"Splinterlands" + "Drug Wars" -- Power Strategy Tips #48

As I have now been playing "Splinterlands" and "Drug Wars" for over a year, I've wanted to contribute something of ACTIONABLE value to my fellow players (and FUTURE players) - but NOT just fill my Steemit/Hive feeds with daily images of quest reward - or battle - SPAM (no offense to those doing so). Ultimately, Steemit/Hive is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of blockchain social media technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly "Splinterlands + "Drugs Wars" player strategy diary" type series, with CONCISE and ACTIONABLE tips, would be of most value to my audience. Please let me know your thoughts (good and/or bad), and I hope that readers (now and into the future) will benefit from this series. If you gain a better understanding of blockchain, gaming, "blockchain gaming", marketing, psychology, forensics, philosophy, ethics, investing, and/or any other area(s) of knowledge I end up exploring (voluntarily or involuntarily) as this series naturally progresses, then I will have done my "good deed" (of providing value) for the week. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield.

@transcript-junky

1 ) Well, it appears that my magical power of intuition/prediction, PLUS some "theory into action" has resulted in (even to MY surpise) a seemingly positive outcome at this juncture, on the Steem/Hive war front. The news last week that the Huobi exchange decided to list Hive, and the resulting mega jump from a few cents less than the current Steem price of ~ $0.15 - $0.20 USD to over $0.60 USD is proof-positive (if it maintains) that justice is being served on the #SteemHostileTakeover front, as well as vindication for my decision to do the full power-down of Steem (over 13 weeks), and allocating that Steem value into #Splinterlannds cards (DEC). The Steemit takeover debacle is also a very good illustration of a larger geopolitic dynamic going in right now. That is, the battle between global actors who choose NOT to play by a standard set of rules established by the global community (which in this case is the autocratic Chinese communist regime (the "Chinese Communist Party" (#CCP)), and the rest of the world (or, more specifically, the free-market, democracy-leaning nations) who have grown to understand that SOME sort of BASELINE level of trust and ethics is ESSENTIAL to maintain a mutually beneficial political and economic harmony between nations. If actors like #JustinSun (and his Chinese communist associates (like Jack Ma)) are going to "be bad" then we as a larger global community need to become proactive in SHUNNING them, holding them accountable, and SANCTIONING them (in evey way possible), so as to send a message to ALL players that this sort of behavior will not be tolerated. Yes, corruption exists in ALL nations of the world, and SOME level of corruption can't be avoided, and needs to be tolerated, but if everyone is going around violating the baseline agreements between players ("not playing by the rules") then this ultimately erodes the FOUNDATION of any system, and that system WILL ultimately fail. The fact that the Hive community have taken some AGENCY and ACTED to shun and sanction the behavior of Justin Sun, and his "invisible backers", is a prime example to the crypto (and non-crypto) world of how "the bad guys" can and should be dealt with in as diplomatic a way as possible. Ghandi had the right idea, after all. There is power in the boycott.

In the previous post in this series I mentioned that I was considering powering down my Hive token AFTER the Steem power-down is complete, mainly because I have been concerned about the price of Hive (in the sense that price is a reflection of the fundamentals of an asset), and I was concerned that having my value in Hive (for at least the next few months) would be LESS productive than converting it to DEC and buying more Splinterlands cards, which would provide a more ACTIVE income-generating stream. Now that the price of Hive has gone up significantly I will try to remain loyal to the community, and lean towards NOT doing the power-down of Hive once the Steem power-down is done. I'll evaluate the situation over the next five weeks (as I still have FIVE more weeks of Steem power-down paymouts remaining). For now, I am pleased to see that the price of Hive has gone up significantly, as that is a signal that the Hive fork was a worthwhile endeavor.

