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, addiction science, geopolitics, forensics, law, ethics, philosophy, accounting, investing, anger management, 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 have a little extra Hive to buy/upgrade some more Splinterlands cards and/or buy some more swap.btc. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield.
[ DISCLAIMER: Although I made a major change in my strategy (starting with the previous post in this series, following the catastrophe that was the 1st round of land pre-sale) in which I will now limit my activity to NOT contributing any more DEC (ex. buying land, packs, etc.) I will proceed with these updates with an open-minded, and relatively cautously-OPTIMISTIC, attitude. That is, I will focus on the results of the new strategy NOT from the perspective of rebellion, but simply as an adjustment of strategy. - like any other strategy adjustment I have done over the lifetime of this series I have already laid out my reasoning for reducing my pro-activity in the game for now, in the previous post in this series. If admin makes some changes which offset the inability to buy land in the 1st pre-sale I will then assess and further adjust my strategy accordingly. Life is a give-and-take. I don't mind being "giving" as long as others aren't being "overly takey". Having said this, it WILL actually be interesting to see what kind of results I can achieve with this new "results-focused" strategy, so let's see how it goes. Fingers crossed. [ / DISCLAIMER ]
nearly DOUBLING of collection value between September 2020 and now (November 2020)
1 ) I'm keeping my eye on the daily change in value of my collection on Peakmonsters : https://peakmonsters.com/@transcript-junky/collection. The total value of my account has INDEED made a major jump in the past 2-3 months (up from ~ $4,500 USD two to over, or around, $8,000 USD). This is both a good benchmark for the health of the Splinterlands game in general, as well as a good measurement of the value of my account (relative to Bitcoin) that I can use to make longer-term strategy decisions. For instance, if at some point I want to completely bail out of the game I would be able to make an informed decision, ahead of time, on how much value I can get out to put into other crypto opportunities. Hopefully it will NOT come down to that. At the same time, $8,000 USD is INDEED around half the value of Bitcoin (at the time of writing this sentence, BTC = ~ $16,000 USD ), and when I also account for the ~ $1,000 USD worth of DEC in my in-game wallet, that puts me at over 0.50 BTC of value that I currently hold in the game. And considering my "magic number"" quantity of 0.28 Bitcoin as being the goal I am trying to get back to, if I were to sell my entire Splinterlands collection for BTC at any time I would still be within that goal. That is a comforting scenario right now. However, the plan is to CONTINUE with the process of earning DEC daily and buying up more BTC weekly. I will also be exploring some OTHER altcoins to potentially start buying at some point in the future, but the focus right now is on Bitcoin. I want to keep things as simple as possible, and believe that Bitcoin is stable enough in the long-term so I don't have the additional worry of losing that value. I also have a buddy who is able to buy Bitcoin from me, via PayPal, which provides me an easy off-ramp potential in case of cash liquidity emergencies going forward.
2 ) Speaking of the weekly buy of Bitcoin with Hive/DEC, since the previous post I DID manage to start keeping track of the amount of daily DEC earnings I am now allocating to the weekly swap.btc buy. You will now see this in the "spent" section of each daily record (section #5 of each posts, below), below the listing of the one or two cards (usually gold cards) I buy each day. The good news is that I HAVE been able to set aside AT LEAST the goal of 600 DEC per day, but the "bad" news is that this deduction of 600 DEC per day from my card-purchasing budget is significantly limiting my ability to buy some of the slightly more expensive ( $1.00 USD+ ) gold cards I had been buying each day in the past ( for example, the "Sand Worm" (Gold - Level 3 - $1.10 USD - 1,263 DEC (quote earlier this week)). I much prefer being able to use ALL of my daily battle DEC earnings to buy these level cards.
Here is the breakdown of the daily "leftover for weekly swamp.btc purchase" earning over the past seven days:
Nov 8th, 2020 - 692 DEC leftover to add to weekly Bitcoin buy
Nov 9th, 2020 - 624 DEC leftover for weekly swap.btc buy
Nov 10th, 2020 - 984 DEC leftover for weekly swap.btc buy
Nov 11th, 2020 - (entire) 483 DEC leftover fr weekly swap.btc purchase
Nov 12th, 2020 - 1,047 DEC leftover towards weekly swap.btc purchase
Nov 13th, 2020 - 308 DEC leftover for weekly swap.btc purchase
Nov 14th, 2020 - 1,011 DEC leftover towards weekly swap.btc purchase
So, based on the above numbers, the average daily DEC leftover for weekly swap.btc purchase = 5,149 DEC / 7 (days) = ~ 735 DEC per day. This DOES NOT include the ~ 500 DEC per day (average) earned from the two posts in this series, when calculated into daily amounts - more on that below.
