Splinterlands Card Population Spotlight - Episode 11 12.04.22-18.04.22
In this series I am going to drop 5 Random cards into the spotlight to analyse population decline over the course of the week or period of time. The aim of these posts are to hopefully get people to identify the deflationary pressure rate on certain cards relative to their price and popularity and hopefully help you determine which cards you may need to make a move on (before they become out of reach financially). This episode I am having a look at a range of regular foil cards. My analysis is primarily focussed on what I see of each card in bronze, silver & gold level leagues. I hope you enjoy!WANT TO JOIN SPLINTERLANDS?
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Wave Runner
Wave Runner - Reward Series - Water - Common
Abilities: Reach (lvl 1), Knock Out (lvl 5), Snare (lvl 9)
The Wave Runner is a low end secondary tank primarily for used as such it's reach ability. With 2 Attack at level 1, it make's it one of the stronger low end Reach cards.
Thoughts - The Waver Runner has seen 220 burns from it's 98K population. Could this Croca-Shark provide value to your deck? I think there is room for it. Price is still low enough to warrant the idea of getting it to level 4 where we see the addition of a 3rd attack point and an additional speed point. With Keyla, this card becomes quite the Reach Tank. I do think if you use Peakmosters, you may be able to snag a few on the cheaper end. Onto thoughts of it's longevity, I am of the belief that considering we can see this card potentially drop below 10k population and even lower than that, I think a 10x is on the cards eventually. But given there are better investments out there, I would recommend that you carefully consider your options. For me, I just want to stack mine to level 5 over time for the benefits that come with later levels.
Price Change: $.26-$.34
Regular Foil Population Change: 98,139-97,907
Vampire
Vampire - Reward Series - Death - Common
Abilities: Life Leech (lvl 1), Flying (lvl 6)
The Vampire is a backline Ranged unit with Life Leech starting ability. This give this evil dracula the ability to become quite formidable as it slowly drains away opponent health.
Thoughts - Who loves a good Life Leech card? I do, I do! And so should you! As we have watched the Death Splinter evolve, we now see a powerful strategy that can be employed to unsuspecting opponents. And what makes this card more formidable is that many would try to mitigate Magic Life Leech cards in the death arsenal. This is where Vampire can lurk in the shadows of your line up quietly sucking the blood from unsuspecting enemy. But it must be carefully hidden as it it vulnerable early on. I recently purchased Vampire due to it's price coming into a zone where I believed it was worth adding to my Death deck, which I believe is still my weakest deck. With 47 burns over the last week, it's not a surprise to see the popularity of this card returning. An investment for battle wins only. At around the $.40 USD mark, you are getting it for half the price I think it will be as soon as Modern and Wild format officially enters into circulation. Prospects are positive and I think a $5 Vampire card is not out of the question in the mid-term.
Price Change: $.40-$.42
Regular Foil Population Change: 56,118-56,071
Contessa L'ament
Contessa L'ament - untamed Series - Death - Rare
Abilities: Summoner -1 Ranged
Contessa L'ament is a Summoner that gives a -1 Ranged ability to enemy opponents. useful against those Pesky Sloan, Quix and Yodin players that are more common in the lower leagues.
Thoughts - A defensive Summoner that is currently seen among the bots using starter decks as a counter to General Sloan. Contessa has seen massive decrease in popularity as players find better use in dual ability summoners. This makes it a tough case to argue the long term prospects of Contessa as a viable Summoner as there are plenty of strategies to mitigate ranged without the need to employ Contessa. The price decline shows us the majority of players agree. But since the price has returned to the areas not seen in nearly a year, it does allow others who plan to use Contessa a more budget opportunity to 'range out' some value and stack up a summoner. I personally believe to be among the first of the Summoners that will become, if it hasn't already, set for the Splinterlands graveyard once Untamed is replaced in the starter deck series. Not one I plan to invest in both for gameplay and long term returns. With just under 12k pop remaining, I just can't recommend. But am I wrong? Let me know in chat if you disagree and why!
Price Change:$2.84-$2.49
Regular Foil Population Change: 11,897-11,838
Air Elemental
Air Elemental - Beta Series - Life - Epic
Abilities: Dodge (lvl 3)
The Air Elemental is an Epic Backline Ranged unit with an amazing 6 starting Speed, 2 Attack and 5 Health. This makes it almost impossible to hit with low speed Melee and Ranged units.
