As my first season reward came around the corner few days ago, I realized there are several factors I didn't consider.
Game to make money sure demands money to be invested... But which direction should you go?
Here's what I decided...
To start off, I enjoyed being in Bronze III. It was truly blessing I was being so cheap and stayed as Bronze III.
If you are unaware, as Bronze III, you will never get conditional matches.
That's right! You can be 200 or 1700 rating, game won't stress you with anything but just basic plays.
While it seemed boring at first, but once I started climbing rankings; it became very clear, no deck - stay Bronze, unless you want to dedicate decent chunk of attention as well as dealing with stress that comes with all the losses.
Once you get 1600+ ratings, you'll still run into better players with cards and experiences, who will likely outplay you. But 1600 is already Silver I. In theory, if you really wanted, you can wait till you get to 1600+ for end of season, and simply upgrade to Silver I at the end.
Wondering how? Simple, you loan out the deck to keep it below, and simply recollect your cards before season ends. You can have a smile for your reward, and someone's frown for trying to be cheap and get best of everything...in this case, nothing...
Unfortunately, I was on other side of that scenario also.
I was sponsored (delegated/loaned) cards to make my rankings, but when reward time came, I had to make fast decisions... Is my effort about to be lost in vein? How am I going to get the reward I worked for???
Silver is definitely better place than Bronze, but that's 15k power. If you haven't been checking details, getting power rating is as hard(or easy) as battle rating. Both can be solved easily with money, but both can be extremely difficult when trying to budget.
So this is where the crossroad came to me once again...
Do I get helpful cards to build dec with enough power for reward? It could easily cost $1000s for just Silver III; by Silver I, you could even be looking at $10000+ if you want to build deck instead of focusing power.
After all, imagine having $1000s cards added to your deck, how good your deck would be and how easy it'll be for you to make more!
Then there are always the lucky few... who broadcast everywhere they can - to make you dream... cause they'll put you to sleep looking for that lucky pull.
If you see story of people getting lucky pulls to cover power ratings, well, I wouldn't count on that luck.
As question arose, I addressed it direct... What is the power I need for which rewards, and what is least amount of money I could spend.
In my case, it was $200 for Silver III (15k).
Silver II (40k) is going to take least $600 on budget, if you can call that a budget.
Seem little, seem high, doesn't make any difference how it appear, it is how much spent.
Biggest chunk went to epic gold foil for 10k power. Picked up cheap too, $139, but that left me too little.
Actually, I ended up borrowing 1 rare gold foil(2k) just to collect Silver III season.
But if you think $139 for 10k power is expensive, then you haven't been looking in market.
It's rare to get 72 power pts per $1, so if you want to be cheap, I suggest you get that calculator and spreadsheet out and do some number crunching.
I settled with 1 epic(10k), 1 rare(2k), and 1 common(500) reward gold foil, coming out 12500 total.
Some basic cards I gotten earlier, trying out $10 credit monthly purchase limit (google pay through play store is a thing) prior to making $200 investment (also play store, cause why not collect extra google play points) - only net me about 200 power between bunch of cheap cards, bearly worth mentioning.
Even cards I received from daily and season reward amounted about 500 power total... That's over 4 days, with spending $210 and having someone sponsor majority of deck to win battles... Now imagine you...actually just look at your deck and power if you qualify as cheap or near free player, how long this will take.
Already can see a day in future... One day when I look back after getting lucky or build enough, to regret buying based on power rating instead of buying for deck...
Nah, that day will never come! Cause if you forgotten, this is asset game! Sell them junks when you don't need to keep them junks! A new player will always look for that opportunity, so give them one and make some profit.
Lastly I remind myself that I wanted to have a new journey in life.
For me, a journey equals living towards a goal.
Doesn't have to be a place... it could be progress, it could be an understanding, it could be anything that you go towards in life.
I am more of a person who will do everything I can to hold off spending money, on whatever it is.
If you are also a person who wants to save every penny, and willing to put in effort instead of money on everything, I recommend you take a moment and really think about the journey you are taking as player or investor.
If you think about what is logical and what makes sense, you will likely discover...to enjoy as player you shouldn't have to worry how you'll get to collect reward you worked for, and to earn as investor, well, you see the point.
Wish you better luck on your next daily/seasonal reward!!!
Till next story, maybe hahaha...
P.S: Reading is good for you, use some imagination if you find this long text hard to read compare to picture book for children you see online everywhere.