A Week In Splinterlands

Hello, Splinter fans!

In this article, I wanted to collect interesting bits and pieces experienced in Splinterlands recently. Jump in!

I'm currently on a shoestring budget for my crypto investing, which is obviously reflected in how I build my Splinterlands collection. Even though the prices of cards still remain rather low on the market, many of those still seem out of my reach. For quite a while now the new additions to my deck have come almost solely from daily chests and season rewards.

The new season is well on its way and I'm still struggling to get from Silver II to Silver I. In the previous one, I managed to reach 44 chests that included these rewards:

Not the best, not the worst. With Souldbound cards I'm actually at a point where most of the common cards are on levels 3 or 4 and because most of my summoners are on level 3, there's no point in upgrading them any further.

The summoners in general seem to be avoiding me a bit, or at least some of them.

I've got a nice amount of Eternan Brutes and managed to upgrade it to level 3 while Lobb Lowland still remains on level 1. Since the Soulbound summoners can only be obtained from chests, all I can do is cross my fingers and hope for some Lobb cards. Gold Foil ones will also do.

Using a level 1 summoner will cause some reward penalties and prevent using some of my cards on their highest levels. Fortunately, I have found a way to come around this and used a level 2 Helios Matriarch of the Dragon Splinter to access Earth monsters without penalties. This summoner has a +1 speed buff while Lobb has a -1 speed debuff so it's pretty much the same.

I could do very well without the Earth Splinter but sometimes when getting beat down too often one really needs to use Quora Towershead to kick some ass.

---

Decisions. decisions...

To support my various Quara-related strategies I decided to make a move with the Chaos Legion pack I received from season rewards. I sold the pack on the open market and with the DEC received from the trade I bought a Gold Foil Gobling Psychic with the tank heal ability.

I don't know, of course, I could've received the same card or even a better one from opening the chest but I guess I was left a bit traumatized for doing that with the previous pack I got. Anyway, Goblin Psychic is a great addition and will help Quara stay in the game longer and those Quora things she knows best.

---

Brawls

The last brawl ended up miserably for me and for the whole guild and I don't really feel like talking about it but the one before that was excellent! I managed to get my very first clean sheet with 9 wins while there was only one opponent who didn't show up.

Usually, my win ratio is something close to 50%. I guess in this run I got somewhat lucky with the rulesets and with the available Splinters. I remember quite many battles including the incredible Flagulon Reine. This monster is like Riverboat Captain on steroids.

Because of its blast ability, Flagulon Reine will hit more than one monsters and obviously have an increased chance of killing them. This will then increase the chance of triggering the bloodlust ability making it almost unstoppable in some battles.

It's fun to see my Gladiator card collection grow and get more competitive with the upgrades. Are you not entertained?, a relatively new ruleset as well as Soulbound summoners have made it possible to use these monsters of monsters in regular battles making it something to really focus on.

Can they ever be sold? I don't know but their value to my deck really can't be denied.

---

SPS Check

Some time ago I received a 5k SPS delegation which has now expired but playing with that combined with my own power, I realized the effect on the chests I was getting daily. This made me want to add to my SPS stake and hopefully reach that amount by myself.

This hasn't been a good month for the SPS price but for those of us looking to add more, things are starting to look pretty interesting. For quite a while now the approximate USD value of my SPS has been around $40. This means that even though my stake is constantly growing with battle and brawl rewards, the SPS price is declining.

I don't see this as a bad thing, on the contrary, I have been looking for a perfect time to add a bigger amount. As it would be foremost to help in my gameplay in a way of getting more rewards from victories, I also look at it as a good investment opportunity for the long run. I do believe that when Land expansion is fully implemented, there will be more demand for SPL assets and it will reflect positively on both DEC and SPS prices. I would probably curse myself if and when the price increased making it a lot more expensive to add to the stake. Time to add is certainly getting close.

---

A Trap for Sneak and Opportunity Units

Last but not least I have a this new strategy to share with you. It includes one of my latest purchases, Countess Sinash and her Camouflage ability as well as Venari Marksrat with Martyr ability.

For the more seasoned players, this may be a no-brainer but as for me, I just recently learned to make the most of Camouflage by combining it with the Marksrat's Martyr ability. The trick here is to place Countess Sinash as a last monster where she cannot be targeted because of Camouflage. As a second to last, we'll place Venari Marksrat who will now be considered as a last monster in the eyes of opponent Sneak monsters.

Also, by adding other monsters who have more health than the Marksrat, we make sure that the enemy Opportunity monsters will be targeting the rat too. Why do this to the poor Venari Marksrat then? Because in this case if someone needs to go, it's better being the one with Martyr. Triggering this ability will make both Countess Sinash and Lava Launcher much stronger as seen in this picture.

If you want to watch the whole battle, here's the link.

---

Conclusion

Even though I've been playing the game for a while now it still feels like I keep discovering new things every week. It might be a new use case for an older card, it might be a great discount on the market or a whole new strategy. No matter what, I still feel like Splinterlands is a gift that keeps giving and I keep finding new approaches.

The whole Land implementation should add some new, welcomed buzzing around the game but I do hope the actual gameplay, the battles, still remain a thing for the team and the community. If I was developing that part of the game, I'd focus on finding new ways to make onboarding more lucrative for new players. Once the new bull run starts, Splinterlands could secure a very good position and hit the jackpot with new players.