When Furious Chicken was introduced as part of Reward Cards (which itself was a relatively new idea to the game), it was a groundbreaking event. It was a Neutral Monster that did not cost any Mana and to make things even better, it was a Rare Card. It was a pleasure to have and use and went on to be valued more than some of the Legendary Cards. Chaos Legion introduced five Legendary Monsters that cost 0 Mana from the five Splinters (other than Dragon). At the time I counld only managed to get a few of each. I was satisfied with what I could have. I was spending my time in Gold and Diamond Leagues.

Many things have changed and improved with the game and these days there is no cap on the Level of Cards based on the League. I have managed to acquire few Max Level Summoners including Lux Vega (Neutral). At the current stage I can use Max Level Cards if I want to and the main thing that is stopping me from going on a buying spree is the lack of dry powder to do anything.

Blood is on The Streets

Chaos Legion released at a time where @splinterlands had a large player base and was expected to grow. I was even wondering if the supply was too low considering the potential for growth we had. Bear market worked out very badly and right now there is a relative oversupply of Chaos Legion Cards. The Abilities and utility is the same. It is demand that is lacking. We may most likely see Chaos Legion out of Modern in 2025. That will lead to a reduction in utility. There is time left for that and we should be able to improve our player counts by then.

Compare Prices on DEXs

Due to the advantage of being a feeless blockchain, we first gained orderbook based feeless exchanges. After a while we gained Diesel Pools which later had fees added to incentives Liquidity Providers. It is best to check and compare prices to see where you can find the best deal. If you move your $HIVE between L1 and L2, keep in mind to check @uswap to see if you can "bridge" your HIVE at lower fee.

Purchasing Cards After A Long Time

It has been some time since I frequented @splinterlands markets and I forgot the fact that there are alternative front ends that provide cashback for Card purchases. MonsterMarket used to do this and Aqualis Market is a newcomer that is offering 70% of the fees they earn back to you. Unless you can manage to find an OTC trade, using these alternative markets is the smart choice.

My small loss here demonstrates the power of default options. The market offered by @splinterlands right there on the same website where the gameplay happen. Majority of the trades happen here and most players will not conceive of the fact that there could be other markets. Blockchain gaming can unlock many opportunities that Web 2 gamers have not even dreamt of.

Max Level Abilities

Above is the reason I focused specifically on these 0 Mana Cards. They each come with an Ability that either Buff of Debuff all the Monsters of a team. Soul Fiend comes with the Swift Ability and Scorch Fiend comes with the Demoralize Ability. I did not manage find enough funds to get Scorch Fiend to Max Level. I don't feel like selling at a loss to buy some Cards that will most likely remain cheap for a few months.

An Ability such as the ones above usually come with a 3 Mana Summoner. a Max Level Fiend provides the same at a zero Mana cost. This is one of the best upgrades to a Max Level Card in the entire game. I encourage all of my readers to take some time to look at the market for cheap Legendary and Epic Cards. Many of them have dropped more than 90% from the prices I used to see theme in.

Overall Growth of Legendary Cards in Collection

When I started investing in @splinterlands, there was no game to be seen. It was the perfect type of game for the blockchain and I started investing small amounts. Seeing a Legendary Card itself was a rarity and the concept of Potions was nowhere to be found. Daily Quest Reward was a Beta Booster Pack that was $2 at the time and $7.77 at the moment. That is a very good reward for winning 5 Battles (which barely took any time). That is the advantage of being early. Web 2 games that are comparable to @splinterlands have had 8 and even 9 digit active user counts. It is not wrong to say that we are still (somewhat) early.

I am taking less chances with Chests and currently focusing on Legendary Draws. There will be a new Edition of Soulbound Reward Cards somewhere in the summer. That is what the Town Hall said. I want to reach a Max Level for every single Card. It will take some time before I reach that goal. I am happy to say that I have recently Leveled Up another Legendary Card to Level 4. Any future Skok Duskblight I get is mostly a waste of 25,000 Glint.

Wait for New Player Experience

There is no point talking about any efforts to expand @splinterlands without making sure that the players onboarded are going to have a good time playing to earn. There is no point filling a bucket with a large hole in it. I have been wanting to see a Brave Ads campaign for either HIVE or any of the popular DAPPs we have. @splinterlands can easily appeal to the developing countries because of the feeless transactions and cheap Card prices. A focused effort on the countries with a low advertising cost could be a smart strategy.

These players may not have the largest wallets. What they can provide is a strong word of mouth and a large community. Having large player counts is a way to get more attention and it works as a strong social proof. A large enough player base can fix many problems associated with the asset prices and funding for the team to keep developing more features. Most importantly, we must plan to be ready to have a long runway into the next bull market without stumbling down in the next bear market. Make sure to have some dry powder ready for the next time we have the inevitable crash. Markets move in cycles. What comes will pass and then come again. This is a trend repeatedly observed.

Happy Gaming! Happy Investing!