However, I am thinking that I could start to average out the Hive income from the two posts in this series into a "daily DEC" amount, and that may end up off-setting the 600 DEC per day of the weekly swap.btc purchase cost. For instance, the most recent post payout was 12.683 Hive (which equals ~ 1,685 DEC, which when divided by seven (days) works out to : 1,685 DEC / 7 (days) = 240 DEC /day. So I can add that extra 240 DEC to each day's total amount allocated to the weekly swap.btc buy. Plus, this is only the value of the ONE (out of two) weekly posts of this series. Adding the DEC income from the SECOND weekly post may likely bring the total up into the 500 - 600 DEC per day range. which would allow me to use ALL of my daily battle DEC earnings to buy cards again, and the two weekly posts' income to make the weekly swap.btc purchase. I will work on monitoring the numbers on this over the next week or two to make a more informed, accurate decision on this.
3 ) Last week, before the first-round pre-sale debacle, I ran out of "quest" potions (which gives +5 loot chests per completed quest, per potion), and went ahead and purchased a new 10 (+1 free) batch for 7,200 DEC (~ 720 DEC per day). However, now that my new strategy is basically "no spending DEC on anything in-game" (at least for now, unless Splinterlands admin makes some decisions to motivate me back to being proactive again) this means that I do not want to spend another 7,200 DEC on another 10 (+1 free) "quest" potion batch. HOWEVER, there COULD potentially be a way for me to justify the cost OUTSIDE of my active daily DEC earnings (through game play) which would cover the cost of the 10 (+1 free) batches into the future. One of those could be the 9% "guild" bonus DEC (7% at the start of each season until we reach the Level 7 completed quest quantity limit) which I (and all members of my guild) currently earn on each won battle, since our guild is up at Level 7. So, if each 10 (+1 free) "quest" potion batch lasts for 11 days then I will need to do a rough calculation/estimate of the amount of bonus DEC I am earning over 11 days to see if that is "close enough" to 720 DEC/day to offset the cost of the "quest" potion batch purchase every 11 days. I will work on that. For instance, in the following battle : https://steemmonsters.com?p=battle&id=8803e7bb02dc773b85095f4e1364488c11a91be2&ref=transcript-junky you can see in the (below) screenshot that I earned 7% "guild bonus" PLUS 40% ("gold card" bonus) out of the 152.6 DEC earned from the win.
So 47% of 152.6 = ~ 71,72 DEC. And this is JUST ONE battle, which also doesn't factor in the value of the addition +5 cards I will get in the 11 reward dumps which the "quest" potion will be applied to. Therefore, my general feeling is that it bis BEST to just go ahead and keep purchasing the 10 (+1 free) quest potions, as the benefits outweigh the cost in the longer term, and it IS clearly possible to offset a significant amount of the 7,200 DEC cost via the "guild" and "gold" bonus DEC I earn through winning battles daily. Also, the CURRENT "quest potion" batch (in which I still have three quest potions remaining as of writing this sentence) does NOT fall within this calculation, since I purchased that batch BEFORE the first land pre-sale debacle. So my ultimate decision to purchase, or NOT purchase, another 10 (+1 free) "quest" potion batch will be made in roughly three days. I have already gathered a good amount of data (like the screenshot above), and I will provide a brief update on this in the next post of this series.
4 ) In the previous post of this series, 
@transcript-junky/splinterlands-power-strategy-tips-65
Basically, she states that constructive criticism of the game is welcomed, and not punished. That is good, because that kind of approach makes it MORE LIKELY that I may re-adjust my strategy to be more proactive in the game (start buying packs again) at some point in the future - that is, IF admin makes decisions which justify such re-adjustment. She also mentioned that she is working on starting up a new tournament series in the old "real-time" tournament format, because it seems that I am not the first person to express dismay at the disappearance of that tournament format. If she follows through with that I would surely play those tournaments, and that would be a major checkmark towards me making future decisions to gradually become more proactive in the game again (ex. buying some packs again). As I have said, if admin takes steps to show that they are looking out for players' interests then players (including myself) will respond in kind. You get back what you put out, as the proverbial saying goes. If perhaps, put more succinctly: If you're gonna be a Homo at least be a "good Homo" (sapiens).
