to go first and then maybe a magic or range if I had room. I never really took the time to understand the abilities of cards and what to play with what.
I would pick a team quickly as to get the round over and rinse and repeat. That method has led me to lose a lot of games. More then I care to admit actually lol. So it was about a week ago that I decided I was going to start playing the game more seriously. I am not a foreigner to card games. Shoot I was raised up with Pokémon cards and I still have those bad boys to this day. 1st Edition foil Machamp... I am looking at you brother!
It was time to invest some crypto and some time back into this game. So I went to Atomic Hub and bought 5 packs. They were about 8.5 WAX each so lets round to 43 WAX which at the time of writing is worth $14.82. I only had enough potions for the 1st two packs and the last 3 were opened with no potions because I wanted to see if I could tell a difference.
Pack #1 (with potions)
Right off the bat we got 2 Epic cards which I will take any day. Both are new to me.
Weirding Warrior $1.56
Wave Brood $2.49 (I really like this guy with Taunt and Close Range)
Venari Scout $0.07
Supply Runner $0.19
Venari Knifer $0.07
Total: $4.38
Pack #2 (with potions)
3 rare's is not bad at all either. Not going to lie at this rate I was quite pleased with my packs so far.
Xenith Archer $0.15
Scavo Firebolt $0.13
Tarsa $2.22
Scavo Hireling $0.08
Scavo Chemist $0.06
Total: $2.64
Pack #3 (no potions)
I was bummed to only get 1 rare this time but without potions I actually expected less lol.
Mycelic Slipspawn $0.66
Hill Giant $0.05
Riftwing $0.12
Mycelic Morphoid $0.04
Chaos Agent $0.10
Total: $0.97
Pack #4 (no potions)
BOOM, a gold card and a Rare card without potions. I love it
Hardy Stonefish $0.90 (I already had 2 of these but not golden so that's nice)
Angelic Mandarin $0.30
Disintegrator $0.08
Gargoya Scrapper $0.04
Mycelic Morphoid $0.04
Total: $1.36
Pack #5 (no potions)
2 rares without potions is a great find by my standards
Mycelic Slipspawn $0.66
Dhampir Stalker $0.14
Crypt Beetle $0.05
Gargoya Scrapper $0.04
Carrion Shade $0.04
Total $0.93
My total amount at time of writing is $10.28 and I paid 14.82 for it. At face value that is a crap deal. However I am not buying packs just to sell the cards. I am buying packs to use the cards and make more DEC and get more cards hopefully. That being said losing $4.54 on the 5 packs is okay with me. It is so much okay that I went and bought 5 more packs after I opened these 5 lol
Here are packs 6-10 and none of them were used with potions.
Pack #6
Shadow Snitch $0.06
Supply Runner $0.19
Carrion Shade $0.04
Dax Paragon $1.38
Mycelic Infantry $0.17
Total: $1.84
Pack #7
Hill Giant $0.05
Chaos Agent $0.51
Mycelic Morphiod $0.22
Djinn Apprentice $0.14
Diemonshark $0.67
Total: $1.59
Pack #8
Silent Sha-Vi $0.12
Merfaali Guardian $0.57
Radiated Scorcher $0.06
Stitch Leech $0.12
Lava Spider $0.07
Total: $0.94
Pack #9
Scavo Hireling $0.42
Stitch Leech $0.12
Life Sapper $0.23
Xenith Archer $0.15
Chaos Knight $0.07
Total: $0.99
Pack #10
Mycelic Morphiod $0.22
Silent Sha-Vi $0.12
Scavo Chemist $0.06
Antoid Platoon $0.08
Portal Spinner $0.11
Total: $0.59
For Packs 6-10 the total value of the cards is $5.95 which is atrocious for ROI but I got a few new cards I didn't have before so that is great. Opening these packs have re-sparked my interest in the game. I want to get better. I want to get to higher levels. I have a Collection Power of 9.915 at the moment. However I am renting out all my GOLD cards. Why you ask? Because in Bronze 3 and Bronze 2 where I have been stuck you don't win DEC anymore at the end of battles. So using Gold cards at these lower levels means nothing. So why not make some DEC by renting them out?
Also 1 quick little tidbit that I learned. If you started to rent out a card a long time ago... I would go check to see how much you are renting it out for and check to see what others are renting there's out for. I learned that I have been leaving so much on the table because I rented out a card at 3 DEC/day a few months ago and I check again and the suggested rental value is 6.6 DEC/day.
I need to start focusing on getting Summoners. Having a level 2 card means nothing is your summoner is level 1. However Summoners are stupid expensive. If I could buy cards with SPS then maybe I would have spent some of my SPS but as of yet, I haven't spent any SPS that I earned so far this year. I am super curious to see what happens to SPS after the airdrops end.
This article was originally posted on Publish0x by me.