Moments that Made Me a Better Player

Introduction

I have been a Splinterlands player since 2021, this year it will be six years playing Splinterlands. And getting better at a game you have spent years with results in the progress that rarely comes from the big wins. It comes from the moments that sting a little, the losses you replay in your head.

When I look back at my journey as a player, it’s not a smooth upward line. It’s a collection of moments, some frustrating, some humbling, some quietly satisfying that reshaped how I think, plan, and play.

Evolution as a Splinterlands Player

Early on I went really hard on cards, specifically Chaos Legion, that was a painful lesson as the card values dropped like a rock. Land plot values also dropped a lot, I recall a single plot was selling for over five hundred dollars, I bought a single plot for $400 and thought it was a deal, that plot turned out to be a common rarity plot...

Early on I was chasing after super meta cards, since then I learned to be more discerning and look for better deals on cards, like buying fully maxed out cards when they hit their lowest levels in recent history. Meta changes in Splinterlands all the time, but having a deep deck that is acquired at bargain prices is a much better strategy long term.

Here is what a good priced card looks like:

If you are wondering which card that is, that is a price chart for the gold foil version of Brewmaster Abraxas summoner or as they are now called archon.

There are certain cards that are critical to the deck, first of all we need summoners and summoner level also determines what level cards we can play. In my opinion it is critical to have summoners that cover all splinters first and have them at the maximum level your budget affords, then you start adding in some key cards at good price levels and bargain cards.

If we just look at summoners:

You can clearly see that Rebellion summoners, particularly rare and common rarity ones are the best bargains right now. It also seems that gold foil summoners are relatively cheap compared to their regular foil counterparts.

If we take a look at the legendary summoners there Akane and Risqruel Drath seem to be clear bargains. Eternal Tofu is clearly a better summoner, but it is more than double the cost of these two...

Consistency Beats Brilliance

I used to chase clever lineups. The kind that make you feel smart when they work and foolish when they don’t. High risk, high reward plays were exciting, but exhausting.

The moment that changed me wasn’t a single match, but a long season where I barely moved despite occasional big wins. That is when I started optimizing for consistency. Fewer flashy plays. More reliable setups. Lineups that did not win spectacularly, but also did not collapse if one thing went wrong. Over time, my results stabilized and my rating climbed.

My gameplay and my card accumulation strategy became similar over time, it is more about incremental growth vs big spending on super meta cards that tend to loose their strength and value the most over time.

That lesson works beyond the Splinterlands game. Improvement is not about occasional brilliance. It’s about stacking small, repeatable edges.

The Quiet Satisfaction of Long Term Strategy

One of the most underrated moments in becoming a better player was not dramatic at all. It was the slow realization that long term planning actually works.

Staking consistently. Thinking in months instead of days. Viewing losses as data instead of failures. Watching small advantages compound over time.

There was no single match that marked this shift, just a gradual sense that I was playing a longer game than before. Not just the match in front of me, but the whole Hive and Splinterlands ecosystem around it. That perspective changed how I value resources, patience, and timing.