8/29/2021
The Struggle
So you've bought your spellbook for Splinterlands, got your Hive Keychain setup (I know, it's daunting), and now you're looking at expanding your starter deck and thinking to yourself "Wow, cards are expensive!!". I know... I sympathize, but I got your back.
First off, cards weren't always this expensive! I started way late in the game (spring of 2021), but at the time, the cheaper cards were still around $0.025 each (mostly reward cards), Yodin Zaku and Llama summoners could be had for around $40 each, Kron was around $10, and a bunch of cheap summoners were around $0.50 each, and it was even WAY cheaper before I started.
Splinterlands player base has grown so much in the last several weeks and months that prices of cards has skyrocketed to the 10x-20x+ prices (or more, depending on when you are reading this) you are seeing now, and I think that is a true attestation to this games brilliance, ecosystem, and community. There are literally people with one million dollar decks (or more) because of the drastic rise in Splinterlands popularity!!
So bringing us back to the present, you're a new player, and you might be feeling like you are late to the game, because at the time of this article being written, there are no packs of cards to buy from the official Splinterlands store, only a few reward cards rarely dropping from Daily Quests, and the only place to purchase packs of cards are from 3rd parties for a much larger price than they were originally being sold for, or the cards being sold on the market from the other players. Chaos Legion is still currently several months from being released, but you want to get going playing so you can start learning the game and start earning, as well. You're not a whale, or you want to try the game a bit before you whale in, and you're wondering what to do now.
Fortunately, there's still time to jump in, especially with more FOMO coming in the near future with the release of the new Chaos Legions expansion, the Rift Walkers expansion, the new Reward cards, and most notably, the upcoming Land expansion, there is still much room for new players to join before everything increases in price 10x again. So with that being said, Let's do this...
Renting
First and foremost, renting is a good way to spend very little to either try out cards, or only use a card for a short period of time, without having to fork over ungodly amounts of money. Many people will rent bigger cards towards the end of each 2-week season in order to advance further in both power and league to get more DEC and prize chests at the end of the season, and it's a very good way to test out cards and decks without spending all the coin to own them.
Although Splinterlands itself has implemented its rental user interface, PeakdMonsters Splinterlands rental user interface is (admittedly from Splinterlands own Aggroed) much more robust in rental options for both sides of the rental process. Either route you take though, you can't go wrong with rentals if you're on the fence about buying certain cards or are on a tight budget.
100 DEC a day (about 70 cents currently) to rent Yodin Zaku vs. buying Yodin for almost $900 (current price)
Kretch
I recently discovered and realized a very important card for new players to try acquiring, with the prices of the Splinterlands economy booming as it currently is. That card would be Kretch Tallevor, the Dragon splinter summoner. But why this particular summoner? "He has no powers, so what's the point?". I know, and would have agreed with you several months ago, but with the game's economy booming as it is, newer players need to find new strategies to get into the game. In Novice and Bronze, you are allowed to use any splinter, including the Dragon splinter, and once you get into Silver+ league, you will be able to use the Dragon splinter roughly 80% of the time, meaning you can use Kretch to play not only any other splinter, but to play Dragon cards along side your chosen splinter.
But why not use one of the other Dragon summoners with the fancy powers, you say? Or why not just get a summoner from each of the other splinters instead? Well, that is definitely an option, but if you're on a budget or want to dabble first before purchasing many expensive cards to your Splinterlands collection, hear me out...
Kretch is a Reward card (from opening Daily Quest and End of Season chests) that is still currently being minted (although not for much longer, as it's currently 92% minted and seems to be minting about 1% every few days at this point) so the price is still relatively low comparative to other Dragon summoners, and other summoners in general, currently starting at about $5 per card. The real beauty with Kretch comes from the fact that he only has 6 levels to level up (that's a good thing), which means he can play higher level Monsters at each summoner level, and to get to level 2, you only need to combine 4 cards, which is about $20 total right now. With Kretch at this level, you are able to play level 3 Common monsters, level 3 Rare, level 2 Epic, and level 1 Legendary. And if you want to play maximum Silver league level monsters, you can just combine 6 more cards to bring Kretch to level 3 for $50 total, and play ALL the splinters with him most of the time. And if you want a MAX level Kretch, you only need 46 cards total, which is about $240 total right now. Plus, Kretch only costs 3 mana, while most other modern format Dragon summoners cost 4 or more mana to use.
