I don't play ranked very often these days, as I rent out most of my deck, Stake and Bake my SPS, and just enjoy my coffee in peace. All that changed with the most recent update to rewards with all that SPS and with rentals dirt cheap. I couldn't help myself. I rented out some of my favorite cards, and I took them for a spin!!!
I very much have to say, it's been fun to play again instead of simply building a rental empire! Is it worth it? Oh yeah, the new reward structure definitely encourages more play!
18 Mana Super Sneak Even Stevens
Yodin was certainly a risky choice for me to play here, but the complete cycle of 2 mana ranged available to Wild made it pretty tempting. Imp has just enough speed, health, and flying to give him an edge in low mana fights, and antoid platoon is the perfect rear guard in supersneak while you decimate their front lines.
The Exploding Rats was a nice touch on their part, but it wasn't enough.
Using Scavo Chemist as my frontline tank is what I really feel won the match for me-- 2 mana for 4 health is a steal even if Failed Summoner and Kelp Initiate rightfully hold more esteem.
I typically enjoy my 99 Mana Super Sneak matches more since I can throw around Vigilator and Grund for maximum bludgeoning ecstasy, but this was quite a fun match! The high risk high reward results of a low mana Yodin Win definitely gets the blood pumping.
50 Mana Weak Magic Noxious Fumes
Now this is what I'm talking about. Noxious Fumes turning up the clock, high mana/high octane cards, and RoboKnight at his very best with weak magic. In the end, it just came down to Kron and Regal Pegasus, but please do not call this a comeback. Roboknight held that line brilliantly!
We both had a similar idea of holding the line with a strong void tank and a controlled loss of a healer to give him an extra turn against the Noxious Fumes, but in the end, Dragons simply do it better. Gloridax Supremacy.
48 Mana Silent Summoner Close Ranged
I was not expecting Grum to last this entire game, and I was certainly NOT expecting Grum to line up three stacks of bloodlust in a row. What a monster in this game.
Camilla is definitely underrated right now, and she has to be the best silent summoner in modern and one of the best in wild. 3 Mana Dragon Summoner is just crazy value however you slice it.
I threw in a Vigilator in the second row expecting him to get a time to shine with 4 attacks a turn with Melee, Range, and Double Strike. Sadly, he was just a high health 1 ranged double strike, but Dragon Jumper definitely had his time to shine, and Spirit Hoarder kept Vigilator's spirit high with triage. All around fun game even if the Disintegrators everywhere are getting a little annoying.
16 Mana Keep Your Distance
Bots these days simply do not respect the classics. Magic Spam just isn't what it used to be, and these bots only seem to enjoy using it in high mana where they can use slipspawn. I'm sorry, but a Failed summoner up front, and the cheapest mages you can find will never go out of style. That is raw efficiency you can't even shake an Owster at. I suppose if water were available, a Kelya, Djinn O, and Merdaali Guardian would have stopped me in my tracks, but this will still be one of my favorite magic spam comps of all time.
The New SPS Rewards
After a day of grinding to 75% ECR, I must say thank you to the Dev team for doing such a great job for the game. All this time the bot farms have been getting a much larger share of the pool than they should have been able to. Now that the balance is shifting, so that bots can still be profitable without being overwhelmingly profitable, we are entering a new era of Splinterlands Awesomeness. So much of splinterlands assets were going straight into sell pressure, and now players get a larger chunk. I say great job splinterlands team, and oh man was it fun to play again instead of just doing the rental game of profit sharing with the bots. Splinterlands is putting the play back into play to earn.
