It's a new season on Splinterlands and one thing I'll sadly say is that gameplay is still getting tougher by the day. This is oddly worrying, however, it's somewhat prospectful.
The extremity of the game on "modern" that is now 'botless" made me wonder if people were scared of competing with bots for rewards or if they were scared of losing to the impeccable genuinety of the bots.
I think I'll say the two are the major concerns. In the modern format, the SPS reward is as juicy as ever but it's now more difficult to win than when the bots were still present.
I once mentioned in one of my posts that human players have the potential to be more dangerous than bot players especially when there's a shift in reward. The competition for resources will become even higher with human players than it was with the bot and this is because of a tilt in the system. It's safe to say that the removal of bots from modern was a success and this is because of how it has brought back old and existing players who are also now buying Chaos legion cards just to stay competitive in modern.
However, we can say this might have affected rentals and I'm not entirely sure how it's currently going in the "wild" format. I haven't played in "Wild" for over 6 months.
I considered it as the wild wild west but it's safe to say the tables have now turned. However, away from the "bear gloom" I read a Yahoo article where Splinterlands was mentioned as one of the top 250 companies and this was a delight.
Inasmuch as the bear market must've stifled the growth of development of traction and activities, it's still good to see that the game is still experiencing some mouthwatering innovations. The investors on Splinterlands understand this.
By any standards, the investors here are still early adopters, because the game is not even up to 10 years yet.
It's just one of those investment decisions that will futuristically deliver beyond any reasonable doubt. While I don't have all the resources to throw in, I'm investing as little as I can.
On the flip side, it's been amazing to play the game since I got 16k SPS delegation from 
My chest has improved a little and it's been delightful for me. It's been difficult for me to get resources to rent, because of the external financial commitments I have. I'll be doing a post when the season ends on how many chests I was able to accumulate with the help of the SPS they've delegated to me.
However, I'll still need to work to improve my deck. I've been losing too much lately and I think this is mainly because I haven't improved as much as my opponents have done, I used to upgrade some of my cards back in April, but I got that source of income cut off, and I haven't upgraded my deck by adding new cards since April. It's difficult to build during the bear market, but the ironic thing is that the bear market is actually the best time to build.
I have been having a blast in my guild
.......and I have been wondering why I didn't join any Guild before now. I have been able to up my SPS to over 4K.
Another thing is that gameplay in Guild hasn't been tough as the first tier of gameplay. Secondly, I've learned how to use bloodlust in Gladius cards.
My two best Gladius cards at the moment are the Katrelba and the chimney wallstop. This is because they're mostly inculcated into my gameplay as well as embedded into my strategies.
The Katrelba has a double strike element that activates the bloodlust and can only be undone by magic with speed or directly attacking a melee card with thorn ability without fully activating her bloodlust.
It's exciting to be opening new packs. I got my first legendary Gladius card two weeks ago, and I'm hoping to get more. It's certainly the most difficult time to play Splinterlands, but it's the most lucrative time to build as well.
Interested in some more of my works