I'm so hype for the theme of this week's #Splinterlands #CommunityChallenge because I'm really feeling the Path to Power as I hit a huge milestone in my journey into Praetoria. With a little holiday help, I got the last 7K SPS to end the year over with over ONE MILLION SPS staked! Let's reflect as we turn the page on 2025 as I ramble bout how we got here...
How We Got Here
I was helping a friend open up a new storefront as COVID restrictions were lifting. We were Magic the Gathering Grand Prix grinders & traders for a few years in the mid 2010s. We were both on the $BTC wave before it was cool. We climbed Mt. GOX.
When he saw my Lazy Lion he started telling me about his buddy who was playing this Web3 game with MtG colors and quick battles, online assets, and three ways to earn tokens: open play, tournaments, and staking bonuses. THREE WAYS?!! If only he knew.
I poked around for a month doing some research about Splinterlands, Hive, and the gameplay. I knew nobody. I saw some thin YT coverage. It was just Bulldog, infadel, and ye olde Luke making content back in the day. I was furiously adding high CP to be able to level up in tournaments and league level. It was a much different time.
Up In The Attic
So finally I was home at my grandmother's house for Thanksgiving in 2021 and I was just sat there looking at my boxes and boxes of Magic: The Gathering sitting around and getting dusty in the attic. Sitting around getting no use. Sad and alone, tucked away and mostly forgotten.
My cousin and I already kept up a mint vintage collection for Magic: Online (original not Arena client), so I was ready to part with the weight and responsibility of the paper collection. No more grading. No more counterfeits. No more boxes! Also FCK HSBRO!
We out of the attic and onto the blockchain! I was so hyped for card rental, set collecting, and most of all, the strategy and rush of battle! Every new battle and its unique rulesets brought another chance at glory.
SPS Airdrop Is Live
Imagine jumping into this new game and receiving the gaming token just for holding assets in the game. December meant I was already 4 months behind the curve and Untamed was already in the rearview. chaos Legion presale had just ended and Doctor Blight was the hottest new thing in town.
I bought some nonsense singles for CP. I spent a few weeks before I figured out I needed to level up cards. Thank goodness for guilds. Those OGs of 
Peanut Butter Glory Time
As I turned the page on 2021 and started into 2022, my path was clear -- Gold Foil Silver deck from Chaos Legion playables. I got myself a strong selection of monsters and proved my worth in Brawl, dominating my Gold Foil Silver GF Fray.
Fate was on my side when I connected with the OGs of 
SPS ALL DAY
I remember picking up some crumbs of $SPS at some beefy prices. 0.33 - 0.20 - 0.12 - 0.05 USD over the years. But I never really brought big chunks to invest, moreso for tournament and staking thresholds. Most of the way was head down, hard work, grinding daily. 
The airdrop may have stopped, but SPS staked rewards kept rolling in. Then came Validator Licenses, which seemed like a no-brainer to help support the decentralization and stability of the SPS DAO further. We've been slowly bringing that average cost down after getting two licenses with the presale discount, but OUCH! Some of that original pricing was rough, based on some long lost token valuations.
The Land Before Time
Besides being a classic movie, it was also one of the most profitable Splinterlands presales of all time. Sadly, it was before my time. But I always had a fancy for RUNI, since I'm an $ETH junkie anyway. I'm the jerk who bought land to use with his RUNI, and the 15% bonus for my stake in the Runeguard. I don't think people had fully locked in on how valuable the 100% land bonus it provides.
If only I had better land and cards, I'd probably have a lot more than 20 RUNI; those things are so cute! It is also a big credit to the RUNI and my tireless chums working away in my SPS mines on land to help me get to this achievement of 1M SPS. Over the past 6 months, I have completely retooled my land development, from an uninspired group of 15 plots detached over three accounts to a sprawling network of 52 plots over two active accounts.
SPS Mining has become the main objective, while supporting the occupied plots with resources from my secondary plots and profits from LP positions, picking up most of the slack. There is still plenty of work to do to become land resource neutral, which will be a main focus for 2026. But that is a path for the next million SPS. I wish you all a happy and healthy new year, wherever my Splinterfam is celebrating as you walk your Path To Power!
Discord invite linked to the picture!
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Proud members of Splinterlands' top-rated guild,
the original guild in the KoG alliance,
!
