It has been very exciting to see all of the new features such as the new Barracks and Shop buildings, home field advantages you can get with leveling up the barracks, and coolest of all.....GLADIATORS! While I DID spend my first bit of Merits I earned purchasing Gladius cases because I absolutely could not resist the urge to use them in Guild Brawls (and also, I was itching to open up some packs since there are not currently any packs for sale directly from Splinterlands AND the pack-opening process is incredibly addicting!).
The strategy I have for opening packs has always been to make sure I have potions available to pull Legendary and Gold Foil cards before opening the packs to give me the best odds possible of getting a powerful or rare card. The trouble with Gladius Cases is that you need to upgrade your Guild Shop up to Level 6 before you can purchase Blood Stones, which improve your Gladiator Legendary card drop rates
And up to Level 8 before you cna purchase Power Stones, which improve your Gladiator Gold Foil card drop rates.
Since that is the nature of how Gladius Case opening works, my plan at this point is to now just hoard all of my merits that I earn with each Guild Brawl until our Guild Shop is upgraded to Level 8, so I can make sure I have enough Blood Stones and Power Stones available when opening any future Gladius Cases I purchase.
My willpower will be tested on HODLing my Merits, but hopefully once Chaos Legion packs come out, I can get my "fix" from opening packs again!
