Hello Splinterlands community, summoners old and new.
First and foremost, let me introduce myself. I'm Dc3ntr4lzd, from Venezuela and now living in Canada. I am a family man, dog lover and plants carer, a ceramic artist, cook, pc musician, photographer, and a more than casual gamer.
I have been a crypto enthusiast for a little while and was very intrigued when the play to earn buzz started crossing my feeds and reads. I went into this rabbit hole, did research, and set my gaze upon the Splinterlands game.
I have never played any sort of battle card games before, so no Pokémon, YuGiOh, or MTG experience whatsoever.
Edit- Any numbers shown in my opinion post were taken from my personal experience at a certain time and might not reflect real time updated prices - and are not financial advice in any way :)
With this into consideration, Splinterlands caught my attention with its cool art, challenging gameplay, solid and passionate community, and low investment entry point of 10$ for the spellbook. These were all great determining factors when choosing Splinterlands compared to the other alternatives I was curious about.
I've been playing for a few months and believe the new Chaos Legion packs that will come out are an amazing opportunity to begin building a new deck of cards from the very beginning. So, if you have patience and can dedicate some time and effort, and maybe a little extra investment, surely Splinterlands will be a great opportunity to have fun and earn a little extra income while doing so.
My take on the game and its potential.
Bronze III is to me the initiation phase into the Splinterlands game. It's a grind, more than a skill game per se, as you have to battle out with the base cards and the Meta is the norm.
This stage gets boring quickly, dealing with bots and the Meta repetitive games. The outcomes of battles are more about choosing the right Meta and a sprinkle of algorithmic luck, but, this is what I mean by it being just the initiation phase. (I know that the new system is not great, yet you still get rewarded, and new rules concerning rewards have been put in place exactly because of the proliferation of bots).
Bronze I is where the real potential of the play-to-earn economy of the game unfolds. The DEC and rewards you will earn will open the door and get you started into the game earn potential. This is still a bit of a grind, but it's not a crazy demanding grind, since you have to manage your energy capture rate % (amount of DEC rewards per battle), and like someone recommended, play until around 75-70% and let it rest until the next day to recover.
This means you should only be playing a couple of hours per day and if you play on mobile, anytime and anywhere, or your daily commute now becomes an entertaining and productive bus or metro ride.
You can accelerate things if you have some extra cash to invest, between 10 and 15$ and you can get smart rentals to help you get 5000 power to stay in Bronze I. I used the peakmonsters site and tools, they are very handy and you can find videos of how to maximize your card rentals, so check them out.
https://beta.peakmonsters.com/rentals
With new cards to play, Splinterlands begins to reveal itself as the skill and fun game it is, and you get to experiment with cool new cards. I started out renting a few cards, 3 days long, and within one splinter. This way I got to play new different games with each splinter every 3 days. Expensive cards might still be out of reach, but actually, this is favorable to your development because you are forced to get creative.
And don't feel frustrated and defeated when facing players who have better cards, it's normal, you'll battle plenty of them through your journey. Just use these battles as learning to see other's players' tactics. And on the other hand, it's always a thrill when you get that sweet win over a battle with a player with better cards.
Little by little you play with cards that break the meta or lose hard to the meta, and you learn and your card strategy tactics begin to grow and develop for each splinter.
I stayed in Bronze I for a few seasons and slowly earned more rewards and dec, learned which splinters worked better for me, and started making my list of cards I liked, to rent first and then purchase.
I must confess, it's a very gradual rise, so patience is key, and if you are of the mindset of getting rich quick, then you'll have a hard time and will probably abandon. But with enough patience and time, you can slowly build your team and keep accumulating dec each season.
If you do have some extra money, this is where another investment can take you farther. I went with 30$ which I used to rent cards to reach silver III league. Carefully selecting the right cards for the power needed, and always playing with the available cards to me.
In Silver III dec rewards and daily quests and end-of-season rewards are of better quality and value, so my investment paid off by being smart and playing the rentals right.
To keep things in perspective, luck plays a big role in the rewards. One season I got more potions than I'll ever use, and another I got lucky with a couple of thousand DEC chest reward and some decent cards. So, in the long run, I've had more gains than losses out of the 30$ I invested.
Now I have been more invested than ever in the game, loving every minute, watching battles on twitch, checking other great community players and their content, and each new season becoming more involved with Splinterlands, and this revolutionary new genre of gaming and earning and digital ownership, and overall feeling great and excited about what the future will bring for the game and it's growing community.
So to wrap it all up, I believe Splinterlands can become what Axie Infinity has become for the communities that engage in the play to earn game economies. A vehicle and way of a new life, earning an income doing something fun and accessible. And just like a new business, it'll take effort, and some investment, be it time and attention, or some money, but slowly it'll keep on growing to the size you decide to make it.
Hope this helps you decide and come join the amazing Splinterlands community and just in time for Chaos Legion, so don't miss this amazing opportunity!!
Best. DC3LZD