Bot sell-off on Splinterlands - might be a nice opportunity to pick up some cheap Beta cards

I'm not sure why I checked the Splinterlands market place for Beta cards this morning, but I did, and I discovered that the TH12 account has put a lot of cards up for sale ...

They seem to be selling cards mainly Beta cards in the Fire, Water and Earth splinters, and they've got over a dozen of practically every Beta card from those splinters up for sale, either maxed or at other high levels.

I'm assuming TH12 was the hub account and then these cards were leased to other accounts to play?

And I'm guessing that the above three splinters: water, earth and fire are those with the highest win rates, with maybe Dragon being too complex for that bot to work with given the added combination-complexities?

I dunno, all that's speculation.

A cause to celebrate?

While I can see the advantage of having a few bots that play the odds and can maybe act as teaching-aids for human players, who occasionally come up against them, I don't think it's healthy having several dozen farming bots set on auto pilot, playing hundreds of matches a season, just milking and creaming rewards intended for players.

I know at least one player, @rivalzzz, who has recently sold off a deck worth several thousand dollars, because he go sick of the bots, so if these bots finally are powering down, that could be good for retaining more players going forwards.

It should also be a good thing for the future of the game more generally - what's the appeal to a mass audience if all you've got at the top is robots? Or maybe I'm just out of touch?

The end of the bots?

I somehow doubt this is the end of the bots, I've seen no communication from @splinterlands that they want to reduce bot-usage, and I've heard from @steevc that there are plenty bots in the Diamond leagues.

A Beta-buying opportunity?

I've personally taken the opportunity to buy a few of these cheap beta cards - I started off with a Swamp Thing - I now have one at level 5, for example:

I also bought a level 6 Alric, to add to my other level 6 (which is currently leased), not quite a level 8, but I'll get there eventually, just a matter of waiting 'til I see a few cheap lower BCX cards - in the meantime I can struggle on with my L8 Bortus!

I haven't seen these going for below $1 BCX for a long time!

And I treated myself to a maxed out Feral Spirit too...

I've had a lot of success with Life and double sneak, so I use this a fair bit - and 4 damage for 3 mana, that is sweet! Although I'm aware that for the cost, this is getting towrads irrational.

NB if you don't have a 'Spirit of the Forest', now might well be a good time - they are going CHEEP right now, then again, it's all relative!

I bought mine for around $7 BCX a while ago and thought that was a steal. This is one of the best legendaries out there.

This should be an interesting test for the Splinterlands market!

It will be interesting to see whether there's demand out there to soak up this supply, whether real users are prepared to stump up the case on what seem to be cheap Betas.

I've hedged my bets a little. There are plenty more cards I could have bought, I've got hundreds of thousands of DEC, but I'm holding off buying any more for now!

NB not financial advice!

Posted Using LeoFinance