As I have now been playing "Splinterlands" for over a year I've wanted to contribute something of ACTIONABLE value to my fellow players (and FUTURE players) - but NOT just fill my Hive feed with daily images of quest reward - or battle - SPAM (no offense to those doing so). Ultimately, Hive is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of blockchain social media technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly "Splinterlands" player strategy diary" type series, with CONCISE and ACTIONABLE tips, would be of most value to my audience. Please let me know your thoughts (good and/or bad), and I hope that readers (now and into the future) will benefit from this series. If you gain a better understanding of blockchain, gaming, "blockchain gaming", marketing, psychology, forensics, philosophy, investing and/or any other area(s) of knowledge I end up exploring (voluntarily or involuntarily) as this series naturally progresses, then I will have done my "good deed" (of providing value) for the week - and earn a nice little boost of DEC to buy more cards. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield.
1 ) The new change in rewards, in which potions are NO LONGER applied to reward cards, actually seems to be somewhat of a GOOD thing, as I don't feel as pressured now to finish each daily quest, but can do the quest at a more comfortable pace and make some extra potions and DEC each day. This is also forcing me to pay more attention to my daily DEC earnings through non-quest game play (which I had been doing all along ANYWAY). I've been averaging ~ $1.00 per day of DEC earnings in daily game play, and have tended to spend that amount on "one gold card" per day. For the more expensive cards, or new cards (like the new "Dice" edition cards) I will buy some NON-GOLD cards instead of "one gold" per day, mainly for the sake of making it possible to PLAY those non-gold cards at higher levels (which I then usually follow-up by buying gold versions (at a pace depending, of course, on the price of each gold card). Also, on a few occasions since the new rewards change I DID get some higher-value gold cards, so it's still POSSIBLE to get higher-value reward cards, but less regularly. However, one extra perk is that my potion numbers are now going down more slowly (since you can't apply the potions to rewards) while ADDITIONAL potions are being added to my reserves via the quest rewards. This means that there is also some incentive to buy some new packs (ex. Dice), as I have ~ 2,000 potions (both legendary and gold), and 236 Untamed packs in reserve (so 1,180 cards), and so this give me some leeway of ~ 1,000 potions (both legendary and gold) to buy more packs to apply to into the future (including the packs which sometimes come in the daily reward dumps). So, on the potion end of things, it looks like my "one pack per day" pack-opening strategy fits in perfectly, which is surprising since I had no idea ahead of time that the potions would no longer be able to be used on rewards cards, so this seems to be partly a case of luck and/or my longer-term conservative approach.
2 ) I've adjusted my schedule of daily gameplay so that I play through the afternoon and up into the night (in the run-up to midnight), and then close out the day - by calculating my daily DEC earnings and buying new cards - within an hour of midnight. I can start the next day's record right away (after 12 midnight), and therefore start using some of the new and upgraded cards (which I bought an hour before to close out the previous day). In the past I tended to finish the daily quest and then close out the day and buy cards and then wait SEVERAL HOURS before being able to use the new cards I had bought. Doing it this new way allows me to finish the day on a positive note, having been able to do a few battles using the new cards obtained that day. So instead of going to sleep ANTSY about playing the new cards, I can have a sense of progress with the new cards (by playing a few battles AND opening the daily pack) IMMEDIATELY, and then sleep it off PUMPED for the next day of play.
3 ) Tournaments can be used as "practice with potential earnings" to try out new cards, or cards you less regularly use to become more familiar with them. This is AS OPPOSED to simply using the "practice" mode which offers ZERO earning potential, but surely has it's place if players choose the "zero risk" option. For instance, out of the 29 Dice packs I have purchased (as of writing this sentence) I hit several of the new summoners, which of course are at the Level 1-2 range, which (compared to my maxed Beta summoners) puts me at a disadvantage if I try to use them during regular ranked battle mode. The nice thing about the tournaments is that your card-power is often CAPPED at the lower levels (depending on the tournament specs) and so it is an IDEAL opportunity to experiment with your lower-level cards AND potentially earn some extra DEC (to potentially level up those cards). An ideal time to experiment is when you have lost a few battles in a tournament, and so it becomes clear that the remaining battles would essentially be WASTED (in terms of placing (at a high enough level for payout)), and so this becomes an ideal time to use the remaining battles of the tournament to practice with your lower-level cards. In addition, you can ALSO use these extra tournament battles to "slow your daily ranked battle" pace so as to let your capture rate recharge a bit more, by let's say, alternating between ranked battles (ex. one per hour) and tournament battles (ex. one very other hour). In this way you can earn more DEC, potentially play (for DEC win) in the tournaments, AND practice with some of your new lower-level cards which would be more risky to use in ranked battle mode.
