Splinterlands | My Strategy So Far
As someone who has played collective card games (CCG) and games that can have some long-term cost to them. I see it very important to think long-term in how you approach a game like Splinterlands. Taking advantage of what you can in the short term but not overdoing yourself on spending. I consider myself a “budget” player who put some investment in first to get started with plans to over time focus on building up my fire main and other splinters.
While having maxed out cards can help they are not needed to do decent in this game. This is coming from my own experience now reaching at least Champion III twice. I have even seen lower level cards under the right conditions earn more in booster packs then they cost to create. Sometimes seeing my own deck get murder by them as well. Which is quite amazing to see people come up with something that works at their level of gameplay.
Initial Investment And Long-Term Building
Most of my starting investments where into some Alpha cards. My long-term thinking of this is at some point I can start to sell off some of my Alphas and pick up cheaper non-alpha cards down the line to fill my gaps or even build a much more fuller and higher level deck. Along with wanting to be able to do dailies to some degree and gain ranking for free booster packs from season rewards as well.
While my main splinter is fire with a level 6 summoner and a couple of level 5 cards. My remaining splinters are just level 3 at best and not even that well rounded. During my initial investment phase before fully understanding the game mechanics, I made some choices that were a bit incorrect in my understanding. Such as my focus on melee over having a more diverse fielding. I also did not know what would be nerfed or buff. Along with just thinking around a 20 mana cap with teams that turned out not to be so great. There has been one saving grace to my choices and that was I expected card prices to increase.
As someone who has experience in the CCG genre of games I also expect there to be nerfs or buffs that are either foreseen or unforeseen. Even more so with this just being in Beta. Along with there always being that “must have” cards that will drive sales for booster packs and spending to buy them off the market. Of which I’ll resist that urge to buy the flavor of the month. Things get balanced out over time. At least in games I’ve played that has an effect on the price of that item being balanced as well.
I also do not consider myself “lucky” when it comes to things RNG based like opening booster packs. As such if it came down to paying full price for a booster pack or just buying the cards I need I’ve gone mostly with buying those cards. While I’ll still open free booster packs in hopes of some kind of RNG landing me cards I need. That desire is about it outside of buying maybe a booster pack or two when there are new ones. While I could sell my booster packs right away at a reduce amount or hold onto them later on for a higher price. I would rather have cards now and at the price point you need to sell those free booster packs at I would rather chance it with RNG.
While I did combine a few of my cards at the start to have something to play with. If I don’t see myself having a need to level up a card I’ll leave them alone until I have a need. While many are trying to sell leveled up cards at a premium I suspect unless there is a way to disassemble cards one day to get all that xp into single cards the sum will be worth more than the whole. In fact, you can sometimes see someone selling a leveled up card at a discount already.
As far as selling there are some other things I take into consideration. Using cards to acquire free booster packs has some value to them reducing the amount needed to sell for at least break even. Along with people buying at cheaper price weeks or months ago compared to where the price could be heading due to time, buffs, or nerfs.
I'm also used to people undercutting for a quick sale. Which is quite silly if you think about it as far as sales volume goes in leveling up cards. A common beta card requires 25 cards for level 5 and 505 cards for level 10. Why would you undercut the cheapest card unless you had a legendary or gold foil and did not want to wait? Just by the numbers on common, rare, and even epic you could get a better price and still sell in a timely matter when someone needs to buy in bulk.
If in the event I do get a lucky pull in a free booster pack I plan to pocket some of it to recover initial investment and do some building of my splinters. Along with buying up what I view as “undervalued” cards. After all, it only takes an underplayed card receiving a slight buff to suddenly become worth quite a lot more. As we can see in these alpha epic monster cards there is a big price difference. In fact, some cards I wanted to get weeks ago have increased to the point I won’t be buying them now.
My long-term goal at the very least is to just keep building my collection. I’ll achieve this by spending a small budget amount from time to time. Entering contests that are giving away cards such as the many that can be found on Contestkings verified lists, and acquire free booster from daily or season rewards. Which I suspect if I do not grow fast enough, in the long run, I’ll see myself place lower and lower as the seasons go as other grow in levels. I’m a gamer first and an investor second.
Season 1 And 2
I have been very lucky to make it to at least Champion III for both of these seasons and complete the major of daily quests as well during that time period. I did this as well manually as I still enjoy the game. While I don’t always watch how the matches unfold as a gamer I despise bots.
I learned in season one it was better to hold off on pushing ranking till we were getting close to the end of the season and with rules of combat that I felt was in my favor. At first, I would push and then I would get my daily that caused me hours of having to lose to just get low enough ranking. I then would want to push again to try and get further. This was just a lot of wasted time.
