As I have now been playing Steem Monsters and Drug Wars for several months now, I have wanted to contribute something of ACTIONABLE value to my fellow players (and FUTURE players) - but NOT just fill my Steemit feed with daily images of quest reward - or battle - SPAM, (no offense to those doing so). Ultimately, Steemit is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of blockchain technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly "Steem Monster + Drugs Wars 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, and/or any other area of knowledge I end up exploring as this series naturally progresses, then I will have done my "good deed" (of providing value) for the week. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield...
1 ) The strategy I launched last month, in which I use DEC earned from battles to BOTH buy "+5 reward card" potions (2,500 DEC) in ADDITION to investing ~ 2,000 DEC into each of my Steemmit posts has proved to now be a winning formula. Earning DEC and then liquidating it via the "bid bot" provides just the right incentive to keep me active in the game, with my upgraded goal being to IDEALLY "complete the daily quest, AND earn 2,000 DEC from regular play to get those JUICY ~$3.00+ upvotes. I can then use the income from the bid bot upvotes to buy more cards as needed.
2 ) As a result of the increased activity and reward card earnings on SteemMonsters I have gotten a few especially valuable reward cards (like the recent "Mushroom Seer" gold card - worth $3.44 USD on the market (as of writing this post). Since this is essentially "free money", what I do when I get these high-value cards is simply go ahead and spend an EQUIVALENT amount on some card upgrades which I need to enhance my game. This is a "game" after all, and the "upgrading" process is part of the game - that is, the STRATEGIC upgrade of various cards to enhance your performance. I don't want to be one of those people who just DUMPS a bunch of Steem/SBD into the game and buys up a bunch of cards and plays with no strategy. For me, the buying and upgrading of cards is part of the PROCESS of evolving my skill/competence in the game. This is most fulfilling to me, especially when I land a nice high-value card and can then get my jollies going on a "SteemMonsters shopping spree". Fun times.
3 ) I've been pretty good at keeping up with my goal of "reading one #steemmonsters and one #drugwars post per day" this week. I must admit, though, that I feel like a bit of a DUNCE, as when I watched this excellent new Drug ward video by 
https://steemit.com/gaming/@zainenn/8tk7467l31r
I was kicking myself when I found out that it is possible to actually enter a QUANTITY of recruits you want to recruit in one go. Previously, I had been recruiting one recruit at a time! This means I was spending LOTS of time going down the list of recrtuits on the "units" page. Now I can just "order" a specific number of each recruit, have the total amount decucted from my asset balances immediately (which is very help when you are uner attack, since you can quickly get your resrouce counts down to within your storage capacity), and even do some larger recruitment while I sleep overnight. This is a MAJOR move forward, even though I can't believe I didn't realize that you could change the quatnity in the light grey text field (from "1" to anything above "1"). I thought that the text field was static. Big misassumption, but more proof of the value of staying abreast of posts related to the games. Live and learn.
4 ) An ADDITIONAL way that I have discovered to streamline all of my Steem dApps activities is by using some of the SBD I earn from the posts in this series to buy points on SteemFollower, and then upvote some/any/all of the interesting #steemhunt posts with SteemFollower. This serves to BOTH earn me additional SteemFollowr points, and thus get more upvotes, AND to earn Hunt tokens, since for each #steemhunt post you upvote you earn upvote points on @SteemHunt. This an ADDITIONAL way to leverage the income I gain from SteemMonsters play to build the momentum on some of the other main Steem-based dApps I participate in. I HIGHLY recommend anyone to join SteemFollower - especially "newbies". You can do so via my referral link : https://steemit.com/gaming/@zainenn/8tk7467l31r or just go to their site and join with using me as your referral. If you join under me I will add the bonus of answering any "newbie" questions you may have in getting up and rolling on SteemFollow. It's easy.
5 ) Armed with the new knowledge of the ability to recuit larger quantities of battle units, and the additional strategy tip explained by
I hope you find some/any of these tips useful in increasing your understanding and/or skill level in the Steem Monsters (Splinterland) and/or Drug Wars game(s). More JUICY tips to come with each weekly update, as I become more experienced and successful in the game.
See you on the battlefield...
@transcript-junky