The next cheapest Dragon summoner, Drake of Arnak, is $7.50 per card to do the same concept, but needs 5 cards to bring to level 2 (which is still not a bad deal at about $38 if you want to stay in Silver), but 25 cards to get to the equivalent of Kretch's Level 3, which amounts to about $188, and to MAX level Drake, you need 115 cards, which is about $863. He is also a 4-mana summoner, versus Kretch's 3.
Now, if you wanted to get a level 2 summoner from each splinter instead, you would be spending about $150, or for level 3, close to $500 (roughly) and then you wouldn't be able to use the Dragon monsters along side your chosen splinter monsters.
Let's not forget, your Spellbook purchase comes with a starter deck of level 1 monsters and summoners you can use in tandem with your other owned or rented cards, but does NOT come with Dragon or Neutral cards, so this will allow you to use your new budget Dragon summoner along side your starter cards.
Coming up next, we're going to talk about what cards you might want to purchase to go along with your Dragon summoner. We will be trying to use higher level Monster cards to make up for the lack of Summoner ability, as higher level Monster cards gain more stats and abilities for themselves and for the rest of the team.
Kretch doesn't look like much, but with the current prices of monsters and summoners, Kretch is a GREAT value for newer players!
Accompanying Monster Cards
So one thing that we are bringing attention to with the Kretch summoner is versatility, and we can do that with Monsters cards too, by bringing in Neutral cards into the mix. Neutral cards can be played with ANY Splinter (unless the Taking Sides rule is in effect for the match, which doesn't allow you to use Neutral cards for that match) are NOT included in the starter deck provided to you with your Spellbook purchase. It makes sense to grab some of these right away, so you can increase the size of any Splinter deck you decide to use, regardless if you use Kretch or not.
While choosing your Neutral cards (or any Splinter monster for that matter) pay attention to which stats and abilities change with each level, and find which will give you the most value in the future for the price. If you want to see a list of abilities, check out Splintercards for a nice list and explanation of each.
Neutral monsters are a great way to expand all of your splinter decks at the same time!
We already know that you get free starter cards to use with each splinter, but now what we want to try to do is fill in some of the gaps of cards that didn't come with your starter deck kit. Since Modern and Wild format will be a thing soon, it is probably best for a beginner to concentrate on some of the newer cards, such as Untamed, Dice, some Reward cards, some Promo cards, and Chaos Legion in the near future. Some of the previous cards, including Alpha and Beta, will only be playable in the Wild format, and are increasingly more expensive than the newer edition cards, so it may be better to concentrate on the newer cards at this time so they are still playable in modern when the game format splits. Find the cheaper cards that aren't included with your starter deck and try to add them if possible. This will give you more flexibility with your matches and different rule sets as well as allow you to finish your Daily Quests quicker!
And finally don't forget to get a few Dragon monster cards to start with! When you are using Kretch, or any Dragon summoner, you will be able to use monsters from not only the splinter you chose, but also your Dragon monsters along side them!! There aren't as many Dragon monsters as there are monsters in other splinters, and they do become more expensive very quickly, but there are currently a few that are on the lower price range that might help you in your matches along the way.
Dragon monsters will fight along side your chosen splinter monsters for extra options and synergies!
Time to Play the Game!
With these tips, any beginner can have a much better starting deck for a much better price. Enjoy the game! Join the official Splinterlands Discord server. Talk to players. Learn more about the game. Share your thoughts and experiences. And please, let me know if any of these tips have helped you in any way.
With that, thank you, and I will see you on the battlefield!!
-ChannelMagnetic-
