Further Into the Deep - My plans to Build Up my Water Deck

Some thoughts and insight as I get closer to purchasing some higher level assistance.

WHAT

I need to diversify my current deck. I enjoy playing at the Silver level and have found level two summoners with some level three and two support gives me a fighting chance. Unfortunately I only currently own one splinter at this level that I am satisfied with.

_{Silver League Summoner Limits}

The photo above is a screen shot of the Silver League Summoner limits. These limits happen to line up with level four rare summoner capabilities. I'd love to get my summoners up to level four for a fully maxed out silver deck, but my budget won't allow that in one shot, so I will have to be content taking it slow and starting off with level 2 summoners.

I used this week's Share Your Battle Challenge as an opportunity to rent a water splinter team that I have been considering purchasing. Below is an in depth look at the team and how I want to fund these purchases.

WHO

Beasts	From The	Deep

WHY

Who	Level	Why
Kelya Fruendal	2	🛡️ Obviously a summoner is needed to make this work, but I actually had considered purchasing Quix or Kretch so that I could use some leveled up cards from any splinter. I decided I would rather be more methodical and build up each splinter individually. 🏃
Torent Fiend	1	Zero mana cost. Possibly pricey for what is mostly a shield, but I can't resist 🛡️
Djinn Oshannus	1	The high armor of this team is great, but magic beats it up quickly. Void helps slow the beating and gives the back line more rounds to operate. 🔮
Cruel Sethropod	3	🛡️ Three mana cost, three shield, before Kelya's buff, and four health make this a great low mana tank.
Flying Squid	3	Pricey at seven mana cost, but packs a punch with high health and does it all while protected in the second position ⚔️
Deeplurker	3	⚔️ Lower mana cost than Flying Squid and can attack from any position with Opportunity.
Kelp Initiate	1	Awesome low mana meat shield 🛡️
Hardy stonefish	3	$0.56 for a level three. Not the most exciting card, but a cheap shield that can possibly get a shot in. Paired with Demented Shark could even be a painful shot. 🛡️
Merdalli Guardian	2	❤️ Tank Heal, need I say more?
Venari Wavesmith	2	🛡️ 🔮One magic attack, and protect, make Venari a huge asset. Adding two more armor to the whole team could turn a game in your favor.
Demented Shark	1	🚩 Inspire, with a few of this teams heavy hitters, can cause some damage that will rival a Tarsa team! ⚔️

HOW

When I last looked on Peakmonsters this full team would set me back $50.99. The reasoning behind the gold foil Kelya was that at the time it was cheaper to rent than a standard foil version. I figure I will likely purchase some of the commons in gold and the prices will fluctuate before I actually purchase so, $51 is a good rough approximation.

However I do own a few cards already that need to be subtracted from this total. I already own 1 Cruel Sethropod, 3 Deeplurkers, 3 Venari Wavesmiths and 1 Kelya for a total savings of $5.15. Wow, 10% of the total already! Taking off the value of the cards I currently own the new approximate total is $45.85.

At today's current market prices that is 14,329 DEC. Over the last two weeks I have earned about 13HBD, predominatley from share your battle and social media challenge posts. I swapped these 13 HBD for DEC and added roughly 4,000 DEC to my total.

If I want to rely solely on Hive income to purchase this team, and my payouts stay at the same average pace, I am looking at another five weeks to complete the purchases. The good news is my average for the last seven days seems to be closer to 2,500 DEC so that count may come down to four weeks.

I haven't decided yet if I will supplement the Hive income to speed up the process. I'm leaning towards not adding to the pool to continue to motivate me to post. I also think it would make for an interesting series, showing that with a bit of work on the Hive side, a solid deck can be assembled without a large investment, outside of the time involved.

WRAP UP

I have enjoyed getting more experience with Kelya and her supporting cast. Having a second splinter adds more strategy to my gameplay and keeps me coming back for more. It isn't a fully maxed out Silver deck, but it will help me fight out of Bronze more quickly at the start of each season and gives me a fighting chance in Silver. I also plan to add some gold foil cards to increase my battle win payout percentage.

Digging in harder to the Hive side of the equation has also been a blast. I'm enjoying learning from others, but also sharing how I enjoy the game and the ecosystem as a whole. I've interacted with more Hivers in the last two weeks, through comments and questions, than I had in the two months prior when I joined.

Splinterlands is why I started this journey, but it has been fun to dive into what is beyond Splinterlands on the Hive ecosystem. The great thing is that the more I dig in, the more it supports my Splinterlands gameplay.

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Credits:
Card images from Splinterlands
Banner created by me using Canva

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