I also suspect since this is beta and we are using a blockchain after all that issues could happen to cause gameplay to be unstable. Such as what we have been seeing the past day. So holding to the very last few hours like so many other people always do does not seem like the ideal plan either. The last 48 hours could have combat rules you hate and you don’t want to lose out on season rewards just for a couple extra daily rewards.
For whatever reason people always procrastinate or perhaps they get a little “greedy” on farming dailies getting that last free booster before pushing. I do not want my level 5 deck to be getting crushed by max decks rushing to get from silver to Champion and falling just 30 ranking short of my goals.
When melee mayhem started with just a few days left I knew it was my time to push with the cards I have. While they were not the best set up and I would prefer a higher mana cap I used what I had. I finished my last daily that I could while still leaving myself more than 12 hours under that combat rule. I went from silver to champion even despite there being some blockchain issues. If I would have failed I still would have 4 days left to make something happen.
There are also other benefits to not trying to push hard during the entire season. Everyone else has been gaining a lot of points while I’ve kept myself low just doing dailies. Making them the perfect farm when it’s time to go go go! In fact I almost on purpose a few times thought about killing off any streaks I went on with a 1 card deck to just keep myself from gaining too many rankings from wins. While I did not that could be an option next season I think about.
While I did not luck out and get fire for my daily quest today. I am only leaving 3 free booster packs on the table assuming after I finish this daily next season I do not get one right away. I also want to finish this time around in the champion league. Both so I have some champion points (just in case they become something worth having), and so I at least have Gold II rewards as the bare minimum next season just in case there are any issues with the reset like last time. Granted I did enjoy most of this season is in silver with level 3 cards for dailies.
As far as the rest of this season goes. I’ll try and get champion II if the blockchain issues clear up. If not I’m done playing and will enjoy some time away. I was around just 200 points from that goal but at this high of a league with my cards that could take forever to get if at all. I don’t see a need for spending all that time. While everyone else is stressing over running late and hoping to not be a few points short I get to sit back and watch the mayhem unfold.
Patience is key in this game but not to the point of procrastinating.
Information
Screenshots were taken and content written by @enjar. Screenshots are from a game called Splinterlands My Affiliate link.
Hi enjar,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
I just got to leave someone a ~900 word comment that I would not normally get to write. Since I rarely get those kinds of questions/engaging comments left on my blog. It has been forever since I been able to do that on my own blog. For that I thank you very much.
I hope those of you who went to SF arrive back home nice and safe! Have a wonderful week.
Hmmm nice. I'm not gonna quote you here to show I've really read the post. I did :) especially since you started exactly with my thoughts and doubts. I've done several bad decisions in the beginning not knowing how the mechanics will be. Also, ive invested into alpha cards which are not combinable with betas what makes me angry AF as I can't continue leveling those up...For now, I'm just collectiong those free bonus packs for quests and feel I'll try to sell them or use them as rewards in my future programming competitions I hope to start here once I figure it out hah :D And I'm probably investor first and player second. But yeah, this is my first time playing somehtin like this (never played Magic before)...soo I have no idea about the possible nerfs etc you mentioned..and therefore feel kinda out of my environment and dunno what the correct tactics are. Will you continue opening those bonus packs forever or will the time come when you say - Ok, it's enough, I'll be selling these later. The thing is - once Steem gets higher, the price for a pack you get will be muuuch lower, so we should sell them now or?
At least we have the option to sell and try to recover what was spent if we like. Granted since we are not sure what will be changed with this only being in beta I would rather hold onto my mistakes as they might be what I end up using one day. Otherwise, they might simply increase and become a profitable mistake down the road!
The nice thing there is you could always just sell of the Alphas to buy beta or whatever the next round of packs are if the price makes sense. While the Beta does take more to combine depending on their price they could be cheaper or more expensive at this time depending on supply. With their being 677k more beta booster packs left there are still a lot to open. That also means the next type of pack’s card are not going to combine with your alpha which should, in theory, be beneficial for the price the older they get.
While for now, they are better because they require less XP. We are not sure yet how much XP you will even be getting for free. It might be so little it makes little difference for someone to invest into the alpha or even beta cards to level up faster if players do not see free XP a worthwhile endeavor if they can get a max card for 1/5 their values. This is just a lot of speculation on my part.
For all, we know next packs could include a lot more different cards making Alpha or beta ones just more than a different skin. Which in many games like Counter-Strike Global different skins might be what a whale spender would want to buy just to stand out and be more “unique.” I’ve seen in many games if an item has a different skin/look then the rest of them even if it has nothing special stat/bonus wise collectors want them.
Since SM prices are listed in USD and not Steem that is always going be the gamble. What one will rise faster? If I had the answer I could be rich! The card values or Steem price itself which is more tied to BTC and cryptocurrencies space overall then we like. For many who did their buying in when Steem was at $1 or higher they are benefiting from the lower price of Steem at this time as a haven if they choose to sell they get even more Steem then they invested in.