4 ) The new "Dice" edition of cards was released this past week, and having the past year of experience with the Orbs edition under my belt (and the overall "over-buying" of those the "Orbs" packs - although those Orbs cards HAVE proved to be UBER-valuable in terms of usefulness in battles, AND longer-term DEC earnings) I decided to proceed more methodically this time ("live and learn"). The nice thing is that 
5 ) Okay. As I did in the last post in this series, the highly-detailed "diary" of my daily #splinterlands activity is laid out in the last part of this post, for those of you who are inclined to follow, more closely, what I am doing. It occurred to me that this "diary" section is JUST THAT - a highly detailed record of my daily activity in the game, with some JUICY "play-by-play" analysis notes, and commentary, on what works, what doesn't, and some suggestions for further tweaking and experimentation. So, with this in mind, I hope some/any of you will enjoy this information. If not, you are under no pressure to read it fully, and are free to SKIM, or even IGNORE, any parts, or ALL parts, completely - at your discretion. I lay this out because it also HELPS ME to document my progress in the game over time, and may help some people NOW, and into the perpetual future...
[ DISCLAIMER: Since this has been another week of delayed publishing of this weekly series post (for various justified reasons) I have decided to starting cutting off the number of daily diary entries to SEVEN PER WEEK. That is, in this post I have reduced the number of daily records to TWELVE records, since after the twelfth day I completely lost control of the record-keeping, and don't want to post SLOPPY records in these posts (for the sake of maintaining some sense of order/professionalism). In addition, since I have been struggling to get these posts published on time, in FUTURE posts going forward I plan to limit the number of daily records to SEVEN PER POST (that is, seven days equals one week of records) with the intent of facilitating getting these posts published on schedule as a weekly series post. Let's see if this new editorial strategy tweak helps get this series back on schedule. Fingers crossed.
Starting DEC : 3,752 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 89.96%
Ending DEC - 4,439 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 78.89%
Balance = DEC Earning = 687 DEC = -> 1.659 HIVE x ~ $00.247 USD/Hive = ~ $00.409 USD
Spent :
2 x "Ice Pixie" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.41 USD - 713 DEC -- twelve (12) cards remaining to Level 8)
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 20 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 20 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "" quest)
keepers -
(+) xxx DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) xx (gifted to gang) (+) xx DEC
potions - x legendary potions, x alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - x packs
DEC - xxx DEC
Starting DEC : 3,727 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 78.98%
Ending DEC - 61,855 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 74.14%
Balance = DEC Earning = 58,128 DEC = -> x.xxx HIVE x ~ $00.xx USD/Hive = ~ $00.xx USD
Spent :
12 x "Ice Pixie" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.74 USD - 1,274 DEC -- bumped up to Level 8 (max) - to increase "magic" from "+1" to "+2")
5 x "Goblin Fireballer" (Gold - Level 3 - $4.45 USD - 7,712 DEC -- bumped up to Level 8 (Oops! Bought 4 cards extra - no biggie) to increase "range" from "+1" to "+2')
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 20 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 20 DEC
converted 142.885 Hive (weekly power-down) to 57,131 DEC to buy cards
Daily Quest (today's "win three battles with no neutral monsters" quest)
keepers -
(+) 800 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 30 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 55 DEC
potions - 1 legendary potions, 7 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 55 DEC
Untamed (Pack #1 : celebration pack for reaching "Champion I" season level --> +30 loot chests --> 150 total season loot chests)
keepers -
"The Vigilator" (non-gold - Level 1 - $1.43 USD - 1,000 DEC -- three (3) cards remaining to Level 4 (max))
"Goblin Fireballer" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.49 USD - 500 DEC -- five (5) cards remaining to Level 8)
(+) 0 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 10 10 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 10 DEC
Starting DEC : 52,869 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 74.22%
Ending DEC - 53,568 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 73.98%
Balance = DEC Earning = 699 DEC = -> 1.747 HIVE x ~ $00.258 USD/Hive = ~ $00.45 USD
Spent :
22 x "Medusa" (non-gold - Level 1 - $5.50 USD - 9,013 DEC -- bumped up to Level 7 (to increase "health" from "+5" to "+6")
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 200 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 20 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 20 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