2 ) The tournaments are now serving the dual purpose of making it possible to earn some extra DEC to buy more cards, AND to increase the motivation to use some/all of my daily DEC earnings (from ranked battles, and non-gold tournaments) to buy gold cards. As I've mentioned in the previous post, gold cards such as "Wave Runner" are cheap enough currently ( $0.39 USD (or 532 DEC per card at the time of writing this sentence)) that I can easily buy one or two of these cards PER DAY, within my daily budget of DEC earnings. Then the gold tournmanent play enables me to play the gold cards within the CONTEXT of "gold cards only", which like ANY OTHER rule set, in #Splinterlands, provides a UNIQUE interplay between the cards. It also enables me to have a "finger on the pulse" of how powerful my gold cards deck is, as each time I play a gold tournament I usually have a few more gold cards as a result of battling on the days between gold tournaments, and so it is a progressive process. Then there are also the more expensive gold cards I am buying up with the weekly Steem power-down payouts, which build additional momentum on this front. You also never know when that "one" specific gold card will win the final battle needed to place HIGH ENOUGH in a tournament to score a sizeable winning - like a few posts ago I showed how my "Golden Chicken" ("Furious Chicken" - Gold) card literally won me a battle, in the final shot of the battle, and placed me so that I won ~ 3,000 DEC, which I then used to buy ONE MORE "Furious Chicken" gold card. Winning 3,000, 8,000 or MORE, from a one hours gold tournament, can be a MAJOR morale-booster, and enable you to buy up some additional powerful gold (or no-gold) cards to boost your progress in the game. Don't ignore the power of the tournaments.

3 ) To my great pleasure, I am gradually discovering some extra benefits of the "one pack per day" Untamed pack-opening routine, which I set out on a few months ago. It turns out that as I continue using, upgrading, and becoming more familiar with the various non-gold AND gold Untamed cards, AND using them in tournaments, at different levels, my appreciatiON of the value of the "5 cards per day", in each daily pack I open, is increasing - as is the value of the various Untamed cards I am able to buy with my daily DEC earnings, via battling. In other words, I often open the daily pack to get five "nothing special" cards. But when I contrast this with the number, and quality, of cards I am able to buy at the end of the playing day (with the DEC I have earned that day) it helps put into context the strength of my playing relative to the cards I can buy. For example, the more gold cards I have in my collection the more DEC I can earn each day through battling, and the more cards (and better quality of cards) I can buy up at the end of the day.

In addition to the increased number of and quality of new cards I can buy each day (with daily DEC battle earnings), I aso need to consider the value of all of the airdropped cards I have earned, and WILL earn into the future. I bring this up now because this week we got the airdrop of the "Zodin Zaku" (summoner) card - the 5th of 14 airdropped cards which I am eligible for as a result of having purchased 878 Untamed packs during the first airdrop. Well, it turns out that I got one GOLD version of this card, which is worth $120 USD,

Got:
4 x "Yodin Zaku" (non-gold - Level 1 - $12.99 USD - 1,000 DEC) cards PLUS
1 x "Yodin Zaku" (gold - Level 2 - $120.00 USD - 50,000 DEC) cards
In the "Yodin Zaku" airdrop.

and doing the numbers (which I show in more detail in the diary section (#6) of this post), when you add the value of this new airdrop to the previous ones, it adds up to $256 USD worth of airdropped cards. And since I ultimately spent ~ $1,500 USD (in Bitcoin) for the 878 packs, the $256 USD offsets some of that cost ($1,500 USD - $256 USD = $1,244 USD), and there are also NINE more airdrops, and this doesn't account for the actuall value of the cards in all of thr 878 packs (258 packs of which I have NOT YET even opened (via my "one pack per day strategy). So the point is that the AIRDROPS THEMSELVES are acting as an additional "DEC income stream", as in with this airdrop I sold all four non-gold version cards for $12 USD each --> so $48 USD, and went on a nice extra shopping spree. Plus, by buying some gold cards with this extra DEC I am also increasing my daily earning capacity in the long run. I was originally worried that I made a mistake by buying the 878 Untamed packs, but if the airdrops continue bearing the same kind of fruit as they have so far it will have been an EXTREMELY good move to by all of those packs, and the ultimate ROI will be MUCH MORE than the initial $1,500 (BTC) I paid for them. The point is that it is good to go with your gut and take a little bit of risk.

