In the last couple of days I've spent about $300 on individual cards on @peakmonsters, focusing on betas that I think are underpriced for the purpose of building up a strong playing repertoire and getting more packs for more development.

I've been focusing on Fire, not because I think it's great but because Fire cards are cheap. Fire seems to be the least-liked faction right now, but it's unlikely the game designers are going to let that go on forever, so picking up cards now seems like a good plan.

In addition, the current rewards are more about persistence than they are about either skill or card quality. There are plateaus it's hard to get past without cards of a certain level, but which cards of a certain level aren't hugely important except for the people competing for spots in the top 10. Fire may be the weakest faction, but its leveled-up cards are still good enough to work your way to good rewards.

I've also been grabbing up some cheap cards in the other factions as they become available, so that I don't have to drop down too far to complete my daily quests. I have a feeling betas are still going to be cheap for another half-million packs or so, and my hope is to build up a complete set of maxed-out first-issue cards (in second-issue) through rewarded packs and patient and persistent buying in the market.

My first shot at the Fire team, around Summoner level six, managed to get me into the 13-pack level during No Legendaries at the beginning of the competition. I've been building it up since then, and should have maxed levels on at least Malric, Phoenix, Serpentine Soldier, and Fire Beetle before it's time to make a run at the end of the period. And working on some of the others - the one hangup is Fire Demon, which hasn't come down in price to somewhere I like it yet. The others have just been a little slow.