Thoughts - Recently I have found my opponents employing Air Elemental specifically for it's speed (obviously). It's hard to counter because it is not a card you can really anticipate on when it appears. A massive downturn in price seen this card back to as low as $15 2 weeks ago. As far as investment and population we did see an increase of 2. I don't personally plan to own this, price being the biggest barrier, but there is added value with General Sloan. Definitely more tailored to those with a higher budget. I don't think we will see this move back to ATH anytime soon as there is simply not enough buying/combining demand for this card at the moment. Will wait to see how things go once the Wild format comes into effect to make a better judgement of where this card may be heading.
Price Change: $18.45-$18.35
Regular Foil Population Change: 2,490-2,492
Zalran Efreet
Zalran Efreet - Reward Series - Fire - Legendary
Abilities: Life Leech (lvl 1), Clense (lvl 2), Headwinds (lvl 3), Strengthen (lvl 4)
Zalran Efreet is a backline Magic unit starting with Life Leech. Be quick to take it out, or that Health starting at 3 will soon climb and turn Zalran into a backline Tank.
Thoughts - What a great card! it's relatively cheap at just 5 mana and with some speed modifications, you can turn this into a nagging early striker who will only get stronger the longer it's in play. With a price tag of just $20, I think it's a strong buy if you can afford as this is the lowest price I have seen it since I began Splinterlands around 10 months ago but admittedly I have not followed it too closely. I just wish I didn't spend $20 bucks on packs now that I see Zalran there saying 'Buy Me, I'm a steal, I'll win you battles and give you ROI' Personally if Zalran stays at $20 for the next few days, I will buy it. If a Mage Summoner is released for Fire Splinter, good luck catching it at $20 ever again. For this reason I'm not only bullish, I believe this card to be way undervalued and underplayed. In fact, I just went and bought one! But of course this is just food for thought, don't be a fomoer like me, it's bad for your wallet health. For an investment, I do believe this is one of those cards that we will see above $100 in the future. Only 2 burns, so I wonder if this is because it is below 4k pop limit and as we know burn rates really grind to a halt once they reach these levels or because it's flying under the radar for most? Edit: P.S Using Zalran with Yodin is very fun! ;)
Price Change: $25.90-$19.99
Regular Foil Population Change: 3,715-3,713
SPOTLIGHT WEEK 5 REVISTED
Feral Spirit
Feral Spirit - Beta Series - Life - Common
Abilities: Sneak (lvl 1)
The Feral Spirit is a fast Sneak backline monster that gains an extra attack at lvl 4 making for a very formidable and annoying kitty.
Thoughts - I actually rate this card in the lower levels as one of those 'must haves' for your life deck. The Feral Spirit is useful for several strategies including odd mana, sneak and low summing point battles. However, if not carefully hidden/protected it is vulnerable to damage. You still see it around from time to time, but the bots don't like it as it is not a viable card at $3. This actually advantages anyone willing to spend the $3 it's currently worth to give you another option. I'm bullish on the long term value of this card as it has reached such a point in it's deflation that less than 17 thousand people can own this card for future use and that number is steadily dropping still. This leads me to think it won't be long before this Spirit rises to a price more suitable of it's worth.
UPDATE: Price movement has been steady with a slight decrease, allowing for the question to be asked concerning levelling up. I noticed that there has been a jump in Beta card populations leading me to believe there was a considerable opening recently. Well done if your still holding onto unopened Beta packs, you just outlasted another holder who couldn't hold out any longer!
Price Change: $3.09-$2.85
Regular Foil Population Change: 16,912-16,925
Well this wraps up episode 11 of 'Splinterlands Card Population Spotlight' I hope you found some value in this post and hope that you follow to see future posts like this! Feel free to shill your cards you want me to follow for future blogs! Happy Easter to you all! Please feel free to follow me and let me know if you want to be part of my tag list or if you want me to remove you.
Feel free to check out previous episodes and my streaming channel on twitch (links below)
Episode 6 Splinterlands Card Population Spotlight
Episode 7 Splinterlands Card Population Spotlight
Episode 8 Splinterlands Card Population Spotlight
Episode 9 Splinterlands Card Population Spotlight
Episode 10 Spliterlands Card Population Spotlight
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