See that gold foil card there? That is a pretty nice pull from her daily quests right? What did you think I was talking about when I said "
After doing my daily quests today, I was a little bit disappointed with my rewards. That's just the way it goes sometimes. There are going to be days when you only pull commons and maybe one rare. The good news is, with the price of STEEM And SBD rising and posts being paid out in SBD again, I have been able to purchase some summoners to hopefully make me more competitive.
My goal with this post was #1 to show off that gold foil card and #2 to share some of my favorite cards. I had planned on doing one from each splinter, but then I got to Earth (and man I hate Earth), so instead you are just going to get five of my favorite cards. Let's be honest who has any decent dragon cards anyway...
I didn't realize it, but about half of the cards I picked are rewards cards. I think that speaks to the quality of cards they are bringing us and the amount of work they are putting in beyond the Alpha and Beta packs.
At 3 mana, this card is an easy choice to fill in the middle of my fire hands. He has a fast speed and does two magic damage which can be really nice against those armored opponents. At two health he is a little squishy, the the flying ability will hopefully keep him safe for a couple of rounds.
Add to that the "swiftness" ability and he can help your other cards make quick work of the enemy hand. What do you guys think of the "Flame Imp"? Is he a go-to in your hand or is he a hard pass?
I have to be honest, I wasn't really impressed with the "Sea Genie" when I first got him. Maybe it was just the fact that at lower level he is extremely slow and can't really take much damage.
At higher levels though, you can see he is pretty powerful. Having moderate speed and the "strengthen" ability makes him totally worth the six manna that would be a waste at lower levels.
I have used this card in a hand with the "Spineback Turtle" and "Medusa"/"Mischevious Mermaid" to dismantle the "Silvershield Paladin", "Divine Healer", "Peacebringer" combo a lot of the bots use.
A lot of it just depends on the rules of the round you are playing, but he is definitely a card worth playing at this level.
Being an epic card, it has been pretty difficult to level this guy up. Even at level 3 he still does a pretty good job for me.
I know a lot of times I forget about the importance of magic cards. Besides the melee only rule and the one where magic hits armor first, it is important to have something that can pierce through to the tanks health.
If you have enough high speed magic cards in your hand, you can take down the opponents tank before they even get one or two hits in.
At a speed of four this guy totally fits the bill and his manna cost of four also allows him the ability to slip into many hands.
There was a time when I pretty much overlooked this card. Like many of my other favorite cards, they weren't really impressive at lower levels.
Even before he was given the "reach" ability though, the thorns and speed was enough to have me give this guy a second look.
I like the fact that he also has a base attack of two and a little bit of armor. There is nothing more annoying than those one attack cards that basically get knocked down to zero due to a debuff and the enemy tank having the shield ability.
"Spineback Wolf" is usually my number two card on the higher manna cap games and pretty much always my second or last slot on the melee only games.
Finally, I know I have covered this card before, but I really love the changes they have made by adding "reach" to the "Grumpy Dwarf".
In a light hand he can actually be a better #2 card instead of the "Sivershield Warrior". Why do I think that since he has less health?
I thought there were two reasons I felt this way, but upon closer inspection of those two cards, there is really only one reason.
That reason is the "engrage" ability. If he can stay alive long enough, this gives him some extra attack. Combined with "reach" that can be a deadly duo. I really like using him with a fire deck to boost his base damage up to 3.
I am still a little disappointed that I haven't seen much strategy talk concerning Steem Monsters. 
If I were a much better player, I would totally setup a service where for a certain amount of Steem I tutor players in strategy. We could do one on one challenges and discuss the results in Discord. I could have them explain why they played the cards they did after each battle and why that was a good move or bad move.
I could also explain why I played the cards I did based on the rules and the manna limit. I think this would be an awesome business opportunity for people who are much more skilled at the game than I am.