4 ) On the #DrugWars front, admin tweaked the solo and gang job algorithms, and I found myself FINALLY being able to successfully complete some of the gang jobs this week. I started with Level 1, which didn't end up costing me very many "rowdy" units at all. So I then bumped up on level per day, and completed the Level 8 gang job a few days ago, which ultimately ended costing me around the SAME number of "rowdy" units as the Level 10 solo job. So I have now settled on doing one Level 10 solo job in the morning, then replenishing lost units, and then doing one Level 8 gang job in the evening, and then replenishing the units overnight. This allows me to reciprocate the gang job efforts of the two other gang members while also earning a bit more resources with the one daily solo job. I think this is a good balance for myself and the gang.

5 ) Okay. As I did in the last post in this series, the highly-detailed "diary" of my daily #splinterlands activity is laid out in the last part of this post, for those of you who are inclined to follow, more closely, what I am doing. It occurred to me that this "diary" section is JUST THAT - a highly detailed record of my daily activity in the game, with some JUICY "play-by-play" analysis notes, and commentary, on what works, what doesn't, and some suggestions for further tweaking and experimentation. So, with this in mind, I hope some/any of you will enjoy this information. If not, you are under no pressure to read it fully, and are free to SKIM, or even IGNORE, any parts, or ALL parts, completely - at your discretion. I lay this out because it also HELPS ME to document my progress in the game over time, and may help some people NOW, and into the perpetual future...

April 23rd, 2020

Starting DEC : 7,725 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 92.00%
Ending DEC - 55,673 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 62.40%
Balance = DEC Earning = 47,948 DEC = ~ 188.208 Steem ~ $0.154 USD/Steem = ~ $28.98 USD

Spent :

11 x "Cursed Slimeball" (Gold - Level 3 - 8,482 DEC - bumped up to Level 7 (to add the "redemption" ability, and increase health to "+3")

47,191

9 x "Orc Sergeant' (Gold - Level 3 - 5,587 DEC -- bumped up to Level 7 (to add the "inspire" ability)

41,604

12 x "Undead Badger" (Gold - Level 3 - 8,137 DEC - bumped up to Level 7 (to increase Melee to "+2" and health to "+3")

33,467

8 x "Wave Runner" (Gold - Level 3 - 4,627 DEC - bumped up to Level 8 (to increase health from "+5" to "+7")

28,824

11 x "Ettin Spearman" (Gold - Level 4 - 9,715 DEC -- bumped up to Level 8 to add "knock out" ability and increase health to "+9")

19,125 DEC

7 x "Sniping Nharwal" (Gold - Level 3 - 5,282 DEC - bumped up to Level 7 (to add the "stun" ability)

12 x "Bone Golem" (non-gold - Level 1 - 1,507 DEC - bumped up to Level 5 (to add the "repair" ability)

3 x "Death Elemental" (non-gold - Level 1 - 1,151 DEC -- bumped up to Level 4 (to add the "silence" ability)

21 x "Dark Astronomer" (non-gold - Level 1 -2,304 DEC -- bumped up to Level 6 (to increase speed to "+3" and health to "+5")

~ 1,000 DEC left-over to spend tomorrow

converted 193.500 Steem weekly power-down payout to 47,537 DEC to buy more cards

Untamed (Pack #1 : daily pack))
keepers -

• 110 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "dragon" quest)
keepers - 80 DEC
nonkeepers - 35 DEC
potions - +2 legendary potions, +2 alchemy/gold potions
DEC - 150 DEC

April 24th, 2020

Starting DEC : 8,877 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 77.62%
Ending DEC - x,xxx DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ xx.xx%
Balance = DEC Earning = xxx DEC = ~ x.xxx Steem ~ $0.xxx USD/Steem = ~ $xx.xx USD

Spent :

Notes: There was a major glitch in the Splinterlands system today, which is preventing the battle history information from showing up. I was also feeling crappy, and so I did something I very rare do - I took the day off! Tomorrow I will check in on the Splinterlands Discord server to inquire about this situation, AS WELL AS the situation with the quest rewards results pages not loading for the past 4-5 day (which has made it impossible for me to take screenshots of my rewards cards. I will also run some anti-virus programs, and CCCleaner to see if there is an issue on my end. The good news is that the day off allowed my capture rate to climb back up to almost 100% (from ~ 77.62, which resulted from some hard play earlier in the week).