Some did buy with fiat money and were able to skip paying exchange fees and get into the game that way. If Steem keeps being low like it is and their own decks increase in value that could be a great way to gain a fair amount of Steem if they choose to sell.
Well, if your own posts regarding those giveaways end up earning more then those packs are worth then that might be the even smarter path to go. As you are getting more than just $2 worth. Even more so if the price of Steem skyrockets. Many giveaways out there is taking advantage of this but they are giving away something like a couple of commons while still getting more votes than needed to recover the costs.
That is the nice thing about combat rules changing every 48 hours. The meta of the game is always changing. Many like to copy what the top players are using after the next rule set change has had a few hours to settle in.
I’ve been lucky to think some things should be nerfed and they, in fact, have been. Some people see something OP and they won't to rush out and get that. That is a bit of an indicator to me that either it needs a nerf, something else needs a buff or the players have yet to create a counter for it making it not needed to nerf or buff something else.
I still feel my fire splinter is a little underplayed. Even more so with how many people use to play the Death Splinter. In their first round of nerfs or buffs I was not too shocked and left rather untouched outside one spells my Goblin Shaman cast getting some changes to it.
I will keep opening them. Since I’m a player first and I do get the value of fun opening the packs even if they end up being a loss I still enjoy it. During last season’s rewards opening, I was up around 10-11$ from what they were worth.
I’ve seen people trying to test the profitability of opening back every day long term. Sure they go negative but if they pull a 200-300$ card they are suddenly in the green again. If that happened to me I’d hold onto what I’ve invested so I’m at break even for spending and use rest to buy what I need to further advance.
We also have the added possibility of creating content to recover or use to buy cards with those rewards. It might not even matter if the Steem price skyrockets to me if I more then made up for that in earning the amount of Steem I’ve spent.
Man you straight up crazy :D How did I deserve such long answer :D ?
I mean I know how to play. I meant the tactics regarding if to sell those packs or not. Or change alphas for betas etc etc..Apart from that, I guess I agree with you in kind of everything. Or actually I learn and accept ur opinion as it seems u r much more accomplished and experienced in this area :D
I think it comes down to what you enjoy more. Random chance or getting what you want from selling the packs if you find a trustworthy buyer. Everyone has their own value they have contributed to opening booster packs.
If I recall people tried to get $3-4 per alpha pack after they sold out. No idea if any bought at that price point. I think in small amounts it would be better to sell since the chance at getting a gold foil is so low and even then it could be a common. Without getting a legendary, gold foil, or an epic summoner it’s a loss most the times on a pack at current beta prices. If I recall foils are like 1% drop chance.
I’m sure someone has opened 1k’s of packs and kept track if it worthwhile or not. I’m simply not one of those people and I have no idea who has. I myself have not opened many packs other then free ones. I know from the guild I’m in people have open up 100’s or even 500 packs and took a loss. RNG is a tricky thing.
As far as which one to use if you don’t already have this chart to work out the math on that it is helpful. I acquired this chart from the Steem Monsters discord. https://discord.gg/CAFJRjY
Since we don’t know the kind of returns on possible free XP in the future it is hard to quantify if paying a premium for the alphas is worthwhile over the beta. Even more so if you are not able to get a decent deck due to their higher prices for farming more free booster packs that could cover their costs in the first place.
I have seen a really good level 1 deck under the right conditions reach Silver II. Also a level 3 deck reach gold II. Along with a level 4 death deck getting into Diamond III. I have no idea what kind of grind or luck they had in getting there.
Hi @enjar!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 4.529 which ranks you at #1871 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has dropped 15 places in the last three days (old rank 1856).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 243 contributions, your post is ranked at #12.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
Ok, this, I have to study this, I'm so bad at this game lol... Perhaps I need more cards
For many this 25 mana cap is rather hard and if you don’t feel you have what is needed nothing wrong with just skipping it and holding off on playing until the next one. As long as you do not need to push rank as the season about to end. Which there still is time. I myself do not really have cards I’m happy with and will stop playing now since I’m losing quite a few points. Before people got their acts together I was getting a lot of ranking. Now they have found some decent decks for 25 mana I’m fried!
If you can get your daily done that is great time to do so. I’ve seen a few people toss in whatever random neutral cards they had just to fill up their team. Those free booster packs might enable you to build up your cards. If it makes sense to sell something so you can have what you need to get more free booster packs that seems like best course of action. Unless that card is insanity rare and worth a lot then you need to make the judgement call as that can be a bit tricky.
