The market has been a complete chaos since the new expansion was released, which is a remarkable thing to observe given the expansion's name. There has been an insane amount of demand for the new packs considering the high number that was issued and this has caused us to have almost reached half the total supply, which when you think of it is extraordinary: almost 7 MILLION packs were sold at this point.
With this, a huge of influx of new cards dropped in the market. If you're focused on using the market to purchase cards to improve your collection instead of buying packs to be at the mercy of whatever luck you get, then it can become a little tricky to figure out what are the best cards to purchase, and at what price.
Of course, there will be an argument that it could be perhaps better to invest on Summoners over Legendaries for the long run, given that these will likely be harder to obtain in the future. But for the sake of this article I will focus on what I think are the Top 3 Legendaries you can purchase at the moment to improve your collections.
I'd like to note the reason why I tend to prefer investing on Legendaries over Summoners is not only because they provide way more Collection Power which alone allows access to better leagues, but also because summoners are dependent on levelled cards and Legendary cards can easily affect the outcome of a match by themselves, without the need to resort to other levelled cards.
From my experience, one only truly needs levelled summoners from Gold III above, which requires 100,000 Collection Power. You can easily climb to Silver III using nothing but level 1 legendaries, which only requires 15,000 Power in comparison and it's when you start receiving DEC from chest rewards. Therefore, my argument Legendaries are more useful to low level players.
So, here's my top three cards to acquire presently on the market. Keep in mind this is a USD to utility ratio, and it does NOT mean these are the top legendaries. Rather, it means they are the best to buy in terms of USD cost / utility provided.
Top 1 - River Hellondale ~$10
I've spoken about River before. It was sitting at one of the highest winning rates across all Bronze / Silver / Gold leagues prior to the release of the new airdrop legendaries.
It's no surprise. The Ressurrect ability pretty much allows you to bring one extra creature into play and if you get creative in trying to strategize well the card that will get triggered by the effect, you can get pretty outstanding results. Extra points if you can heal post the resurrect.
Here's an example (ignore the fact it's a level 2 card used here, the Ressurect would have been triggered the same way if it was a level 1):
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_40111158a0f937ad7ba2019428c1c348
Top 2: Void Dragon ~$6
There are a couple of reasons why this card is being featured. It's not there aren't potentially other cards that are stronger out there. But the choice here again is made having into consideration the cost per USD / utility ratio.
As we know the Dragon class is unique in the sense it allows monsters from any other splinter. But on top of that, it is also a monster with insanely useful stats and abilities; the five speed it holds basically guarantees a few misses by the opponent, and the Void ability counters the present Magic meta.
On top of that, it costs $6. I honestly think that's undervalued for the utility this card holds. Here's an example:
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_ce606c3de3eabe40fd86bebe3aebac35
Top 3 - Adelaide Brightwing ~$10
This last one was the hardest to decide on which card to include. Again, the average USD cost / utility ratio prevailed and it led to the choice of Adelaide. And again, there might be better cards out there like for example Queen Micelia or Grum Flameblade, but these are considerably more expensive when compared.
Adelaide is a solid pick for sustain Life based decks. If that's your class, this should be one of the cards to go for, hands down. We know how the Repair ability can be powerful on it's own just from playing around with Scavos, but when you pair that with Healing and good tank stats... well let's just say it gets pretty annoying and out of hand for the opponent.
Here's an example that illustrates how it can be useful in the Earthquake rule set:
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_5c436136ae8e2f637f260b181d5eddd6
Unpopular opinion?
Now, of course this is all arguable and it's only my opinion. Other people may contest this and rate other legendaries as better. It's natural, because it's all very relative and context related. But one thing I honestly believe. At the current moment and given the current prices, these are some excellent options to improve not only your collection, but also your gameplay.
Do you think I am wrong? What other cards would you include on this list, from the Chaos Legion set? I'd be happy to read your thoughts, as I haven't had the opportunity to try them all in play yet.
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