The Most Expensive Card That I Bought - Was It Worth It?

In this week's Social Media Challenge, one of the suggested ideas was to share one of our most remarkable moments! For me, that would be the highest amount that I have paid to purchase a Splinterlands card on the market!

In March 2023, about 10 months ago, after much consideration, I splashed more than 24k DEC (which was worth 21 USD at that point in time) to purchase the Death Legendary summoner Astral Entity!

When it was released, as with most players, I rented the card to test it out. After playing a few battles, I realised I enjoy using Astral Entity because not only it has 3 powerful abilities, it offers many possibilities and strategies for my Death cards. With Astral Entity, the strength of my Death cards instantly received a boost as many cards complement very well with Astral Entity.

The unfortunate thing is, fast forward to the present day, Astral Entity is only worth USD 6.95, which is really a bargain price if you ask me.

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To demonstrate the versatility of Astral Entity, here's an interesting battle that I encountered.

But before that, here's the lore for Astral Entity for your reading interest:

From the shadows and the ether comes an eldritch entity known only as the Astral Entity. It is a celestial being that drifts through rifts in reality, searching for new planes and realms. There are almost no recordings of the Astral Entity in the athenaeums of the Splinterlands, but if one was to search through forgotten scrolls in the cobwebbed corners of ancient libraries, one would find the briefest mentions of this being. Snippets from across the centuries mention a humanoid shape made of cosmic energy. No one knows where it came from or what it wants, but it has only been recorded doing one thing: observing.

In spite of this, death always seems to follow the Astral Entity’s arrival. Clans and nations go to war. Crops wither, livestock become ill or infertile, and famine ravages the land. Droughts, plagues of locusts, and violent storms bring empires to their knees. And when it’s over, the Astral Entity vanishes without a trace.

When the Chaos Legion invaded the Splinterlands, the rift they opened echoed across realities. This drew the attention of the Astral Entity. It was able to slip through the rift undetected and explore this new world.

It witnessed a world rich in mana, with diverse people and dramatic landscapes. It also witnessed a world crushed by the grip of the powerful Chaos Legion and their leader, Silus of the Rift. The Astral Entity observed the battles, the people suffering, and all the death, but it did nothing to intervene. What it did do was learn. It learned the strengths and weaknesses of not only the Splinterlands, but of the Chaos Legion, as well.

The time may come when the Astral Entity chooses a side. Whatever choice it makes will be purely for its own gain and based on all it has learned from its eons of passing through the rifts.

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Battle Type & Team Lineup

Position	Card/Level	Mana
Summoner	Astral Entity	6

Astral Entity is my favourite Death summoner, because as explained above, it gives me a lot of flexibility to form my lineups because all the abilities are suitable for many types of battles.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
1	Night Ghoul	11

Night Ghoul is not a popular card for Death tanks but with Blast in the ruleset, I picked Night Ghoul over popular Death tanks such as Harklaw or Cursed Windeku because it has Taunt ability. This ensures that all the hits are concentrated on one target. Not only does this protect the backline, this ensures I can strategise which card to receive the Resurrect ability from Astral Entity.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
2	Venari Marksrat	3

Venari Marksrat is strategically placed behind the tank because it is specially planted to receive the Blast damage and thereafter be Resurrected by Astral Entity, only to go off a second time. This ensures both adjacent cards receive Martyr boost twice, making them extremely strong! So besides Night Ghoul, which is the other adjacent card?

Position	Card/Level	Mana
3	Venator Kinjo	2

Venator Kinjo is also thoughtfully planted as the adjacent card beside Venari Marksrat. This allows Venator Kinjo to receive Martyr boost twice and stay safe behind Night Ghoul with Reflection Shield, thus protecting the backline.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
4	Riftwing	4

No Death lineups can do without Riftwing, which has a very strong ability Scavenge ability. Being a Blast battle, cards will definitely go down faster than usual, and this will work to Riftwing's advantage. Astral Entity also complements very well with Riftwing in a few areas. With Resurrect, this means Riftwing will get an additional Scavenge and that improves its survivability. Furthermore, Riftwing has Flying ability and a high speed of 4, adding on Astral Entity's Dodge ability, this makes Riftwing extremely hard to hit for Melee and Ranged cards.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
5	Skok Duskblight	8

Skok Duskblight is the Death Soulbound card to have the Weapons Training ability, and this pairs very well with cards like Riftwing. So now, Riftwing will deal 2 Magic damage.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
6	Ravenhood Warden	4

Completing the backline would be Ravenhood Warden. Its Protect ability is very helpful to the entire team and when combined Astral Entity's Dodge ability, the team is set up very defensively for non-Magic fights.

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• Pre Battle: When the lineups showed up, it looked like I would be facing a very high level lineup, even with a Level 2 Legendary Djinn Oshannus. That said, Astral Entity lineups are always tricky and I was sure I would put up a good fight.
  

• Round 1: What a whooping 37 turns to go through! I definitely had a lot of challenges fighting against a Level 2 Djinn Oshannus, with Void and Phase. Other than that, the battle went according to script, with my Venari Marksrat going down twice. That boosted Night Ghoul and Venator Kinjo twice. Look at Venator Kinjo's stats!
  

• Round 2: Night Ghoul finally went down after putting up a strong fight, and at the same time, I took down their near invincible tank too! The main difference this round was that I had Venator Kinjo, which shielded a lot of Blast damage with Reflection Shield. That was something my opponent didn't have.
  

• Round 3:Venator Kinjo with 4 armor and 3 HP burnt a lot of my opponent's time as they struggled to go through the stats. By then, my backline had inflicted enough damage and by the time Venator Kinjo went off, my opponent was down to their final two cards.
  

• Rounds 4-5: My opponent ran out of cards and ideas to handle the Scavenging Riftwing and I pulled off an upset judging by the level of the cards.
  

If you are interested to watch the battle, you can find it here.

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Post Battle

Did my strategy work? Astral Entity is definitely the star here. Its first ability neutralised my opponent's Venari Wavesmith's Protect and voided the 2 armor boost. Its second ability Dodge ensured my cards received lots of misses - it's something that players don't actually realise but Astral Entity is actually very effective in this. Its final ability Resurrect, when used with Venari Marksrat, did an amazing job in double boosting Martyr to two cards in the lineup.

So back to the question in the title, I would say my purchase was definitely worth it - because Astral Entity has given me so much fun and victories! I definitely can't control the price of the card in the present moment or even in the future, but in terms of utility, it's 100% for me.

Astral Entity is definitely one of the strongest Death summoner in Splinterlands, and it is extremely easy to use! I would highly recommend to grab a copy of the summoner if you don't have it!

So that's all I have! What are your thoughts on Astral Entity?

As always, thanks for reading and have a pleasant day ahead!

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If you are interested to sign up to play Splinterlands, my referral link is here.