(+) 30 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 20 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 25 DEC
potions - 5 legendary potions, 3 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 273 DEC
Starting DEC : 44,555 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 84.61%
Ending DEC - 45,086 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 89.21%
Balance = DEC Earning = 531 DEC = -> 1.327 HIVE x ~ $00.264 USD/Hive = ~ $00.35 USD
Spent :
2 x "Cocatrice" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.45 USD - 711 DEC -- twelve (12) cards remaining to Level 7)
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 50 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 20 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
(+) 170 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 30 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 10 DEC
potions - 7 legendary potions, 3 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 144 DEC
Starting DEC : 44,375 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 95.00%
Ending DEC - 46,917 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 91.07%
Balance = DEC Earning = 2,542 DEC = -> 5.525 HIVE x ~ $00.277 USD/Hive = ~ $01.53 USD
Spent :
4 x "Cursed Slimeball" (Gold - Level 3 - $1.47 USD - 2,479 DEC -- two (2) cards remaining to Level 9)
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 80 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 50 DEC
Season Rewards ("Champion I" season level --> 150 season loot chests)
keepers -
"Ancient Lich" (non-gold - Level 1 - $2.30 USD - 1,000 DEC)
(+) 1,050 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 325 DEC
potions - 33 legendary potions, 27 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed packs - 1
DEC - 2,009 DEC
Starting DEC : 44,438 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 92.00%
Ending DEC - 45,268 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 84.80%
Balance = DEC Earning = 830 DEC = -> 1.996 HIVE x ~ $00.270 USD/Hive = ~ $00.538 USD
Spent :
1 X "Cursed Slimeball" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.36 USD - 579 DEC -- one (1) card remaining to Level 9)
6 x "Kelp Initiate" (Non-gold - Level 1 - $0.32 USD - 516 DEC -- bumped up to Level 3 (to add the "cleanse" ability, and decrease "health" from "+6" to "+5")
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 40 10 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 10 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 10 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "dragon" quest) - the loot chest page did not open properly (due to glitch) today, so I improved here
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 50 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 35 DEC
potions - ? legendary potions, ? alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 686 DEC
Starting DEC : 44,173 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 87.00%
Ending DEC - 44,409 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 97.43%
Balance = DEC Earning = 236 DEC = -> 0.574 HIVE x ~ $00.262 USD/Hive = ~ $00.15 USD
Spent :
5 x "Death Elemental" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.28 USD - 462 DEC -- bumped up to Level 5 (to increase "speed" from "+4" to "+5")
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 80 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 50 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 10 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 25 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 20 DEC
potions - 2 legendary potions, 6 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 78 DEC
Starting DEC : 43,947 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 100.00%
Ending DEC - 48,850 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 91.63%
Balance = DEC Earning = 4,903 DEC = -> 11.295 HIVE x ~ $00.290 USD/Hive = ~ $03.275 USD
Spent :
20 x "Death Elemental" (non-gold - Level 1 - $1.11 USD - 1,696 DEC -- bumped up to Level 6 (to increase "magic" from "+1" to "+2", and decrease "health" from "+3" to "+2")
converted 10.740 Hive (from previous weekly series post) to 4255 DEC
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 0 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 50 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 30 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "dragon" quest)
keepers -
(+) 20 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 60 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 00 DEC
potions - 4 legendary potions, 5 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 220 DEC
Starting DEC : 43,947 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 100.00%
Ending DEC - 92,957 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 80.21%
Balance = DEC Earning = 49,010 DEC = -> 113.058 HIVE x ~ $00.270 USD/Hive = ~ $30.52 USD
Spent :
9 x "Shadowy Presence" (non-gold - Level 1 - $1.42 USD - 2,389 DEC -- bumped up to Level 4 (to increase "health" from "+4" to "+5")
12 x "Cursed Slimeball" (Gold - Level 3 - $4.56 USD - 7,662 DEC -- bumped up to Leve 100 (max) - to increase "melee" from "+1" to "+2" and "health" from "+3" to "+4")
25 x "Khmer Princess" (non-gold - Level 1 - $4.27 USD - 7,188 DEC - bumped up to Level 8 (max) to add the "triage" ability)
