My Splinterlands story so far.

For those who don't know me, my name is Devon, I go by Devonhdd in game, this is going to be my story in Splinterlands,so far.

How did I get into splinterlands?

As an avid tcg player I always wanted something to play whilst on the move, it needed to be fun, it needed to be convenient to play and it needed to be somewhat easy to understand and play. After a short while of looking about I found Splinterlands an auto battler where skill and card knowledge were the determining factors in battles. I decided to give it a try, albeit at potentially the worst time possible to be investing. The peak of the bull market, prices were at all time highs but little old me,new to Crypto didn't understand that.

How did I start off
Firstly, I got myself a spell-book (It is needed to earn rewards in the game) and started battling with the starter cards allocated. Rewards were minimal, battles were very basic and there was little thought that went into team selection. It was simple to play but the skill level wasn't doing it for me, so the obvious answer ... Invest into packs and start battling at a higher level which I did,with Chaos Legion. Approximately $2000 in total I spent on Chaos Legion packs,with no understanding of Crypto cycles or what was going to happen to the card value just months later.

What happened next?
Now I had some cards and was playing at a slightly higher level where skill was definitely a larger factor than before, there wasn't a defined unbeatable strategy, nor did my card-pool feel lackluster for Bronze and Silver. I spent time watching streamers (@bulldog1205 @infidel1258 and @aftersound) learning more about the game every day and loving it even more.
Then it happened, the start of the bear market. Assets plummeted (not something i'm unfamiliar with in Tcgs,but to an extent I hadn't seen before) People started selling out and the player-base dwindled. however I was still enjoying the game which was all I wanted,so although I started playing more stagnantly I never sold. Changes came to the formats banning bots from modern and making reward cards soul-bound which lost a lot of the "player-base" also. The game seemed to be in a really bad spot for most who knew Crypto.

I took a little break,playing very infrequently until the release of Rebellion,RB for short, another set,a new meta,or in my eyes A different game.The cards intrigued me,untamed was no longer legal in modern, no Yodin, LLama or Kitty crushing me on repeat.
With rebellion I took a slightly different approach, I opened some packs but primarily focused on singles I thought would be good as well as trying to optimize mage wagons for conflict (a feature with RB and previous sets that rewarded players for staking and owning RB cards)
Rebellion was enjoyable,the meta felt good,the rewards were meaningful and I didn't do bad on the mage wagons.

**The Vonak and splinterlands Tattoo **
Earlier this year, I got the splinterlands logo as well as Vonak tattooed on myself.Why did I do that?
To explain this properly,I must explain about myself outside of splitnerlands.
I work full time as a support worker,usually doing night and occasionally day shifts.One weekend I was working a sleeping night(a Friday) followed by 2 doubles on Saturday and Sunday respectively.On the Friday night,one of the people I support approached me jokingly suggesting we go out for a tattoo on the Sunday, I agreed to their surprise,
and penciled it into the diary, I had the time and date sorted it was just a case of what to get then,all of my previous tattoo's were larger and part of a big project so I didn't want to add to them.I wanted something I wouldn't regret,something that had meaning to me, something Splinterlands related was the answer. I headed over to X for suggestions,(I liked the idea of getting Dr Blight initially and that is something I will still do eventually)

@dejota initially came up with the idea of getting Vonak -Together we rise- and other members of the community provided the image as well,as further suggestions to get the splinterlands logo, I want to say it was @goldmatters who provided the concept art for it but may be wrong.
Working in mental health, Vonak held more meaning than just within the game, my whole life was dedicated to supporting and working with people to better ourselves, the person I was going with who I had worked closely with prior also appreciated the sentiment behind it, so it was finalized, Sunday I went and got the tattoo done.

the finalized tatooo looked even better than I had imagined.
now for the sad part of the story, and the reason why this tattoo now has so much meaning to me,the lady i was supporting and went to get the tattoo with on the Sunday,sadly let life beat her the following day. Mine and likely her last happy memory together was sat getting the tattoos.The tattoo she got, a small piece on the inside of her hand,will be added underneath mine as a reminder of why and how this came about.

Now to conclave arcana
Earlier this year,Conclave Arcana,Ca for short,was announced to be released,with new rarities and a massively changing meta once again,gone are the days of Kelya water teams, but gone would be the days of my Chaos Legion cards carrying me, if I wanted to play in modern I would need CA or I would need to invest more into RB.
Blaze from the Splinterlands team had approached me previously to find out the story behind the tattoo, and offered me the opportunity to play-test CA prior to release, A great team of players were allocated the job of testing and giving feedback on all of the cards, and after experiencing some of the new archons as well as the units I had decided I was going to Invest Into CA, they were enjoyable, diverse, and provided the best modern longevity.
I spent approximately $900 on alchemy packs and nothing else, with the intention of opening starter packs to fill out whatever I needed to from commons and rares and picking up singles for what I lacked elsewhere.
On release day, I was fortunate enough to get a BF Arcane Skinwalker from the raffle (sold for $600) So I was already close enough to break even on my initial investment, I wanted to open the packs straight away and picked up my midnight potions, but realized I Didn't have alchemy and legendary potions, people were offering pack opening services for a small fee, and one who I had done prior business with, so already had trust in @Josieb was offering the best prices. Josie opened the packs on my behalf and pulled a Black foil Arcane epic Molten Elemental,1 of only 5 that will ever be printed, an amazing pull, among a lot of other good pulls. The card was rare, but served me better in DEC towards other cards I would need from the set, I listed the card for what I believed was a fair value of $1800, it was immediately snapped up by none other than @yabapmatt one of the founders of splinterlands for what in hindsight was an extremely good value (BFA epic floor is currently $5000, although I don't believe any have sold yet other than mine)
The money stretched a long way to getting my Ca cards boosted, and coupled with other trades, I am now about 60% complete on Ca from what I need, allowing me to play in high diamond currently.
Before this season started I collected all my rewards from battling to see how much I would make in a season, approximately 3 days in and I have accumulated 321 sps from battles so far, averaging at about 1500 per season at current rates, or 3% of my total staked sps, every season, for free.

What next
With conflicts in the not so distant future,I am going to position myself in the best spot possible to get maximum returns on conflicts, I have lands operating to fund the wagon repairs and have my cards to stake also. Over time i'll be maxing the rest of my CA set,as well as adding more lands to my collection to provide more value to older cards I own.I am going to be playing modern as much as possible to earn glint which will be spent on maxing out my reward cards over time for 0 cost and will be posting regular updates here with how I am getting on.

DevonHDD