Hi all!

I've made a post when I started and at the halfway point in an effort to give the gaming community a feel for Splinterlands. Maybe it also gives long-time vets a glimpse at what new players are experiencing. Now that my first season is over, I wanted to share my final thoughts on it as well as my thinking on continuing with the game.

First the good stuff:

Season 1 Rewards

Almost 50 bronze packs! This felt really nice, and for a new player, almost every card was one I didn't own. In bronze, even acquiring level 1 cards is nice as it gives you options with rulesets that might eliminate most of your other (rented) cards. Some highlights:

1. Two new summoners - both that let me play gladiator cards (a big deal. more later.)
2. The green fungus martyr that I didn't have. I got to win one game with a 4x martyred Kron!
3. Quite a few rare cards.

Overall, I was happy with the haul. Here's all of it.

Silver League

I rose from Bronze 3 and finished the season in Silver 3. In silver, it was gladiator central. Quora in particular. I don't have any gladiator cards, so I struggled in Silver, but I was able to maintain my rank. This is primarily because when I lost, I would lose 3-4 rep points (MMR/ELO) but when I won, I would earn 30-50.

While this was great for maintaining rank, it wasn't great for the fun factor. Losing way more than I win wears me down pretty quickly these days, and makes me wondering what I'm playing for. I'm not trying to be super competitive, and losing even when putting together solid team comps feels bad.

It was also the case that my cards were underleveled. I started noticing that other people's cards did extra stuff that mine didn't do. I was still using my bronze rental deck after all, so that was to be expected. Silver decks don't look to be that much more expensive, so that's no big deal to fix.

The worst thing about Silver 3 is what happened when the season ended.

New Season

It reset me to Bronze 2 but is still having me try to earn Silver chests! It takes me ~15 wins or something to get one chest! This is a huge problem. I have this very strong feeling that wins aren't worth anything until I can level back up to Silver, but then I'll be back to winning 30-40% of my games (maybe 50% with higher-level cards).

Also, consider that I just want cards at this point in my S.L. career. The extra chance for gold foil isn't even close to worth it. In hindsight, I wish I had simply stayed in bronze.

Conclusion

All this has culminated in my decision to just skip this season. I've gotten a decent feel for the game. I can't get gladiator cards without grinding brawls for 300 merits a pop (need 3000 to open a gacha pack and hope to get Quora), so getting bullied in silver just doesn't sound like a good time.

In short, I've got a bunch of games I'm interested in playing/trying (Starfield!!!), and so SL is taking a back burner.

p.s.: @shawnnft thanks for delegating me the leggy cards! Feel free to remove them!