With the game's total card market cap exceeding $100 million it has become a challenge for players like myself who do not have deep pockets to be able to purchase any new cards. At the time of this post the total cards market cap crossed $106 million!!!
One of the best ways to get competitive in the game for new players is to rent cards. I discuss briefly on my take of renting/lending cards here. In short new players do not have to spend a lot to compete in the game. They can do daily rent of some of the top level cards and manage to thrive in the game. However some who start may want to own cards instead of renting. This leads to the main question, what cards are good to purchase?
In the market one does not have to look too far to realize which cards are the best to own. Prices of the best cards tend to be very high.
Untamed legend summoners are some of the most sort after summoners. I for one did not anticipate on such a meteoric rise in price that I total now will likely never have a chance to own any of those summoners. However I still have to stay competitive in the game and I look for cards where I see I have a potential to compete while not have to over spend.
Cards that are high price can be often used in games and or have a very limited supply. For the former these cards are consider staple cards. Cards like the Untamed summoners Llama and Zaku will likely be used often than not for the players who own those cards. Same goes for monster cards such as Lord Arianthus and Furious Chicken.
The staple cards are often first pick in most battles which leads to high value and high use cards. The last two monster cards I mentioned come from a specific group of cards that players can only earn when playing the game. These cards are reward cards.
In the game the playing cards players can earn are reward cards and booster packs. The booster packs are currently all sold out hence players can only receive reward cards as part of the rewards. There is a limited amount of reward cards ever to be printed therefore players who opt to try to earn a specific rewards cards have to play a ton in hopes to get lucky and win one before the card becomes out of print. One of the sites created by 
https://kiokizz.github.io/Splinterlands/rewardCards.html
The site will list all the cards that are still in print and those that are out of print. Both Lord Arianthus and Furious Chicken are out of print.
It is interesting to note Lord Arianthus rewards cards although have a total of 10,000 cards ever printed the game currently only has 419 in circulation. This is due to stacking of cards and some even burned along the way. The scarcity of the card help raise its value, but its use in battle is so great that it has become a staple in many veteran players decks.
Not to stray too far away with the focus at hand, back to the question, if I were to start playing now and wanted to purchase cards which cards would they be? The immediate answer would be reward cards.
Reward cards will bring in the most bang for the buck as they are the most plentiful and some times overlooked cards in the game. With the initial thought of reward cards being easily obtained if you look further ahead it is likely somewhat false. That is once a reward card becomes out of print then players will only be able to obtain them through open market from other players. As time progresses the cards only increase in value and that is such as we see in Lord Arianthus and many other reward cards.
The next time you see a cheap common reward card and think its not worth buying think again. Some of the current most sort after commons such as Sand Worm, Sea Monster, and Goblin Mech were all once pennies on the dollar each because they were deemed at first sight easy to obtain and plentiful.
Now both Sand Worm and Goblin Mech are over $0.50 per card.
Another benefit of owning rewards cards allows players to be able to level up their monsters easier than if they came from booster packs. For instance Sand Worm is still currently in print. A player can play the game and earn the card through reward chests and also purchase the card through the market. More ways to obtain the card will make it easier to level up.
Do not over look a card when its value appears to be low on the surface. In time the card will likely increase in value. Those cards that increase in value by a lot tend to be cards that are often used in battle hence it will hold up its value. The cards also become scarce in the future as they no longer come to print and players stacking cards which all decreases the supply. In the long run all cards tend to increase in value.
For new players who may not have the means to owning some of staple cards in the game I recommend starting to save and stack reward cards. The stronger the reward card the more wins you can get in battles which in turn means more assets to purchase cards that are staple cards. I have been doing this from the first day I started playing Splinterlands. My first cards that I focused on were Goblin Mech and Sea Monsters. Both those cards are highly sought after now and out of print. I am already on the look out for the next staple cards to earn and purchase in the rewards.
Until next time thanks for reading!!!
I have plenty of other cards for rent! Just go on peakmonsters and check out the market place and if you are curious what I offer here is a link:
