Replace Your Starter Cards with PeakMonsters to Maximize Rewards

Greetings Players of Splinterlands,

With the recent news from @yabapmatt during the Splinterlands Town Hall about changes to the rewards system, now may be an excellent time to purchase an owned set of Starter cards to optimize your gains (especially if you play or bot multiple accounts).

In this article, I will walk through how to use @peakmonsters to see which cards you need and to find the cheapest availalbe quickly using their tools and filters.

If you missed the news, @yabapmatt recently described new updates to the rewards system that are slated for launch sometime around April. These changes seek to improve player experiences in lower leagues while incentivizing ownership and reinvestment into the Splinterlands economy.

Here are some of the key changes that were described:

1. Players will now get a penalty against rewards for every Starter card they use in a battle. If you use starter cards only, you could earn no rewards for that battle. This is to encourage players to buy or rent cards instead of relying on the Starter cards
2. Distribution of rewards will potentially change, especially quantities of chests, to keep the game fun at all levels. Based on the discussion there might be changes to the amounts that players can earn in lower levels too, assuming they own or rent the cards they play.

Overall I think these are awesome changes that should help increase card values over time by encouraging players to invest in the game to earn rather than relying on the Starter deck to farm for DEC and rewards chests.

Unfortunately, this is a double-edged sword. Because card prices are going up, it'll be more costly to claim these rewards if you don't act quickly to exchange your starter cards for their owned versions.

Now is a perfect opportunity to strike before the rewards changes have come into play and the demand for cards increases drastically. Especially since the starter card prices are already showing signs of rising just from the announcement of the coming changes.

Let's dive into how you can use Peakmonsters to find the cards you need to replace your Starter cards with owned versions that will protect your ability to earn rewards!

1. Navigate to the Buy Page on https://peakmonsters.com/

Click "Buy" in the Nav Bar.

2. Ensure you're logged into the right account by clicking on your profile in the top right.

You want to run this process from the account that will be playing.
If needed, click "Switch account" to switch to the right account. Alternatively, log out and log in to the correct account.

3. Look at the list of the Lowest Priced Cards.

On the "BUY" page, Click "COMPARE"
Then Click the "Compare by" dropdown.
and select "Lowest price card to buy"**

4. Filter down to the Current Starter Editions

In the filters, under "Edition" you can filter to see cards in "Chaos Legion" (which will be cheaper), "Untamed" (which will be more expensive), or select both to see the entire current starter set.

Note: The "Modern" format filter will filter down to Chaos & Untamed but it will also show Rewards Cards and Dice cards which, while useful, are not part of the Starter decks.

5. Filter down to Regular Cards

To restrict cards to just the regular versions (and not the Gold Foil versions) check the "Regular" checkbox under the "GENERAL" filter settings.**

6. Filter down to Commons and Rares

The starter cards include all "Common" and "Rare" cards. Select both the grey circle and the blue circle to filter down to just these two rarities.**

7. Filter down to Excluded Owned/Playable Cards

Finally, the last thing you may want to filter down to is to ONLY see cards that you don't already have or that are already playable. To do this, under the "OTHERS" section, select "Exclude" next to "Playable" to remove cards you can currently play. (This only factors Owned, Delegated, or Rented cards - not the Starter cards.)

If you are renting cards and only want to see the cards you own directly, then select "Exclude" next to "Owned" to exclude only the cards you own. (Note: If you run multiple accounts and delegate cards out, the Owned exclusion will not accurately show the cards you need to purchase for the account you're working on - you'll need to use the Playable filter and potentially remove any rentals you have active for a short time or otherwise note them directly for your buy list.)

8. Click to Add the Cards to Your Cart

Now you simply click the blue "Add to Cart" button to add the lowest priced card to your PeakMonsters cart.

If you accidentally click to add a card twice, PeakMonsters will let you know and only add one card rather than adding duplicates.

If a card is no longer available for that price, PeakMonsters will give a red warning letting you know. You can click the green refresh button in the top right to reload the cards while saving your filters to have PeakMonsters grab the current market data - thus allowing you to add the card at the new lowest price.

9. Click Your Cart to Pay and Check Out and Claim Ownership Of Your New Cards!

After you've added all the needed cards, you can click the cart icon in the top bar to see all the cards you've added.

In this view, you're able to see the total purchase prices as well as the amount of Collection Power you'll buy.

From here you can either pay with DEC or pay with Credits.

Current Pricing for Complete Starter Card Sets

Here are the current prices to buy a complete Starter set of cards when I created this article.

Untamed: $102.818

Chaos Legion: $26.337

Total: $129.155

Bonus: Maximize PKM Earnings When Buying Your Starter Cards

Not only does PeakMonsters make the process of filtering down to the cards you need incredibly convenient, because of the recent launch of the PKM token you can actually earn some great PKM rewards by buying your cards strategically through PeakMonsters!

Here are a few tips:

1. If possible, make your Starter Card set purchases all at once in order to get access to Large Purchase bonus airdrops from PeakMonsters. At current prices a full starter set of both Untamed and Chaos should secure you at least 12.5 PKM from the Large Purchase Bonus airdrop and .288 PKM Weekly for a year from the Weekly Airdrops!
2. If you are purchasing Starter Card sets for multiple accounts, it may be worth while to go through the extra effort to note the cards and quantity you need so you can purchase from one account and maximize your Large Purchase PKM Bonus and Weekly PKM airdrops as well!

Wrapping it Up

Overall, the changes to the Splinterlands rewards system incentivize players to own cards rather than relying on the starter set. This is a great move by the team that should help increase the value of cards over time. However, it's important to act quickly to replace your starter cards with owned versions before the changes come into effect or you may find yourself at a disadvantaage.

Peakmonsters is a great tool to use to quickly identify the cards you need and to find the best prices. With its filtering options, you can easily see which cards are available and at what price. I encourage everyone to check it out and to take advantage of this opportunity before it's too late!

Archmage Courier: Issue #15