Sometimes depending at where your knowledge of the game is you just need to mess with the ordering of your team. In the lower ranks I’ll see people have very odd team orders that just do not work out. Tanks will be all the way in the back when it is not melee mayhem. Range will be in the first slot doing nothing what so ever. Watch some fights and see if you need to make any order changes.
Otherwise take a look at the teams that are beating you and if they happen to be the same splinter as you do you have their cards and does it make more sense what they are using then you are? Many also just use whatever players are using in top 100 that show up as their last played. While that might be viable depending on your level of cards you have to think if it makes sense. If you don’t have the ability unlocked on those cards it might not. In less than 48 hours there will be different top decks that are out performing as well.
For most of my cards my goal is simple unlock a few abilities on those cards I want. Diminishing returns is a big factor. No way I’m going spend $100 to just have one extra health or speed on a single card.
I’m still very much just focused on building up 1 splinter so I can rank on and having some levels on others so during the season I have an easy time getting my daily done at the lower levels. At some point I hope to have my other splinters with the abilities I want unlocked so they have a decent chance at higher leagues when I want do a daily.
I read today in a guild chat someone claiming to have made it to diamond with a level 1 deck. I'm not quite sure if I trust such claims but I have seen some people go really far with low level cards.
OMG! Dude, the enlightenment
hehe can't tell if you are being sarcastic now!
I did make a SM channel the other night in discord. Just to keep everyone else from going crazy over the SM talk :)
Hey man, this is exactly the type of post I've been looking for. I pledged during the fundition and have been battling the past few days, getting a feel for the mechanics and the market. This was extremely helpful.
I'm planning on taking this as far as I can and though this is the first digital card game I've played in years, I think it holds the key to taking the Steemit platform mainstream. I'm all in on this one.
Keep up the good work!
I agree. I hope some people with a background in business write up some papers regarding how Steem Monster has been doing and the overall impact. Gaming is such a big market and you can really just get people to be using Steem without even knowing much about it if they are only interacting with that game. Mainly I think biggest barrier is having a way to directly spend fait money into Steem without exchanges or other issues. Many payment processors seem to shy away from cryptocurrency in general which does create some issues in making it a simple process.
While blockchain do present their own unique issues as we have seen over past 48 hours with matching issues. The Steem blockchain seems to be one better ones out there for this kind of application. I’ve looked into gaming elsewhere and between transaction fees or having to stake hundreds of dollars’ worth of EOS or what ever cryptocurrency to a “cpu” just to get transactions and game actions to work. While our own RC can cause issues at least it does not take too much to have enough for getting a lot of game play.
I think that I took advantage of you when you played with one card to get down and completed my daily quest faster than usual.. but you can maxed your cards to level 10 if you want and then get into the champion zone like others @enjar, why don't you?
I was to eager to play and forgot about the daily quests and realized that when I'm already on Diamond 3 then I must ranked down for days only to completed the daily quests and it sucks!
i really hope that there'll be another tier for those mavericks and 10k+ point palyers so I could enjoy the games. to have fun first and to gain rewards later.. that's my motto.
I don' have plans to spend that kind of money on this game. There are some heavy diminishing returns at the end where you are paying a lot just to gain 1 health. Which for where my cards are at that does not make sense. I could be investing that kind of money elsewhere to make my overall deck better.
At least for next season you now know what your plans are. I'm not even going do my dailies in these last days as it would take forever to get down again. I also don’t feel like buying cards for my weaker splinters just to do a single daily.
I’m hoping the same. Many this league seem to have struggled more then they should have in Diamond III. Granted we will have to wait and see how the season ends and what changes if any they feel is needed. It might not be as big as an issue I’m seeing with the people I play with.
I think the bigger issue right now is just no having enough players being active. There system really should not be putting a 3k rank vs a 20k+ unless there are just no options to do belter. Which would make scene for the odd matchmaking going on. While they could leave you in que for a very long time trying get a better match. For the most part they seem to want match people up rather quick. Somewhere between time in que and getting two players in close ranking of each other is a balance.
In games like these the top 100 tend to be their own kind of challenge where they are vastly better at a game then someone in the top 200 that it does not make sense to match them. Even in a game like Starcraft II a top 10 player and a top 100 player are not even in the small skill range. Granted our game is more based on card, card selection, and how we order them.
So.. it is about strategy anyway, you need to know the best cards and then arrange the best team which there'll never be the best team 😂 I found that my level 4 tyrus lost many times to level 1 and 2 dragons 😅 I think they should create a special tier for the flying and magic forces too.
Yeah.. you're right @enjar.. this season is a training for the tourney, I did learn so much from the hundreds losts but I'mnot ready to buy cards 😂 .. I don't even have a starter pack 😊 I play with other's delegated decks. Well.. at least they trust human to play they cards and not farming it throgh bots😊