Splinterlands is an amazing trading card game built on a blockchain where you can play with the NFT assets that you actually own.**
Games like Hearthstone, Magic: The Gathering, Gwent, Marvel Snap, and Pokemon do not allow you to get your funds back once you invested into the packs or in-game currency. There is a different situation with Splinterlands. Everything you invest into the game you can sell to other players and leave the game if you do not like it. Well, everything except Summoner's Spellbook which is actually the fee that you will pay to unlock the full game. It costs 10 USD and you get 30% in the shape of Credits that you can spend for buying or renting cards.
An official guide on how to start can be found here. What you can't find on that link is in which cards to invest if you are just starting. This is where this article will help you.
*The price of Summoner's Spellbook is not included in this calculation.
Let's start with summoners.
If you are planning to stay in the Bronze league then there are 3 Splinters that are simply the best in that league and we will focus on those. These splinters are Fire, Water, and Death.
Summoners:
Summoners are the most important monsters in the whole game as they dictate what other monsters you can play. In order to play higher-level monsters you need higher-level summoners and that's why it is important to invest early into summoners. This is the reason we will be focusing on level two summoners
Kelya Frendul (lvl 2): 2.354 USD
Tarsa (lvl 2): 1.830 USD
Thaddius Brood (lvl 2): 1.959 USD
There are also some less important summoners in my opinion but we should cover these splinters with a level 1 copy.
Obsidian (lvl 1): 0.358 USD
General Sloan(lvl 1): 0.227
There are some amazing summoners in Rebellion and Riftwatchers expansions but these summoners are out of our budget - same as legendary summoners from Chaos Legion expansion.
| Name | Level | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Uraeus | 2 | 0.444 |
| Djinn Oshannus | 1 | 0.920 |
| Tenyii Striker | 2 | 0.347 |
| Chaos Agent | 2 | 0.190 |
| Pelacor Bandit | 3 | 0.133 |
| Deeplurker | 3 | 0.616 |
| Life Sapper | 2 | 0.265 |
| Merdaali Guardian | 2 | 0.928 |
| Cursed Windeku | 2 | 0.610 |
| Venari Bonesmith | 2 | 0.145 |
| Radiated Scorcher | 3 | 0.196 |
| Hardy Stonefish | 3 | 0.210 |
| Venari Wavesmith | 2 | 0.174 |
| Soul Strangler | 2 | 0.269 |
| Carrion Shade | 3 | 0.252 |
| Antoid Platoon | 3 | 0.364 |
| Xenith Monk | 1 | 0.180 |
| Xenith Archer | 2 | 0.245 |
| Kulu Swimhunter | 3 | 0.280 |
| Riftwing | 3 | 0.378 |
| Cruel Sethropod | 3 | 0.229 |
| Harklaw | 1 | 0.850 |
| Tide Biter | 2 | 0.520 |
| Pelacor Deceiver | 3 | 0.126 |
| Gargoya Devil | 2 | 0.144 |
| Diemonshark | 2 | 0.489 |
| Revealer | 2 | 0.539 |
| Dhampir Stalker | 2 | 0.250 |
| Venari Spellsmith | 2 | 0.232 |
| Exploding Rats | 2 | 0.154 |
| Disintegrator | 2 | 0.180 |
| Angelic Mandarin | 2 | 0.255 |
| Scavo Chemist | 3 | 0.371 |
| Merdhampir | 3 | 0.140 |
| River Nymph | 2 | 0.235 |
| Radiated Brute | 3 | 0.252 |
| Lava Launcher | 1 | 0.115 |
| Djinn Apprentice | 2 | 0.240 |
| Supply Runner | 2 | 0.140 |
| Lava Spider | 2 | 0.085 |
| Magi Necrosi | 1 | 0.382 |
| Scavo Firebolt | 2 | 0.230 |
| Nerissa Tridawn | 1 | 0.588 |
| Venari Heatsmith | 2 | 0.049 |
| Forgotten One | 1 | 0.580 |
| Crypt Beetle | 2 | 0.069 |
| River Hellondale | 1 | 1.832 |
| Wave Brood | 1 | 0.730 |
| Gargoya Lion | 3 | 0.110 |
| Molten Ash Golem | 2 | 0.240 |
| Djinn Inferni | 1 | 0.450 |
| Kelya Frendul | 2 | 2.354 |
| Tarsa | 2 | 1.830 |
| Thaddius Brood | 3 | 1.929 |
| General Sloan | 1 | 0.227 |
| Obsidian | 1 | 0.358 |
| Total | 24.847 USD |
So these cards will create a solid Modern deck to start playing Splinterlands. How much will you earn? Well, I have a similar deck, maybe I have a few cards more like Fiends and some Legendary summoners from Chaos Legion. When talking about legendary summoners I would mainly play Posibilis The Wise. All others are played rarely and I don't think those summoners are worth your money if playing in the Bronze league.
How much do I earn?
Well, I am sitting on about a 60% win rate but I don't really play much on my alt account.But in case I am spending all my energy calculation would be like this. Let's say there are 14 days in a Season, and we are getting 24 energy per day. This equals 14*24 = 336 battles in a season. Of course, you can buy more energy and therefore you could have more battles. But we are not going to put that into calculation. With a 60% win rate, I would won around 201 battles. I am earning about 0.4 SPS to 0.8 SPS per battle, depending on a ruleset, GF cards, win streak, and so on. So let's take 0.5 SPS per win as an average. It means that in one I would earn 100.5 SPS which is equal to 3.24 USD. Now this is without any rewards from chests, Guild Brawls, and Tournaments. So it would take me 8 Seasons(or 4 months) to get invested money back.
Bonus cards
What are the steps if you want to strengthen your deck?
I would invest in decks that are missing like the maxed-out Bronze Earth deck and then the Life deck. I don't think that Life is good in the Bronze league so I think that is enough to get only 1 BCX of each card just for those situations when Life is only playable Splinter.
Dragon is a splinter that I would completely skip in the Bronze League. Cards are expensive and are mostly way better in the higher leagues.
Rebellion is the newest set in the Splinterlands but prices are still high. There are certainly cards that are amazing and you should get them but you should also wait for the right time since you don't want to buy for a premium price.
Here is a list of bonus cards that you should probably get.
| Name | Level | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Corpse Fiend | 1 | 1.11 |
| Scorch Fiend | 1 | 1.287 |
| Fungus Fiend | 1 | 1.399 |
| Torrent Fiend | 1 | 1.462 |
| Arkemis the Bear | 1 | 0.096 |
| Corsair Bosun | 1 | 1.20 |
| Gobalano Soldier | 1 | 0.396 |
| Nimbledook Scout | 1 | 0.378 |
| Flame Mephit | 1 | 0.328 |
| Ujurak Mystic | 1 | 0.121 |
| Lurking Puffer | 1 | 0.472 |
| Blackmoor Nymph | 1 | 0.541 |
| Fenmoor Haunt | 1 | 0.167 |
| Moxian Rebel | 1 | 2.397 |
These are the cards that could help you in certain situations. I recommend that you rent these cards and try a few battles with them to see how they fit your playstyle. It is a bad feeling to invest a lot of money in a card just to see that it does not have such a big impact as you thought it would have. It is important to play your steps and not just blindly rush into certain assets.
With all that you will need to get some SPS in order to get rewards from the battles. You can buy SPS but you can also rent SPS. From my experience, 1500 SPS is enough for you to play in the Bronze 1 league. If you decide to go up in leagues make sure to check how much SPS you need for a higher league since the amount of SPS is growing pretty fast.
If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments or on Discord.
Have fun and see you on the battlefield.