My first 100 days in Splinterlands

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__________________ Logo and Monster images owned by @splinterlands __________________

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Versión en español 🇪🇸

Hello everyone. This is my first post and I wanted to share my experience in Splinterlands since I began to play and introduce myself into the NFT world. I have learnt so many things thanks to the community that is always eager to help and guide anyone through the rough process of learning the game mechanics, renting, trading, exchanging tokens and so on.

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First of all, I have to say that probably I have started to play at the right moment, before DEC and loot chest changes. Due to timing and some luck, I have been able to grow as I have done it. I am aware that the beginning, specially now, it is harder than it used to be, but if you are consistent and patient enough to wait for that loot chest that would change your economy (at least in game), Splinterlands will become something else for you. My profit is not amazing at all but from the initial $10, I have been able to buy my own cards and grow my CP to slightly over 9K.

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First approach

I came across with this game because of a streamer’s recommendation (not related to any NFT game) and at that moment, I was really into LOR (Legends of Runaterra), so the look was familiar and the gameplay seemed solid and fun to me. I decided to pay for the Spellbook using Paypal because I had no experience in cryto-things whatsoever. I thought it was not an investment but more like a purchase, similar to buy a regular PC game. I did not have so much faith in earning money. It still seems unrealistic that you are able to put in the same sentence: playing a videogame and making money in the same sentence.

After I did the tutorial, and watching some matches from other people, I went straight to play rankeds, trying to go higher as I could, because there were left just half a day before the season ended. I reached Bronze II, only using fire and death deck (there was a different meta) and I opened my first loot chests. I think there is always something magic opening them. The expectation of something great inside. However, as it happened to most of us, there was nothing special. My case: some DEC and bunch of potions.

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My first Season started

At the beginning, I remembered to have like 15 DEC or so and I wasn´t sure of anything (why this card missed so many hits, or why this card goes first, etc). I just copied the decks (position and monsters) of those who had beaten me previously. By doing that, I reached Silver 3. That only proves that players and strategies have improved so much during the last two or three months, pushing everyone to improve day by day. End of season and again and nothing special in the loot chests. More potions and some DEC.

By doing my daily quests and my wins, I reached 200 DEC. I decided to start to experiment with new monsters and splinters. I went to the market, looking for cards that I hadn´t tried yet. Before, I used to go to the market only for dirty cheap, gold foil cards. Purely CP rents. I was still ignorant on abilities; I only rented cards that I could get for 0.1 dec/day, so If the card was not good enough I would lost nothing.

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New Season, new opportunities

During that season, I was a bit down because the community that started to play the game at the same time, where miles ahead in terms of rewards. At that moment, I had won a couple of common cards in the daily chest but including all my assests in game, they did not reach $5. Others have made around 6 or 7 times that but this changed quickly. After a couple days, inside a loot chest there were 9K DEC. I was speechless. The day before, my daily airdrop was 0.01 and suddenly was over 1 SPS per day. It was a huge change. With that bunch of DEC to help, I reached Silver 3 again, however it was faster and easier. Few days later, I got my first gold foil card. Unbelievable!!!. I was on fire.

All this amazing rewards make my enthusiasm grow and boost my hunger of knowing more about the game. I started to understand how to counter certain strategies (nothing complicated), place better my cards, and match them with the respective ruleset. Now, it seems normal, but back them it was overwhelming: so many monsters, new rules and wider mana cap. There, I came across with great Youtubers, and discover PeakD as well. There is so much quality content out there to grow as a player. There are strategies to maximize your daily or seasonal earnings, how to use every tool in Hive blockchain and more stuff that I have just had a brief look at it.

After reaching Silver 3 couple of time more, I decided to go further and go for more loot chests. I wanted to have the feeling to play in Silver 1. I rented knowing that I should have a wider range of options, but focusing mainly in one or two splinters. I picked some legandary summoners and monsters but I kept playing with lvl 1 monsters. Now I realice how bad my playstyle was. Of course, there were people who destroyed me, but somehow I could keep my rating high enough to receive 22 chests. After that experience, I undertood the need to improve my deck. Do not depend on renting cards, which sometimes can be time consuming and annoying, and do something with my DEC pool. I have not reached my goal to play in Silver without renting but I am on my way.

After playing 6 seasons, I have not got anything better than a rare card in my season chests, but the game has never let me down. My best rewards have come inside daily chests (legendary, epic or gold foil cards). Because of that, I have slowly change my mindset and see this game in a different way. In my opinion being constant and playing daily is the way to get meaningful rewards.

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First cards got in loot chests: Common, goil foil and legendary

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First investments

Bronze changes have been released, Chaos Legion was announced and people are investing in different ways (staking SPS, vouchers, liquidiy pools). My choice was to buy cards to increase my power and making myself stronger. I bought a bunch of reward cards, waiting to level up some and other to increase value over time. Some of my purchases have been correct, others not so much but in general I am happy. I focus mainly on my life deck, basically because at level 1 is the cheapest :P, but also I find this is the easiest way to play for me: front to back. Trying to obliterate the tank and continue with the backline. It is not the smartest playstyle but works for me.

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Final Thoughts

After 100 days playing daily, I finally understood the value of reviewing my battles and check if I could have done something to avoid losing or catch what was the condition to win certain battle. I keep copying good strategies from my opponents but now I am able to analyse their pros and cons. I also use the knowledge of the community. There are really smart people out there. Finally, this is maybe not the most important but probably is the most underrated piece of advice: understand the value of every card. Definitely, there are better cards than others, but even those cards that for most of us believe are worthless, have an impact under certain rulesets and make us win some DEC. Never believe that those cards that cost pennies right now, and we are getting for free, will never make you win a match.

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I introduce the king of earthquake, reverse speed and low mana games 😉

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The main purpose of this post was to show how much I have learnt and experience during this first 100 days of my journey as a new player , (besides practicing my english). I also wanted to share: how much I believe in Splinterlands (the game, because its economy is strong as a diamond), how much fun I have had playing it; trying new cards, learning new strategies, digging in the card market. It is impossible to say that getting money is not gratifying, but a game should be fun above all, and for me, Splinterlands is.

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Little game

Finally, I wanted to make a little game and know the taste of Splinterlands community. If you feel like, please comment:

• Favourite card (could be the one you used the most)
• A card you would like to buy or get
• Disliked card (a card you prefer not to play against)
• Best design (most appealing card, even if the stats are bad)

My answers:

• Favorite Card: Serpentine Soldier. My favorite color is Red, I love speed, dodging and my favorite splinter is fire, so this little one has everything.

• Card I´d like to have: I think Owster has become essential to be in your deck since magic meta has been present. Although it is not a cheap card (in my standards), it´s still affordable.

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• Disliked Card: Following the same idea, I only hate Wavesmith because make viable to play magic against almost anything, at least in bronze and low silver. I used to play fire with pyre and some sneak or snipe. There are ways to counter them but venari has become the king in bronce and everything should be planned to counter magic. I like diversity and when one sees 7 out of 10 matches against Alric, it becomes tiresome.

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• Best Design: I could not choose only one card. I find Spirit of the Forest a grow-up version of Wood Nymph, however I like her design. Probably the main reason is because is a legendary. My second choice is Crystal Werewolf. I have a weakness for the classic wolfman and this white lycanthropus is the only one in-game.

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If you have come this far, I really appreciate your effort and time spent. Thank you for reading and have a nice day or evening. I wish you the best and get many gold foil legendaries.

*PS: I am not a English native speaker and my writing skills aren´t good, therefore I´d be       grateful if you want to comment something I can use to improve my grammar or sentence             construction.*