It's been a lot less "eventful" than I'd hoped
My "$1-A-Day" plan is off to a slow start.. in fact I think I might be earning less than when I started (as the SPS price keeps dropping) - read that post here here if you're interested.
I'm assuming there are 100s of us all playing "noob-level" decks, and so it's a lot of the same ol' - same ol' decks & strategies.
Experiencing a lot more losses than I'd like to admit though (11 win: 9 loss over the last 20 games). 🤦♂
There is an upside though: I'm getting to know the cards quite well (and even have a few established strats based on which splinter I think my opponent is gonna be playing). Playing all level-1 cards is definitely not as easy as it sounds. Yes, my opponent is at the same advantage/disadvantage, but that just means I'm seeing a fair number of draws in my games too (especially when we are both playing the same splinter and have the same "healer tanks" that eventually just fatigue out in the last round)... but at least there aren't any (OK, OK, a negligibly small percentage maybe) whitewash games where I get my ass properly handed to me.
Unfortunately, my season rewards were nothing to write home about... so in the absence of winning some game-changer cards in blog comps, I foresee a similar story unfolding in my near future.
Fortunately I'm a persistent MOFO, so I'll come up with a plan. Off the top of my head: Definitely gonna change the (self-imposed) rule of not spending money on new cards/packs as soon as the new edition is out. Will limit it to only the liquid rewards I earn from blogging though... It's a far more realistic experiment anyway: Blogging on the chain that gives me the game and using those rewards IN the game. It's still a (fiat) free way of getting into and progressing in the game. That's the story I'm telling myself, and I'm sticking to it.
Some Happy/Positive Vibes
This post is starting to depress even me, so let's rather focus on some of the cool things I've got up to over the last couple of days:
Loving the Sneaky-Sniper-Oppressor vibe of Death Splinter
If/when I get to silver/gold, I'm sure my stats are gonna tell me that I (over)play Ruler of the Seas faaaaar too much. Using Alric to give everyone a +1, Ruler boosting everyone further... They surely have to (still) dominate the high mana silver league games? * Makes note to scratch around some and see if there are stats to that effect. *
... but I digress... Back to MY deck/week:
Gotta love a good sneak/snipe/opportunity combo... easily making short work of the the enemies back & middle line-up.
Just watch out if the enemy is also using a lot of sneak (why I put my Jester at the back to absorb 4 damage which could be 2-4 rounds depending on their attack, but hopefully your own sneak and opportunity attacks would have taken care of that before round 2 or 3 and then you Jester's 2 attack cleans up nice and quick).
Another problem is this:
While all your little sneaky snipers are forced to target a wall and making little/no progress, they will get picked off slowly but surely. ... I've come up against this combo a lot, and almost always lose when I'm playing black.
...except in this game:
(fortunately for me) Leaving your tail-end so exposed was one thing... but wasting the poor golden eagle so far back makes me think this could have only been a bot choosing that line-up ;-)
Hey... a win is a win, and I'll take it!
Watch that game here if you're interested:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=41ef162d36336c2ba25817d9efc5fa3e417dfb7b&ref=mrtoking
BTW did anyone else notice this on 
In the "Bulk View" there's a new set of filters which will help everyone renting out cards instead of playing them.
LOVE IT... don't wanna be leaving money on the table if I'm renting out decent cards for 50% below market ... and just as NB (if not more) don't wanna be losing out because my cards aren't being rented because they're now 50% over market from when they were first listed.
Final Thoughts / Question
Guilds boost DEC earnings for every battle... but are there any "free" guilds out there for the newbies that I could join? Drop me a comment below.
P.S. And as always: If you're reading this and run a daily/weekly Splinterlands competition on HIVE - please drop the link in the comments below.
If you're reading this having come from twitter/facebook/whatever (or in the very unlikely scenario that you're a HIVE blogger that HASN'T joined Splinterlands yet, and wanna join me... please sign up using my 