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...
Starting DEC : 1,172,551 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 100.00%
Ending DEC - 1,174,844 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 80.79%
Balance = DEC Earning = 2,293 DEC = -> 17.648 HIVE x ~ $00.127 USD/Hive = ~ $2.24 USD
Spent:
1 x "Sand Worm" (Gold - Level 3 - $1.20 USD - 1,246 DEC -- five (5) cards remaining to Level 7)
1,047 DEC leftover towards weekly swap.btc purchase
Daily Quest (yesterday's "dragon" quest)
Notes: I was luckily able to win the final three battles to complete this "dragon" quest. I find "dragon" quests to be especially challenging, and so this may motivate me to focus a bit more of my daily card-buying effort towards buying/upgrading "dragon" splinter cards.
keepers -
(+) 80 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 80 DEC
potions - 2 legendary potions, 1 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 231 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "earth" quest)
Notes: Nice to see I was able to complete the previous "dragon" quest in reasonable amount of time, not have to abort it, and also squeeze in one (or potentially) two more quests into the season. Of course, at the Champion level the number of quest loot chests (20 - 25) is significant enough to hit some JUICY rewards, which is why I choose to stay in the Champion league, each season, instead of staying and competing for the leaderboard at the Diamond level. I find the regular Champion-level quest reward dumps to be adequately JUICY, and more dependable than competing on the leaderboards.
keepers -
(+) 50 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 55 DEC
potions - 1 legendary potions, 5 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 1,066 DEC
Starting DEC : 1,173,598 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 94.00%
Ending DEC - 1,174,805 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 73.38%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,207 DEC = -> 9.055 HIVE x ~ $00.118 USD/Hive = ~ $1.07 USD
Spent:
1 x "Flame Monkey" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.78 USD - 899 DEC -- two (2) cards remaining to Level 7)
308 DEC leftover for weekly swap.btc purchase
Daily Quest (today's "fire" quest)
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 60 DEC
potions - 6 legendary potions, 1 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 450 DEC
Starting DEC : 1,173,907 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 94.00%
Ending DEC - 1,175,910 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 88.05%
Balance = DEC Earning = 2,003 DEC = -> 14.867 HIVE x ~ $00.118 USD/Hive = ~ $1.75 USD
Spent:
1 x "Sand Worm" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.85 USD - 992 DEC -- four (4) cards remaining to Level 8)
1,011 DEC leftover towards weekly swap.btc purchase
Season Rewards (Champion II seaso level - 120 loot chests)
keepers -
"Fire Spitter" (Gold - Level 3 - $17.00 USD - 15,000 DEC -- one (1) card remaining to Level 4)
(+) 1,220 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 595 DEC
potions - 14 legendary potions, 23 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 1 packs
DEC - 988 DEC
Untamed (free Untamed pack in today's season reward dump)
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 70 DEC
Dice (season milestone Dice pack for reaching "Diamond II" season level (to start the new season) -> + 50 season loot chests )
keepers -
(+) 60 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 20 DEC (total DEC = 80 DEC)
Starting DEC : 1,174,918 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 97.99%
Ending DEC - 1,178,512 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 83.86%
Balance = DEC Earning = 3,594 DEC = -> 26.41 HIVE x ~ $00.126 USD/Hive = ~ $3.33 USD
Spent:
1 x "Sand Worm" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.98 USD - 1,125 DEC -- three (3) cards remaining to Level 8)
1 x "Flame Monkey" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.64 USD - 727 DEC -- one (1) card remaining to Level 7)
871 DEC leftover for weekly swap.btc purchase
earned 557.184 DEC from sale (on the market) of "Bortis (non-gold) which I got in the free Untamed pack in yesterdays season rewards. This is ~ 517 DEC more than I would have gotten by burning this card for 40 DEC.
earned 1526.981 from sale of "Bila The Radiant" (non-gold (legendary) - $1.58 USD) that I got in season rewards dump yesterday
converted 1.646 Hive payout (from previous series post (link below)) to 12.683 Hive,, which I then deposited into 
@transcript-junky/splinterlands-power-strategy-tips-65
Daily Quest (today's "neutral" quest)
keepers -
(+) 00 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 90 DEC
potions - 2 legendary potions, 6 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 78 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 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