Breaking Down Another Wave Of $1,060+ Invested Into Splinterlands Assets

Thankfully, I was patient with the generous surprise airdrop I recently received as its priced soared back to higher than it was when I first realized it was tradable. There had been a strong drop brewing, but I tuned it out for 2 days to not even notice. I find that getting busy with other stuff is a good recipe for handling downtrends. Anyway, I randomly checked last night and the dip had surprisingly evaporated. Instead of trying to get cute to maximize my sells, I sold twice up the ladder for a nice average price.

The token was just added to sites like Coingecko and to a second exchange where a lot cross-chain action happens. With an upcoming related airdrop in a few weeks, and new LP pools likely going to boost buzz, I'm relieved to still hold 41% of the tokens. Anything can happen, but the energy is brewing. I'll definitely take more out, but keep 15-20% for the long run.

To celebrate the surge, I sold more into UST for the back burner. I then sold another $1,075 worth (before fees) to put into Splinterlands. This comes on the heels of the $1,600 I just invested in SPL over the weekend.

I don't mind investing into projects that have utility and I enjoy. Even if all of the assets crashed, I'd be happy to compete against people I know from Hive and rise in the ranks. Since I started in late September of last year, I've got a lot of catching up to do. Fortunately, the Chaos Legion release helped me stay focused on recent cards, where it'd have been overwhelming to try to buy cards from all of the previous editions at once.

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Phase 1: Going GFL Again:

After a nice mix of land, packs, gold foil legendaries and other cards in the last wave, I wound up focusing mostly on single cards that will kick ass with my Level 3 GFL Quix The Devious who can support higher legendaries.

• GFL Chaos Dragon @ $143.99
• GFL Baakjira @ $139.90
• GFL Uriel the Purifier @ $119.80
• GFL Djinn Oshannus @ $104

Since I landed a Chaos Dragon in a pack, I upgraded to Level 3 to get the Blind ability. I then upgraded my Baakjira to Level 3 for the Heal ability. This will be huge.

After analysis, I realized that my target of two GFL Djinn Muirats for the Reflect ability was bad timing since it's up 48% in value over the last two weeks. I'll be patient and wait for a better spot for them. I then changed gears to get Uriel for the Heal ability. If I can support him with extra armor early in battles, this card will do wonders when it can get its attack off.

Lastly, I couldn't pass up on an oldie but goodie, a GFL Djinn Oshannus. While I technically didn't need this card with my regular one, I use it all the time and wanted the DEC bonus for it. It also seems really undervalued because it's a reward card now.

Here are current GFL's I've got:

• L3 Quix The Devious Summoner
• L3 Chaos Dragon
• L3 Baakjira
• L3 Lira The Dark
• L2 Uriel The Purifier
• L2 River Hellondale
• L2 Torrent Fiend
• L2 Djinn Oshannus

^ That's 150,000 Collection POWER right there to efficiently boost my SPS airdrop.

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Next Phase:

I bought 11 packs to get up to 414 airdrop-eligible. While my last 103 packs were a big disappointment, I essentially broke even in terms of spend vs current card market value in this consolation prize. I didn't get a single exciting card, but I got a few decent ones to make it a wash (using potions that were free from the bonus from my last 500/500 potion buy).

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Phase 3:

I made it a point to buy more gold cards, mainly more Chaos Legion summoners, and a few others with strong gameplay value:

• Gold Obsidian @ $34.62
• Gold Tarsa @ $27.99
• Gold Level 3 Thaddius Brood @ $59
• 5x Gold Cursed Windeku @ $38.87 Total
• Furious Chicken @ $24

I now have all my CL summoners at Gold level 3 and will kick them up a notch once I feel out which I want to prioritize.

Unlocking the Cursed Windeku's Heal ability is going to be a game changer since I often play the Death Splinter with Quix. This will let the Mage Necrosi mow enemies down (one of my favorite cards). I also forgot about an old wish list item, a Furious Chicken, which was a decent deal relative to pre-Chaos Legion prices around $39. This will be add an edge when paired with Fiend cards at 0 mana, especially when Armor is stacked on. I wish I did this sooner. It must be such a buzzkill to see both in a low mana battle.

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I still have $328.50 in Credits loaded, but will pause. I'm debating buying another GFL Quix to rent and hold long term for land use. This will also allow me to max him out if I ever get really lucky to land one in a pack again. TBD on this though as I have to assess how my current deck plays. I'll also be watching the Djinn Muirat GFLs to snipe a pair if they come down a bit. I want that Reflect ability and don't want to buy the normal cards to get there. Go big or go home. Djinn will probably be my priority before the extra Quix, but it depends on the prices.

Speaking of my current deck play, I played with my new cards and melted through all of Gold 1 undefeated to enter Diamond 3 for the perks just at the close of the season today. I'm now beating lineups and high-level rare summoners I'd never think possible with ease, so I'll assume that I'm on the right track with the pairings I've put together. Perhaps it's a mix of learning the game more, but the enhanced abilities really do help. Getting the DEC bonus keeps me motivated, so that's a main reason why I don't want to put much time into building the regular cards unless they're for the interim.

I'm not sure which league I'll want to stay in after the reset, but will probably just go with the flow. I like challenges.

Proof Of Diamond :

I now have 245,425 Collection Power with owned cards worth $3,650.66 using List Prices // $ 3,439.97 using Market Prices.

If the prices drop more, I'll buy more. I consider this money spent and gone. Everything I've put into SPL has been from DeFi interest, blogging payouts or airdrops, so I'm only dealing with opportunity cost here versus out of pocket spending. I prefer it to be this way so I can just enjoy playing the game and not worry about what my cards cost me if prices ever struggle. I feel that CL prices are fair enough given most being much higher last month.

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Aside from the easier battles with stronger cards, I'm really getting the hang of the more advanced battles and enhanced abilities. While I thought the game would be more complex and more frustrating with lots of extra abilities, it's actually much more strategic and easier to plan effective lineups.

After I spend these pending Credits, I'll probably take it easy on the purchases for a few weeks. I really don't need anything significant other than topping off some gold cards. I should chip away at getting my gold summoners up while prices seem to be at a neutral point. Generally speaking, I have almost no interest in non-gold cards for now, except for legendaries from older editions. I'll pay up for the golds now and hopefully keep stacking the nice DEC bonuses to chip away at my airdrop rate, while also having them for land-use later.

Lastly, I'll probably turn to building up DEC and SPS positions since I've neglected that so far, as well as 1-2 more plots of land to end up at 5 or 6. I prefer to earn than buy, and my SPS airdrop is starting to become noticeable.

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In closing, I'll ask the same question I put in my last post since I didn't get any feedback there:

Is it better to buy only DEC and hold for the SPS airdrop, OR, is it better to be in the SPS/DEC pool? The double DEC airdrop weight is deceptive because most need to buy the other half of the pool (SPS) to offset the double weight.

Thanks for following along,
@steemmatt