Each season I will focus on improving one of my splinters. First splinter - Dragon! Which entry-level dragon summoner is the best? Pro and cons of the options.

New week, new season! I finished my last season in Bronze I. I'm limited by power before I can go higher. I need to buy cards, and they will be split between "value" pieces that I hope to be able to flip for more DEC later on (see my previous post for the ones I bought) and "tactical" pieces that I need to improve my deck and hopefully start winning some tournaments.

I have decided to focus on one splinter each season, and to focus my tactical buys on that splinter. For this season I will choose the Dragon splinter. Dragon splinter is first because it is already my strongest splinter (thanks to pulling a Dragon Jumper from a pack), and because I will be able to further improve the dragon deck as I improve my other splinters later, since dragons can pull from another splinter. I also already have a Fire Spitter and a Gloridax Soldier.

There are currently 10 dragon summoners in the game. However, 4 of them are well out of my price range ($55 for Archmage Arius, really?), so there are really 6 options. Taking them one at a time, in order of market value per BCX:

Delwyn Dragonscale

Stats:

• Common Summoner
• Promo Edition
• Power - Magic +1
• Market Value - $0.173
• Fully Leveled - $87.36

Pros:

• Cheapest per BCX
• Plus 1 magic could be very good with a deck built around it

Cons:

• 5 mana will all but rule him out in low mana games
• My existing dragon cards aren't magic users
• Fully leveled price is very high

Drake of Arnak

Stats:

• Rare Summoner
• Untamed Edition
• Power - Armor +1
• Market value $0.320
• Fully leveled - $36.80

Pros:

• Market value $0.320 = Cheapest remaining summoner per BCX, leaving me more funds to level up the dragon cards. Also already have one copy.
• Armor +1 is actually quite useful, and has won me many matches
• Untamed card, so he is still being printed for now meaning price is cheap and may go up in the future when he's out of print.

Cons:

• 4 mana - that extra summoning cost can make the difference in a close game.
• Only a rare, so I would eventually need more copies to fully level up.

Kretch Tallevor

Stats:

• Epic Summoner
• Reward Edition
• Power - None
• Market value $0.350
• Fully leveled - $16.10

Pros:

• Market value $0.350 is almost as cheap per DCX as the Drake, and the fully - leveled price is actually significantly cheaper (less than half!)
• 3 mana card - makes the dragon deck more playable in the lower mana games
• Reward card, only 18.43% spawned so far, so cheap and likely to remain cheap for a while, but eventually the price will spike.

Cons:

• Not much to say here, other than he doesn't have any abilities!

Brighton Bloom

Stats:

• Rare summoner
• Dice Edition
• Power - Flying
• Market value - $0.690
• Fully leveled - $79.35

Pros:

• Flying ability is actually quite useful - 15% chance to dodge most attacks, likely more useful than the armor in a high mana game. Also adds some uncertainty to the games.
• Flying ability is OP in earthquake matches.

Cons:

• That fully leveled cost scares me. That is well out of my $2/day budget (would need to save for a month)
• Dice edition - it is not clear to me how many of these will eventually be printed. All I know is that they are very expensive right now, since they can only be bought w/ DEC. So I am not sure whether to expect this price to rise or fall.

Daria Dragonscale

Stats

• Epic summoner
• Reward Edition
• Power - Melee +1
• Market Value - $0.775
• Fully Leveled - $35.65

Pros:

• +1 melee would fit very well with my existing dragon cards
• Fully leveled value is actually reasonable (the same as the Drake, but more than Kretch)

Cons:

• Reward edition, but already out of print, so may have seen some price appreciation already
• Pricey per BCX

Camila Sungazer

Stats:

• Legendary Summoner
• Untamed Edition
• Power - Melee -1
• Market Value - $2.47
• Fully Leveled - $27.17

Pros:

• Fully leveled value is very low! Second lowest in fact
• 3 mana, great for short-run games as stated above
• Untamed edition, still in print, value may appreciate

Cons:

• -1 melee is OK, but not the greatest skill

Conclusion:

So, which should I pick?? Leave suggestions in the comments. My top 3 are Drake, Daria, and Camila since they are relatively within my budget over time and all have decent power.

Thanks for reading! See you again on Wednesday. Don't forget to check out the previous posts in the series, and me know in the comments if there are any questions that you'd like me to dive into. And if you are interested in signing up for Splinterland, please do so using my referral link.

Also, thank you to @mercurial9 for the gift of a Silvershield Assassin! Definitely a fun card, and becomes especially deadly when mixed with the Silvershield Knight. Also would pair very well with Daria Dragonscale!