Splinterlands Card Population Spotlight - Episode 7 15.03.22-22.03.22

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!

Naga Brute

Naga Brute - Dice Series - Dragon - Common
Abilities: Void Armour (lvl 1), Thorns (lvl 5), Return Fire (lvl 8)

The Naga Brute is a defensive tank that starts with void armour giving this serpent a whopping 11 hit points to get past.

Thoughts - Brute is in the name for a reason, exchanging 6 summoning points for a combined 11 hit points! We all love the Dragon Splinter but often lack the opportunity to use it! For me this card is in my deck but rarely played. Rarely seen on the battlefield also. In the later levels when it gains the thorns ability, I think this is when the card becomes effective in battle and provides usecase. Although I have yet to employ one at level 5, I can imagine stacking this at the front or back to lash the opponents and hypothetically if used with lvl 2 Mycella in the Earth Splinter and maybe a Spirit Hoarder or another Triage unit to cover it at the back, suddenly those thorns are wreaking havoc in a sneak battle mode. But this really is as good as it gets in a niche battle. But with the price coming down into the 40 cent range, could it be a handy option? I'm going to say yes, just...But even with 150 burns over the last week, I do not think the Naga is a card that has the potential as a big winner on the long-term investment road and for this reason I may place this in the category of Splinterlands cards that may ultimately end up in the graveyard. I just don't see enough players employing defensive strategies and particularly with a card that lacks any match winning advantage in the lower leagues unless of course it's upgraded and used in tandem with other cards under limited battle conditions. But as always, I'm happy to be proven wrong!

Price Change: $.48-$.41

Regular Foil Population Change: 35,729-35,578

Sandworm

Sandworm - Reward Series - Neutral - Common
Abilities: Sneak (lvl 1), Snare (lvl 6), Piercing (lvl 10)

The Sandworm is a slow but powerful backline sneak. Starting with 5 damage, 1 speed and 5 health it is most commonly used in reverse speed and high summoning point battles.

Thoughts - Did you ever watch Dune or Star Wars other other sci-fi films and think how scary is the notion of a giant sandworm lurking the depths of the desert? Well the Splinterlands variation is just as intimidating and more. When I say I love this card, I mean it. It sends a shiver down your spine every time you see your opponent pull one out and your just crossing your fingers hoping it will miss. As a slow sneak it can devastate your deck in reverse speed. But there is a flipside, imagine one at level 5 with cheekily used Kayla Frendful and bump it up to 7 damage with Demented Shark in an explosive game. Do you know how scary it was to see a level 5 Sandworm with 4 speed doing 7 damage? I'll tell ya now, in this scenario one could tear backlines and devastate helpless adjacent cards and opponents strategies. There is literally nothing you cant do with this card! And I am still slowly working it to level 5 (I'm at level 3) It's population is still above 137k and it's price is heading back up! As a neutral card, it's a must to own and a must to invest. Long term I think this is one of those cards that will be in use and hence will have a much higher value than what we see now. It wouldn't surprise me to see this card hit $10 once it dips below 100k and the fomo kicks in. And in the very long term, I could see this card potentially hitting $20 or even $30. While it's under $2, I will keep stacking one per week to my deck hoping that one day soon, I too can pull out my Keyla and devastate my opponent when they come to my part of the desert! With 400 burns in just 1 week, this cards deflationary pressure is extremely high so if I were you (disclaimer - not financial or gameplay) advice, throw in a few bids on Peakmonsters and get stacking, while you still have stable sand under your feet!

Price Change: $1.25-$1.63
Regular Foil Population Change: 137,958-137,531

Beetle Queen

Beetle Queen - Reward Series - Fire - Rare
Abilities: Tank Heal (lvl 5), Inspire (lvl 8)

The Beetle Queen is a low end weak Magic backline unit. 4 Summoning points gets you 1 damage, 2 speed, 1 armour and 2 health.

Thoughts - Ahh the Beetle Queen. To be honest I wasn't sure I should write up on this as I have no real experience with it that I can remember. I don't own it, I never see it in battle in the lower leagues and it just doesn't excite me that much to look at. But at level 3 it does gain a magic attack and at level 5 the Tank Heal. Even with 4 speed the 2 health it maintains just makes me think it's one of those cards that's too easily knocked out before it get's enough tank heals in at Gold league. I am happy to be proven wrong because with Inspire at level 8 there is value a low summoning point battle. But that's about all I can say. For this reason, I cannot say whether it is cheap at $3 price tag or if there is value in investing to play with. I just get the feeling there are better options out there.

Price Change:$3.03-$3.08
Regular Foil Population Change: 14,764-14,752

Torhilo The Frozen

Torhilo the Frozen - Reward Series - Water - Epic
Abilities: Void (lvl 1), last Stand (lvl 4), Shatter (lvl 6)

Torhilo the Frozen is a slow but Mid-High End Tank with Void as the starting ability. 9 Summoning points is a high price to pay but you get 12 hit points for the exchange and 4 starting attack.

