Prepare for Another Splinterlands Explosion

Land gameplay is upon us in Splinterlands, but I want to zoom out in this post and look at the bigger picture to see how I came to this title.

Land 1.5

Since I already mentioned land, let's start with it. It will swallow an immense quantity of cards, DEC, and possibly SPS (burned to get more DEC).

I am not going to throw numbers, because we know what the numbers would look like if we max everything and we use all plots in existence in Praetoria, we don't know what will be the actual ratio of plots used and what amount of DEC will be staked or the total PP of the cards. That amount will probably rise in time, both from the reinvestments of land owners and when Land Surfing will be launched, which will allow non-land owners to participate.

What are the sure effects of Land 1.5?

• An impressive amount of cards and DEC will be staked on land.
• Cards less useful in battle now have a clear use case.
• Cards less useful in battle increase(d) in price due to their usefulness on land.
• Lots of low-level cards were or will be combined.
• A good part of the cards will be withdrawn from the rental market.

What are the potential effects of Land 1.5?

• Increased demand for DEC may bring it to peg
• Increased demand for DEC may force SPS conversions to print more DEC, while burning SPS (an operation that should theoretically push the price of SPS higher)
• Reduced offer on the rental market could potentially make it a good option for card owners again

Ranked Battles

By making the usage of bots against the ToS in the Modern format, bot usage is now restricted to Wild. We noticed a de-balancing between the reward pools depletion of the two formats, that eventually started to even out.

Whether more bot users will start playing the game themselves in Modern if/when rewards are better, or a switch in the available decks for playing happens based on which pool will offer higher rewards, that will keep happening.

Screenshot from Splex.gg

It will be interesting to see how the massive cut in available cards for battle will affect strategies. Just like players may play one format or another based on which pool is fuller, we will have more variables to consider.

Just think about it: many will jump at filling their land with high PP cards and will leave for battling what's left, crippling their battling deck.

If they continue to battle, they might not be competitive at the same level. Thus, others may come from behind and rise.

Then, we have the situation where some players may focus on land or on battles exclusively. I'm pretty sure the competition on Ranked Battles won't be the same after land gameplay launches.

That means two things:

• opportunities to easier advance for those who focus exclusively on battles
• higher rewards on battles

There will be a balance and players will have to choose. What will be more profitable to play at what moment in time? Of course, we can keep playing for fun everything, but for profit, there will often be better and worse options.

If you want to be able to play both competitively and at the top level, you need lots of assets.

Tournaments, Brawls

Two DAO proposals passed recently to prohibit bot use in Tournaments and Brawls too, and also battle helpers in Modern, Tournaments and Brawls.

Looks like even before Splinterlands took any position on this regarding what they'll do or when (as far as I know), one bot operator decided unilaterally to stop its Battle Helper service for:

• tournaments
• tier 3+ brawls
• modern champion leaderboard

On a long term, guilds will go through a major upgrade. And among the things that were mentioned were cards staking. In fact, assets staking. We will what form that will take when we get there. But you see where this is going. No matter how big of a collection one has, it seems it isn't big enough...

SoulKeep

Something else that should come out relatively soon. Guess what this game also has (or will have)? Yep, cards staking.

Why Prepare for an Explosion?

To me the indications are pretty clear. Scarcity induced by multiple use cases for a relatively limited amount of assets combined with the coming bull market, it is a recipe that rarely goes wrong if the products do not disappoint.

There are two ways this can happen. The best way: massive growth in both users and asset prices. Another way this can happen: through in-game whale wars for domination, which should lift smaller boats too.

Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha