# Joining the Frontier League ![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/splinter.gld/23tbF1SevukRT1MPdCpFGDcNuW5LjFHJJhGwBezJq5HR2veCTrwvnWq2bq5wboD3ic4p8.png) I've been a long time player of Splinterlands with my @tergan604 account. Unfortunately as sets came and went my old cards become unplayable unless I bought a pass to play in the wild league. Nah. To be competitive in the new league required a pretty significant investment in the game and I'm a casual player at best. Then I noticed there was a new Frontier League. I had heard about it as the beginner league so I gave it a try. I enjoyed the story mode. I really enjoyed the challenge battles. Getting some free cards from playing the storyline? Great idea. The price cap is low. The number of cards to figure out is low. The game mechanics are limited. **It is Splinterlands on basic mode** And the cards reflect that. There are virtually no cards in the set that you would want to play in any other league. The possible exception is : ![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/splinter.gld/23zGPXfYimHia5UqbSbRiLt1Fft4ZHEwmeRhf1ved1MMScZEqsYWcCmJcsP1BtfyoAsqu.png) Now there is of course the OG version which had the same ability +1 mana at half the mana cost. ![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/splinter.gld/23wgBP4pZ3AZNZZ269sewK5y6UND8oRinboNns6t2FW9XvRH99FjDSxvpynwX3AE76Tgk.png) But here is the thing. Marlai is modern legal and the +1 to magic attack is strong. Yes, she is capped at lvl 4 so she is crippled but still...For some players she might make sense. ### All foundation cards are crippled. But all foundations cards cost too much. They all have weak abilities. They are all level limited. But then again, in foundation rank all the other cards suck so its a battle of the wimps. Cards that wouldn't be ready for the prime time big leagues...and I'm okay with that. Especially since you can level up pretty much any Foundation card for cheap.

# Purchasing Cards through SPL Trader ![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/splinter.gld/23u5TE9ZvAfwqjqY18jp4dnX4SPL9LqYT2L3friwnAmFctraRzMPKgbRDutEivWVmEFZe.png) Now @dlmmqb asked me to check out the SPL Trader site. What a frustrating pain....but at its heart it is a good idea. It took me a while to figure things out. I tried to purchase cards and it failed even though I had DEC. I had to look hard to figure out how to join the pool and when I looked on HIVE there was no mention of delegation or a LP pool. I looked for the cards I wanted to buy and none of them were there. In short... when I read that it was in Alpha it very much felt like it... But.... I did find Marlai Singariel available on the site for cheaper than on Splinterlands. That was absolutely a plus. Then again when it came to regular cards from Foundation league? Virtually nothing there. I bought out what they had and then had to go over to the Splinterlands marketplace.

# Moving Forward I'm going to keep grinding in the Foundations League and see where I can end up with a minimal investment. I'm going to see about adding a bunch of Foundations cards for sale on the SPL Marketplace so that newbies can see both the cards they need in the foundation league AND see how they can use the market to make a little extra coin. I've also added roughly 25K DEC to the SPL pool to see just how good their ROI really is. I'll keep everyone posted on that moving forward.

# Final Thoughts I'm back playing Splinterlands for now. But in the beginner/fun league. I like that it has inexpensive cards and that it is accessible. I'm going to work with SPL Marketplace. It is a great idea that has potential and if it saves or makes me money while playing Splinterlands? Even better. After seeing the SPL website I have been thinking about how I would do it better. I'm absolutely certain that the SPL people are doing things well in the backend but perhaps a little less robust trading ability with a little more user friendly front end could be useful. But for now? I'll just keep tinkering with things and see how it all works out. Side Note: If anyone knows. If I ever made my own website which used Splinterland cards for a different in game usage... Does Splinterlands allow using their card images in different games? I was just thinking how funny it would be to have a Monster Rancher game where people raised: ![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/splinter.gld/242Y3NWgAEwXmXfh9pHUijPMFLJPvcQKN89VaQR647B3QkLp3X68463rBaVNr2mwVHyfu.png) At less than a penny each people could farm their "cows" and keep track of each one. But would I be able to use the image in game? Curious :)