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 50 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 20 DEC
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
"Horny Toad" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.38 USD - 500 DEC -- five (5) cards remaining to Level 8)
(+) 10 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 10 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 50 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "earth" quest)
keepers -
(+) 100 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 50 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 45 DEC
potions - 1 legendary potions, 2 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 1 packs
DEC - 145 DEC
converted 102.976 Hive (weekly power-down) to 44,691 DEC
Starting DEC : 75,718 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 80.62%
Ending DEC - 77,536 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 72.25%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,818 DEC = -> 4.486 HIVE x ~ $00.262 USD/Hive = ~ $01.175 USD
Spent :
1 x "Spirit Druid Grog" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.94 USD - 1,610 DEC -- one (1) card remaining to Level 3)
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 50 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 20 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 10 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "win three battles without neutral monsters" quest)
keepers -
(+) 120 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 210 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 20 DEC
potions - 4 legendary potions, 4 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 1,220 DEC
Starting DEC : 75,956 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 86.60%
Ending DEC - 76,278 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 83.11%
Balance = DEC Earning = 322 DEC = -> 0.801 HIVE x ~ $00.244 USD/Hive = ~ $00.195 USD
Spent :
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
"Lir Deepswimmer" (Gold - Level 2 - $125.00 USD - 50,000 DEC) -- #F*ckYeah!
"Dark Ha'on" (non-gold (legendary) - Level 1 - $1.95 USD - 1,000 DEC --
(+) 40 200 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 10 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) DEC
Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
(+) 80 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 40 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 65 DEC
potions - 2 legendary potions, 2 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 257 DEC
Starting DEC : 76,309 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 99.03%
Ending DEC - 77,985 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 97.44%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,676 DEC = -> 4.113 HIVE x ~ $00.241 USD/Hive = ~ $00.991 USD
Spent :
1 X "Spirit Druid Grog" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.94 USD - 1,631 DEC -- bumped up to Level 3 (to add "slow" ability)
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 200 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 20 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 20 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
(+) 20 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 15 10 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 10 DEC
potions - 5 legendary potions, 2 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 1,211 DEC
Starting DEC : 76,354 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 97.88%
Ending DEC - 76,709 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 100.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 355 DEC = -> 0.873 HIVE x ~ $00.244 USD/Hive = ~ $00.213 USD
Spent :
2 x "Centauri Image" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.13 USD - 239 DEC -- bumped up to Level 4 (to increase "health" from "+9" to "+10")
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 00 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 50 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 30 DEC
Untamed (Pack #2 : celebration pack for reaching "Champion II" season level --> + 40 loot chests --> 120 season loot chests)
keepers -
(+) 50 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 20 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 10 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
(+) 300 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 10 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) xx DEC
potions - 5 legendary potions, 4 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 143 DEC
Whew! These posts are growing dense - but that's okay. Take what resonates with you, and leave the rest. I hope you find some/any of these tips useful in increasing your understanding and/or skill level in the SteemMonsters (Splinterlands) and/or any other game(s) - and the " blockchain gaming " industry as whole - which I end up exploring as this series evolves. More JUICY tips to come with each weekly update, as I dig deeper into this whole REVOLUTIONARY PHENOMENON, and become more experienced and successful in the game(s).
See you on the battlefield...
@transcript-junky