Splinterlands Ranked Reward Update: Starter cards are gone - Part 3

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(Edited)

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1st June 2022. Continuing our discussion on the biggest Splinterlands update in recent history.

We are introducing the other half of the reason rewards are increasing across all leagues.

Buckle up because this will be a deep dive from a player’s perspective.

Now let’s get into it.
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Defining Starter cards (aka Ghost cards)

Starter cards refer to the set of cards everyone gets when they first join the game.

It contains all the common and rare cards in the Untamed and Chaos Legion editions, including summoners.

This provides a baseline for beginners to get their toes wet in the vast Splinterlands universe.

The name “Ghost cards” is tagged to them because, unlike all other cards you can get in the game, these cards are not Non-fungible tokens (NFT).

Potentially unlimited Ghost cards can exist, which poses a problem for Splinterlands when bad actors abuse this system.

An “S” symbol has been added to Starter cards to differentiate them from their NFT counterparts since the change was implemented.

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Starter card usage reduces Rshares earned

In the update, using starter cards in Ranked battles will reduce the earnings of the player.

It goes by a percentage of all cards used in that particular battle:

For example, if 6 cards were played (including the summoner) and 1 of which is a starter card, the Rshares earned will be reduced by 16.67%.

(1/6)*100 = 16.67%

You will still need to win the battle to earn any reward, but your earnings will be greatly reduced if you are still using starter cards.
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Skyrocketing card prices

There has been increased buying pressure on all starter cards, especially those in the Untamed edition.

Meta cards like Unicorn Mustang (a must in Bronze league) and Living Lava saw their prices increase by 2x-3x.

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Makes you wish you bought them sooner, doesn’t it?

It’s a pity that I didn’t get a copy of all the Untamed cards that I wanted before the spike, but I’m glad I got my hands on a few of them.

Their prices were already extravagant for me before this. Now it just seems more impossible to get them right now.
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Countering bot farms

As mentioned in the previous post, this change is motivated by the insane number of bots draining resources out of the economy.

With a $10 spellbook, a bot gains access to unlimited usage of starter cards before the update.

Combined with their insatiable desire to sell every card they earned, multiplied by ~200,000 of them, you can see where this is going.

Now that starter cards reduces Rshares earned, bots that depend solely on them will earn 0 DEC per win AND 0 loot chests.

No DEC, no cards.
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DEC earnings increased for everyone

Right off the bat, DEC earnings have roughly 2-3x. This has been documented by LukePlaysToEarn and Bulldog1205 in these videos.

We knew bot farms were draining a large amount of DEC from the shared pool - even with their rubbish ECR - but not to this extent.

This incredible increase is due to the number of players decreasing (mostly bots I hope), giving each player who is still playing a lion’s share of the pie.

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Feels like a game

I started writing this before 1st June when we were still in the previous season. Much has changed since the new Focus system dropped on us.

For starters, the rental market has crashed and it’s no longer viable for average players like me to earn from the rental market.

This just means that I need to brush up on my card slinging skills and earn through hard work the old fashion way.

We will see how things evolve as we move along.

Now, finally, Splinterlands is starting to feel more like a game.

Posted using Splintertalk



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