It's been a week and a bit since claiming land deeds became possible in Splinterlands.
The first two territories, Pristine Northwest and Broken Lands went out relatively quickly, considering not enough details are known that may determine how good your choice was.
Without being officially confirmed, as far as I know, I believe the color-based association between splinters and territories, of which I talked about in a recent post stands.
Actually, I believe what Nate said in this week's town hall is pretty much a confirmation. He said his son wanted land in Broken Lands because he loves the Earth splinter.
If we look again at the associations, we see Broken Lands is associated with Earth:
| Territory | Splinter |
|---|---|
| Pristine Northwest | Life |
| Broken Lands | Earth |
| Land of Prosperity | Neutral |
| Central Fire | Dragon |
| Wild Northeast | Water |
| Great Lowlands | Fire |
| Shimmering Coasts | Death |
I was already convinced of this association, but if anyone wanted more proof...
Back to claiming deeds. For at least two days we were stuck at region 43, in the Land of Prosperity territory, which is associated with Neutral cards.
Just a short while before starting to write this post someone claimed another region, or more likely a couple of tracts, so we moved to region 44 as I write this.
Still, it's only 2 regions into the Land of Prosperity territory, and those aren't fully claimed either. In at least 2 days, but maybe even 3. I haven't had a hawk eye on them, since I'm not interested in claiming mine yet.
In my previous post on land I was talking about Dragon, and how many would be interested to stake Dragon cards (especially summoners) on land buildings. But how about neutral cards?
Yes, we have the Rusty Android that's been joked about for so long it's practically destined for land. But how about summoners?
There are no neutral summoners except Lux Vega. Yes, you could probably fill the spot in with a summoner from a splinter.
But if the splinter bonus will work as I expect, based on each slot filled with a card from the matching splinter, then on the Land of Prosperity your bonus is automatically lower because you can't use a neutral summoner. Unless you have and use Lux Vega there.
Maybe there's something I'm missing. But by the lack of desire for Land of Prosperity plots so far, it seems others may have questions too.
Or maybe it's just a slowdown for the holidays.
This leads to another question.
The way claiming was designed, sequentially, what happens if most people are waiting for territories that come later on? Do we have a blockage? How is it resolved? Just wait it out? For how long?
What if someone waits for a region in Shimmering Coasts (because he's a Death Splinter fan - just a situation) and claiming lingers forever at the territories before it? What should he do? Claim a region in a territory he doesn't want or wait and hope?
It looks like the center will go in no time. But we have to get to the center first...
Unfortunately, all signals point to a long time before we see any concrete gameplay for land. So claiming speed may not matter as much.