Thoughts - Torhilo is a nice card to look at aesthetically and has great use case in reverse speed and defensive strategies against Magic. This card has fallen a long way from it's ATH price where I paid a hefty price to own it back in my 'FOMO' days (I think I paid $30). There is definitely value in Torhilo as it can take a beating and with the right heal/armour combo's can be a tough bull to bring down. But as much as I like this card, I do think there are more budget effective options in play for water void tanks aka Djinn Oshannus when incorporated with Venari Wavesmith (Currently hovering in the $4 range) and the price movement for Torhilo has shown there is not a huge amount of interest in it at the moment in terms of burns. The price movement though has moved from it's bottom and improved on the daily for 2 days in a row now for the first time in 3 weeks and we are at the highest price mark in 2 weeks so that's something but whether it's sustainable in the short term, I'm not so confident. I think this is purely because it's price flattened to such a point that interest has been eventually sparked by a few matador hunters. Can it reach it's all time highs in the future? I think so but I think it wont be until we have reached further evolution in the Splinterverse. Yes it's in the buy zone if your a whale with money to Dec to burn. No, I wouldn't recommend this as your first option for gameplay or as an investment water tank.

Price Change: $5.98-$6.99
Regular Foil Population Change: 16,898-16,883

War Chaang

War Chaang - Untamed Series - neutral - Epic
Abilities: Retaliate (lvl 1), Trample (lvl 4)

The War Change is multi optional front and backline or secondary tank with health to burn. the dual attack and ranged combination makes this card versatile and often deadly in battle!

Thoughts - I think this may be the first time I have highlighted a dual attack card and this is what makes the War Chaang not only unique but vital to most decks. Regardless of your strategy, this multi-pronged strategic card give you options a plenty in a variety of strategies whether it comes in the form of Summoner buffs to boost it's power or battle scenarios such as Opportunity, Sneak or Close Range. In some cases, you can bolter it with +1 range and/or +1 attack (possibly more I can't think of in this moment) and under those game conditions would deal 5 damage out for just a level 1 card. The burn rate is low and price has stabilized for the past 2 weeks after some wild swings over the last few months. I do think if you can own one for general gameplay then do it. If it's out of reach, that's ok too it wont hurt you too badly but it is a match winner under certain scenarios with the right combinations so keep that in mind. Long term, we will see this climb up as an investment due to it's unique dual attack/range combo, but it will likely be gradual as the burns are slow and it appears from what I have seem to have lost popularity in recent times.

Price Change: $16.48-$16.05
Regular Foil Population Change: 6,409-6,406

SPOTLIGHT WEEK 3 REVISTED

Coral Wraith

Coral Wraith- Untamed Series - Water - Epic
Abilities: Sneak (lvl 1), Rust (lvl 4)
The Coral Wraith is a Magic Sneak that costs 4 summoning points. This makes the Coral Wraith a dangerous weapon in any backline.

Thoughts - There is not much you can say wrong about the Coral Wraith. It's almost impossible to deal with in any strategy and this makes this card highly sort after. It recently was recently as high as $50 prior to the release of Chaos! If that's not enough to give you confidence about it's potential, just wait until your opponent deploys it on the battlefield! But wait, you already have so you know how formidable this card can be and is why I can not only see this going back up in price, I believe this card to have potential of reaching $100 investment in the near future, such is the value of it's use case verses it's less than 7k population. In fact, the proof is in the 36 that were combined and burnt in just 1 week. At $16.80, I think if your looking to get it cheaper, you may want to re-consider your thought process. I wish I owned one, so much so in fact stuff it, I might just go buy one now! 😆

Weekly Price Change:$16.80-$16.00
Weekly Regular Foil Population Change: 6,834-6,796

UPDATE: We have seen continued price fall to $16 mark since we visited this so luckily not much movement for those who were biding their time on if they should purchase this card. With 38 additional burns we now see Coral into the 6,700's. This is over a much longer period (more than a month) or roughly 1 per day but we do have to factor in the whale who recently injected thousands of cards from the Untamed Series in a mass opening into circulation which would have included a several Wraiths. With that in mind, I think my initial thoughts remain and I think I will wait until this card hit's 5k pop mark before we have another look to see how it is traveling and whether or not we are seeing any inroads to my future prediction. But I will change one word 'near' future to mid-term future! ;)

Well this wraps up episode 7 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! Feel free to check out previous episodes and my streaming channel on twitch (links below)

Episode 3 Splinterlands Card Population Spotlight
Episode 4 Splinterlands Card Population Spotlight
Episode 5 Splinterlands Card Population Spotlight
Episode 6 Splinterlands Card Population Spotlight

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