Riftwatchers: Packs or Cards

Something I really love about Splinterlands is the constant developments and expansions that are always happening. Ever since I started playing this game in May, there hasn't been a single week when the community did not have something new to be excited about. This just shows how committed the team is to making this game the best version it can be. With all the transparency, why won't you trust 'em?

There are many anticipated releases and updates like Land, SPS in brawl rewards, Non card market, etc. but none, in my opinion, is as exciting as the upcoming Riftwatchers mini edition.

I joined Splinterlands way after Chaos Legion was released. To give a perspective on how late I joined, the first airdrop I witnessed was Grandmaster Rathe and I didn't even get one because I bought just two packs. Riftwatchers will be the first new edition I will witness so yes, I'm excited and I want to jump on it.

As much as I am excited about the riftwatchers release, I'm also really confused on what exactly I want to do. My original plan was to buy 50 packs during the presale so that I would qualify for the airdrop. Getting the airdrop would be nice because the card would be really scarce and expensive overtime. Getting a gold foil would even be better because I would not need to level up for silver (if it is a legendary card) and it would be worth a lot. It would have been a good way to start with riftwatchers but then I realized that my plan would cost a lot of money and depend on quite some luck.

At the price of $5 per pack + 1 voucher, it would cost almost $300 (today's rates) to buy 50 packs. If I get just one airdrop from this and it is not a gold foil, then it would be a huge loss especially if the rest of the cards are not so impressive. By this, it just does not make sense for me to spend almost $300 on packs.

So what am I going to do?

I'll just do what I have been doing with Chaos Legion. After the cards get on the market, I'll pick up the ones I like and add them to my deck. My three most used elements are Life, Earth and Fire so I would buy the cards of those elements first before looking at the other ones. $300 will definitely go a long way in filling my deck.

The monster cards are cool and all but the real hype for me are the riftwatcher epic summoners. Given the small amount of packs that would be sold compared to Chaos Legion, I imagine that these epic summoners will be invaluable in the future.

I already plan to get Fernheart, Ilthain and Skargore but the ones that I am much more interested in are Sthispa and Aquatus.

I have been using Water a lot recently and have come to really like the Chaos Legion monsters of the splinter. The water monsters are already pretty fast so when combined with Aquatus, their dodges will be put to better use. If you throw in a monster with swiftness like Supply Runner, then you'd really have a show. Backfire is already an ability I like and it would be cool if all the monsters in my team had it.

The top summoner for me would be Sthispa with the Phase buff. Phase can be a tough ability to get pass when using magic. Now imagine if all your monsters have this ability. You'd be able to guard against snipe, scattershot, sneak and opportunity. Sure the ability would be useless if there are no magic monsters but you can always throw a monster with shield in the front just in case. The best part about Sthispa is that she is a dragon summoner and so can be used with any element!

Final Words

Writing this post helped me make clearer decisions on whether to buy riftwatcher packs or individual cards. I think most newer and lower league players like me would agree that it would be smart to buy just a few cards and save some money for other opportunities. I mean, there is still the Tower Defense game but I will talk about that some other time.

That's All For Today, Warrior!

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• All dividers were made by me with Canva.
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