April 25th, 2020

Starting DEC : 8,917 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 98.11%
Ending DEC - 11,241 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 82.47%
Balance = DEC Earning = 2,324 DEC = ~ 9.590 Steem ~ $0.165 USD/Steem = ~ $1.58 USD
( + 1,000 DEC (leftover from April 23rd) = 2,324 DEC + 1,000 DEC = 3,324 DEC)

Spent :

4 x "Nectar Queen" (Gold - Level 3 - 2,503 DEC -- bumped up to Level 7 (to increase health from "+12" to "+13")

24 x "Goblin Fireballer" (non-gold - Level 1 - 812 DEC -- bumped up to Level 6 (to increase health from "+3" to "+4" - with 27 cards remaining to reach Level 7)

Untamed (Pack #1 : yesterday's daily pack))
keepers -

• 240 DEC

Daily Quest (yesterday's "dragon" quest)
keepers -
"Nectar Queen" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.40 USD - 500 DEC)

• 10 DEC
  nonkeepers - 90 DEC
  potions - + legendary potions, + alchemy/gold potions
  (glitch in rewards system is not showing the rewards cards screen, so I can't calculate the numbers of potions earned today)
  DEC - over 1,000 DEC
  (glitch in rewards system is not showing the rewards cards screen, so I can't calculate the exact amount of DEC earned today)

Untamed (Pack #2 : today's daily pack))
keepers -

• 270 DEC

Daily Quest (yesterday's "earth" quest)
keepers - 100 DEC
nonkeepers - 45 DEC
potions - +4 legendary potions, +4 alchemy/gold potions
DEC - 93 DEC

Notes: Even though the rewards card pages are STILL not showing I was able to figure out the solution of recording the number of DEC, and potions immediately BEFORE finishing the quest, and this has enabled me to calculate the number of potions and amount of DEC earned. It's extra work, but I like to be able to present the info accurately, so it is a solution until this issue gets fixed.

April 26th, 2020

Starting DEC : 7,926 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 96.86%
Ending DEC - 8,501 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 90.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 575 DEC = ~ 2.235 Steem ~ $0.183 USD/Steem = ~ $0.409 USD

Spent :

1 x "Spirit Shaman" (non-gold - Level 1 - 327 DEC -- bumped up to Level 3 (to add the powerful "stun" ability). I had failed to pay attention to the powerful abilities of the higher level of this card, PLUS the fact that it is "4" mana, which means that it can be used in the "maximum 4 mana" battles, and since the price is low ( $0.22 USD (326 DEC) per card I will focus on gradually upgrading this card over the coming days/weeks. Also, one gold card (Level 3) of this card is only $11.oo USD ( ~ 16,000 DEC), and it may be valuable to have at least a Level 3 card in my arsenal (for gold tournaments especially). I will experiment with the new Level 3 card in battles this week.

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack))
keepers -

• 270 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "water" quest)
keepers - 325 DEC
nonkeepers - 25 DEC
potions - +4 legendary potions, +5 alchemy/gold potions
DEC - 185 DEC

April 27th, 2020

Starting DEC : 8,174 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 98.49%
Ending DEC - 9,548 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 78.71%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,347 DEC = ~ 4.512 Steem ~ $0.227 USD/Steem = ~ $1.024 USD

Spent :

4 x "Spirit Shaman" (non-gold - Level 1 - 1,331 DEC -- enjoyed using this card with the new "stun" ability at Level 3, so bought four more cards with my daily DEC earnings, and just need one more card to get to Level 4 to bump health from "+4" to "+5".

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack + celebration pack for reaching season level "Champion III" ( +20 loot chests - 80 season loot chests))
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "win three battles without neutral cards" quest)
keepers - 110 DEC
nonkeepers - 75 DEC
potions - +6 legendary potions, +2 alchemy/gold potions
DEC - 274 DEC

April 28th, 2020

Starting DEC : 8,212 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 93.44%
Ending DEC - 9,407 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 90.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,195 DEC = ~ 4.528 Steem ~ $0.195 USD/Steem = ~ $0.883 USD

Spent :

3 x "Spirit Shaman" (non-gold - Level 1 - 994 DEC - bumped up to Level 4, to increase health from "+4" to "+5" - with 10 cards remaining to reach Level 5 and unlock "redemption" ability)

