Splinterlands Saturday--Bargain Hunting

I've decided that since I'm trying to write every day, I better come up with a couple "standard" posts where I don't have to think about what my topic is going to be. To that end, since I love playing #splinterlands but I rarely write about it, Splinterlands Saturday is born. You know the topic right from the title so if Splinterlands doesn't interest you, you can skip reading. But if it does, maybe you'll enjoy following along. Either way, I'll be marking my progress in the game and the progress of the game itself.

How I got Here

First, a little recap of where I'm at and how I got here. I started playing the game about a year and a half ago in the Summer of '21. I had been hearing about the game a LOT because it was blowing up so, not being one to get left behind, I FOMO'd in. :-)

My timing could have been better (by about 6 months) but it also could have been worse. The Azmare Dice packs had just sold out but most of the cards were still affordable so I went about trying to build a deck to compete. It didn't take long until I was hooked. I bought a couple of land plots before they blew up for right around $100. Almost immediately they went to $300-$400 so I was feeling good. Of course I didn't sell them because...they were going to end up being worth a LOT more, right? They're still hanging in there around $117 but, like everything else, prices have come down a lot since their peak.

When Chaos Legion came out, I spent the next couple of months working on maxing out that deck. Which I accomplished. I have also maxed the latest deck, Riftwatchers, and have continued to work on filling out my Modern playset.

Where I'm At

As I said, I now have full decks of Chaos and Riftwatchers and most of the important cards in Untamed and Dice. I'm still missing some, but I can compete pretty well with the ones I have and am solidly in the Diamond League. I've been trying to break into Champion and have come close a couple times, but haven't managed to break through. I've had three matches that, had I won, would have put me over the hump, but of course I lost all three. Stupid RNG. :-) I still need to get a few key cards and with prices coming down, I did a little shopping last night.

What I'm Doing

As I said, I'm trying to get to Champion so I did a little shopping last night and added a few cards to the mix.

I had this at a level 8 but saw some good prices so I upgraded to the max 10. The only benefit to the stats is two more health but the level 10 has Piercing. That is a huge bonus. Especially combined with Snipe. Blast is a fairly common ruleset and recently Cripple has been popping up a lot. Not to mention Thorns, No Magic, No Melee, and more. Being from the Water Splinter where many people like to use Kelya Frendul and the neutral Vega Lux, having that Piercing to eat through the extra armor they get should be extremely useful. We'll see.

Next, I upgraded this one from Level 5 to 7. It didn't change the stats but I added Demoralize which cuts opponents melee attacks by 1. I really want to max this card as I use it a LOT. With only two mana and being from the Earth Splinter, I run into a lot of opponents using magic. When I combine this with Mylor and his Thorns, this card can really do some damage to my opponents without doing anything but getting hit. Level 10 is the dream with a couple more health and Strengthen for the entire team, but it's still not cheap. Plus, being common, you need 400 cards to max. Hopefully I can keep picking away when there are opportunities.

Next was this one. I wasn't really looking to buy it but I happened to see it for under $40. For a max level Legendary, that was too good to pass up. It's got great stats with Resurrect, Weaken, Slow, and Headwinds. Unfortunately, it's use-cases are pretty risky since it is so fragile. With only one health and magic damage, if you use it against something with Magic Reflect, it probably won't survive the first round. But, in the right situations it can be a game changer. Just risky.

THIS is the one I'm most excited about. I was able to get a max level for around $150. I've been wanting this cards for months but it's always been way out of reach. I was finally able to pull the trigger yesterday. Five abilities to go along with 13 health and 2 armor. There are so many different ways to use this card. The Taunt is huge because there are some great Death Splinter cards that are low health so this can protect them for at least a couple rounds anyway. The other abilities basically enhance the Ha'On's ability to last as long as possible. The Flying and Void make it harder to hit and less likely to get chopped down in the first round and the Magic Reflect will allow it to actually do some damage even if you put it at the back. The Scavenger is nice but realistically, if you're using it, you probably already won anyway so it's not that big of a deal. Although on Poison games it can definitely come in handy. I already had a fun battle with it last night here. The Taunt protected my Spirit Hoarder, who had Blind, and that was the difference in the battle. I got a little lucky at the end but with all the bad luck I get, I don't feel bad. :-)

Two more:

This is another one I wasn't really looking to buy but I saw it at basically half price so I maxed it. It won't have a ton of uses but when the right Rulesets roll around it can be pretty deadly, and at only 7 mana, it can fit into some medium ranged battles. The dual attack types in ranged and melee allow it to sit in the back row and still do damage. Combined with Retaliate it can deliver punishment back to those Opportunity and Sneak cards later in the battle if necessary. It also has the Trample ability which I'm interested to see in action in the Opportunity rulesets. It will first fire the arrows so it could be pretty deadly to a back row with 6 damage. Plus, it's a neutral card. Always a bonus. We'll see.

The other prize of my shopping spree, Cornealus is a card I hate playing against so I know it will help me. It's still way too expensive to max, but I was able to get a level 2 for a good price so I grabbed it. The Thorns and Heal abilities are the two that matter most anyway, and the stats don't improve at all by maxing except 1 more ranged damage so this is good for now. It's a nice card to have in your arsenal for when you know people are going to hit you with Sneak. Even if it doesn't last long, it can take out armor and keep them busy for a turn or two while you are (hopefully) whittling away at their cards. It's expensive to use at 10 mana, but there are definitely plenty of battles it can be used in and, as a neutral, it can fit into any Splinter.

Til Next Week

So, that's plenty for this post. In the future I'll probably talk some about what's happening with the game in general and also maybe how the Rewards are going. I know I get sucked into reading some posts about other peoples' rewards so there's obviously an interest out there.

Good Luck in your Battling (unless it's against me)! :-)

Hive is the Way.

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