starting to struggle with the competition...
The ugly Truth:
my Rating is going down!
So I had a really good start with this! I swiftly made it into Gold III League, on the first day and after spending only about 30 SBD. The "Back-to-Basics" rules in the previous conflict-round was a convenient way to start my SteemMonsters journey with very simple, well, "basic" ruleset.
I was quick to build a deck that made perfect use of the given Mana limit and it perfomed well enough to allow me a swift way up the rankings. I still have to say, this would not have been possible without spending the 20ish SBD on specific cards on the market just to build that one deck... but we all knew this was going to be a pay-to-win thing, didn't we?
Along comes the "Melee Mayhem"
Well, hats off, I didn't expect this game to have this level of complexity. With the new rules for the current conflict round my winning deck doesn't do shit anymore! Well played... now I need a new deck (read: spend more money) to stay in the game... Ugh!
I quickly realized that leveling up another deck of cards for this new round would easily cost me a sack full of SBD again, just to maintain my rank, let alone to improve on it.
Slowing things down a little.
I'm very tempted to deck myself out further and continue grinding, but I don't think that's a good use of my time and money. My Gold III achievement will reward me with seven Booster Packs tomorrow, that's something at least... 14 SBD worth of booster packs, and who knows... maybe I'll even find some Gold Foils?!?
It definitely doesn't make sense to spend even more money just to get one or at the most maybe two more booster packs for a Gold II or I achievement.
But I'm still a crackhead, though...
And just for that one booster pack that you get in the daily challenges... I spent another 5 SBD to build a "usable" deck in the Life Splinter.
Lol, yeah, I could have spent less than half the money to get a booster pack. I wouldn't have lost as many ranking points either, because let's face it, that deck isn't good enough to win very often and I was fighting for a while taking the losses just to collect those 10 random wins for the challenge... sigh
But hey... that hard earned (and expensive) booster pack had pretty decent contents, two epics and two rares, with a market price of maybe 3-4 SBD... see for yourself:
Taking a break now
Ok, I'm just gonna stop now, I'll wait for my 7 reward Booster Packs tomorrow and then I'll see if I can achieve something with my existing deck in the next Season.
Who am I kidding, I'll probably end up spending more SBD for virtual trading cards. Maybe its time I considered joining a SteemMonsters addiction self-help group?! Monstoholics Anonymous anyone?!
Bonus Gimmick
I didn't think the game mechanics even allowed for a match to end in a draw. One would assume that either one's last Monster would always have to be killed first...
Nope, apparently a dead monster can still retaliate, but see for yourself:
A Fight ending in a Draw:
Disclaimer: SteemMonsters Replay Links Include a Referral Code
The color is an important aspect!
As you know it by now, my Death Deck built with $8.95 made it to the Diamond II. :-)
hehe... yeah... but the death decks are doing generally quite well (I assume you use the "normal" summoner) by reducing the opponents melee capabilities... different conflict rounds will require very different decks to stay ahead and I guess that's where the real spending starts :P
That's where the fun part is starting! They did a really good job by introducing this variation from round to round... I'm playing daily for day one, and I still have lot of fun!
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oh awesome! Thankies!
Hey man, good luck with your matches! I just wanted to say that the game isn't really "pay to win" but you definitely have the option to pay to get ahead if you want to. This is just the beginning and tournaments are around the corner, where anyone will be able to win with even lvl1 cards.
Enjoy your new addiction! I'm right there with ya :D
Yeah, you can absolutely keep playing without spending too much money, and given the frequent chances of winning booster packs... with a bit of luck playing like that could possibly even end up returning money.
But I don't think it's possible to play in the top ranks without spending a sizeable (that's a subjective measure :P) amount of money there... I mean, it's a trading card game, the makers would be silly not to design it that way.
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