Good morning Splintertalk and welcome to my first post!!!!
I wanted to take the time this morning and introduce myself and give a new player perspective that challenges the current narrative. My name is Joshua Patton and TCG's (Trading Card Games) have been my life. I have played all the big games including Pokemon, Yugioh, and Magic the Gathering. My most recent adventure had me leading the most competitive team in North America (The Rogues Guild) in a Japanese game called Force of Will.
Being apart and later leading this team was amazing. I grew so much as a competitive player surrounded by people with the same desire for excellence (aka steel sharpens steel). I recently joined a guild in Splinterlands (Legacy) and the environment feels like that of a serious group of players, so I am looking forward to where we will go.
What I have found fascinating so far in my journey with Splinterlands is that the majority of the playerbase seems to be without TCG experience. The majority of the influence I see was started in a passion of crypto and just fell into a TCG. Hopefully my TCG background can help some new players feel at ease.
Trading card games are not free. Not a single one. Fact check me on that. "But Josh I bought the spell book..." NOPE. Again this is a trading card game and you still have nothing to trade. This means in our ecosystem, you have brought nothing to the table. This is why I FULLY support the decision to demonetize all rank wins until you have a collection power over 1K, because until you have a collection power you are not adding anything to the ecosystem.
With that being said, I would fully back the idea that barrier of entry is too high if the genius that created this game didn't have a rental system to help you up your collection power. If there was a consistent and reliable way to rent cards for any of the physical TCG's it would be a game changer but I believe this is going to be a pillar that separates the physical and digital TCG's and Splinterlands is on the forefront.
Go to peakmonsters right now and at worst rent cards at 200CP/DEC and you will spend a whopping 5 DEC a day to begin collection DEC rewards from victories. Also a little spoiler alert for anyone who has not done it yet, it only takes a couple wins to get that 5 DEC back in winnings.
I am currently renting enough power to play in Silver for 37 DEC/Day. I take home more than that easily, so I know you can too. At the end of the day this is a TCG which means if you don't have anything to trade your not playing; and if your not playing, your not earning.
Im Joshua Patton and this has been my TED Talk. I plan on doing this often and doing other content on Twitch and maybe youtube so please follow if you like what you herd or are interested in more prospective from a TCG player. Im grateful I found splinterlands and will be doing everything I can to keep it growing.