A while back, I read an article regarding an update for Splinterlands. Apparently, it will bring into the game a change that will totally transform how the game is played and it will revolutionize the gameplay and experience of the players.
Nope, this isn't about the rewarding scheme, although it may be true that we just witnessed a huge change in the rewards system of the game a few weeks back. And of course, it is also true that the impact of the rewarding scheme inside the game is really huge. Personally, since the new rewards system has been deployed, I have yet to receive a single reward chest. I find it hard to accomplish the new "daily quest" which is now called "Focus" in the game. The old quests like "Win 5 games using Earth Splinter" are now long gone and painfully forgotten. You now need to collect Focus points to be able to qualify for a chest. And the minimum focus point required is 300.
And it wasn't really easy to achieve 300 Focus points, I observed that you get a single focus point per win, if that's the case, you need 300 wins a day to get the minimum amount, I know that it doesn't sound much to regular players, but for someone like me who likes to dabble in a lot of things, that's pretty much next to impossible.
Moving on, the update I was referring to is the new Battle Modes. To be more specific, the new modes in the Ranked Battle function.
We are accustomed to just pressing "Battle" and we will be tossed into a battlefield with a random opponent as we duke it out with the cards we own or the base cards available for everyone and we will see who has the better strategy, a better deck, and a better luck in battle conforming to the restrictions and mana allocation set. But now, there are two versions of the Ranked Battle mode, the Modern and the Wild.
Basically, the MODERN version of the Ranked battle is a battle between two players wherein they play in a limited capacity. I am not talking about the monster restrictions and mana allocation per se, the players will be limited in the choices of the cards they can use because they can only choose from the current Chaos Legion edition and Untamed Edition cards.
There are already several sets or editions of cards that have been released in the past. There's the Alpha, Beta, Untamed, and etc. There are also promo or reward edition cards. The latest release was the Chaos Legion set or edition. These are the free base cards all players could use.
Theoretically, the game will be balanced in this version a little better because the card choices will be limited to two editions only. Players won't get to play with those old overpowered cards.
The WILD version of the Ranked Battle mode is as the game says "Not for the Faint of heart" because the battle is all-out and whatever goes. Players could use any card from any edition as long as they conform to the restrictions set forth in the matches.
In this version, the player with the stronger collection of cards will always prevail, unless their huge collection of cards will be nullified by better strategies by smarter players, after all, a player can only bring 6 monsters on the battlefield maxed.
I tried both modes right away and of course, I managed to book some wins and a lot of losses too.
Here's a match I played using the MODERN mode: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_4928d5aa8c73f5b8029e1c15874189aa&ref=rbshinichi
And for the WILD mode, here's a result of mine: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_28bb7ceb57d1065c1b985b9d9bea806f&ref=rbshinichi
Conclusion
As for me, my observation doesn't really stand out when it comes to the difference between the two modes in terms of my gameplay. The reason is that I don't have many cards and I almost always pick monsters out from the playable base cards. In essence, I have always been playing the MODERN mode ever since because I don't have any of those older edition cards.
All in all, this update makes things more interesting because it changes the whole dynamic of the game.
Also, based on what I understand, there will be two separate ranking ladders. One for each mode. But the highest rank that will be tagged to a player will be the highest rank a player can read on either rank.