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 240 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "water" quest)
keepers -
1 x "Naga Windmaster" (Gold - Level 3 - $2.49 USD - 3,000 DEC -- bumped up to Level 4 to bump health upfrom "+3" to "+4")

• 80 DEC
  nonkeepers - 70 DEC
  potions - +3 legendary potions, +3 alchemy/gold potions
  DEC - 630 DEC

April 29th, 2020

Starting DEC : 8,413 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 95.64%
Ending DEC - 8,880 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 90.23%
Balance = DEC Earning = 467 DEC = ~ 1.864 Steem ~ $0.196 USD/Steem = ~ $0.365 USD

Spent :

1 x "Spirit Shaman" (non-gold - Level 1 - 326 DEC)

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
"Gloridax Guardian" (non-gold - Level 1 - $1.40 USD - 1,000 DEC)

• 40 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "win three battles without neutral cards" quest)
keepers -
1 x "Wave Runner" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.40 USD - 500 DEC)

• 20 DEC
  nonkeepers - 90 DEC
  potions - +5 legendary potions, +3 alchemy/gold potions
  DEC - 73 DEC

April 30th, 2020

Starting DEC : 8,555 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 97.98%
Ending DEC - 80,619 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 96.99%
Balance = DEC Earning = 72,064 DEC = ~ 277.863 Steem ~ $0.187 USD/Steem = ~ $51.92 USD

Spent :

12 x "Spirit Shaman" (non-gold - Level 1 - 4078 DEC -- bumped up to Level 5 to unlock "redemption" ability)

67,986

6 x "Barking Spider" (Gold - Level 3 - 4,138 DEC - bumped up to Level 6 to decrease health from "+6" to "+5", but add "blind" ability)

63,848

11 x "Zintar Mortalis" (non-gold (summoner) - Level 1 - 22,893 DEC - bumped up to Level 7)

40,955

5 x "Skeletal Warrior" (Gold - Level 3 - 19,520 DEC -

21,435

1 x "Furious Chicken" (Gold - Level 3 - 5,466 DEC)

10,503

21 x "Spineback Turtle" (non-gold - Level 1 - 4,142 DEC - bumped up to Level 7 to increase health from "+6" to "+7")

6,361

33 x "Skeletal Assassin" (non-gold - 5,252 DEC - bumped up to

1,109

43 x "Undead Rex" (non-gold - 1,104 DEC - bumped up to Level 5 to increase health from "+10" to "+11" and add "trample" ability)

1 x "Bone Golem" (Gold - Level 2 - 2,335 DEC -- bumped up to Level 4 to increase health from "+7" to "+8")

1 x "Elvin Mystic" (Gold - Level 2 - 3,630 DEC -- one more card to go to Level 4 (to unleash the "silence" ability on the gold version of this card)

sold 13,728 Hive (earned from previous post) and steem 5,72 13.570 31.977 for total ___ DEC

Season Rewards (Season Level "Champion III" ( 80 season loot chests)
keepers -
"Baby Unicorn" (Gold - Level 2 - $0.58 USD - 750 DEC - bumped up to Level 5)
"Armorsmith" (Gold "Orbs" - Level 4 - $1.19 USD - 1,500 DEC)

• 215 DEC
  nonkeepers - 190 DEC
  potions - +10 legendary potions, +11 alchemy/gold potions
  DEC - 1,782 DEC

converted 195.600 Steem ( weekly Steemit Steem power-down payout) into 53,125 DEC to buy cards. I now have FOUR more weekly Steem power-downs remaining, and then I MIGHT power-down my Hive to keep this weekly card buying spree moving for an additional 13 weeks.

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "fire" quest) -- fire quest always takes more time, so I will finish this one tomorrow
keepers -

• DEC
  nonkeepers - DEC
  potions - + legendary potions, + alchemy/gold potions
  DEC - DEC

converted all Hive and Steem earnings from previous series post (plus around 4,000 additional DEC I have laying idle in @steem-engine) into 14,000 DEC to buy cards. The massively increased value of Hive (plus the JUICY Hive upvote from @splinterlands) has generated a very nice amount of DEC to use on my weekly card shopping spree.

May 1st, 2020

Starting DEC : 8,310 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 99.03%
Ending DEC - 9,896 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 81.34%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,586 DEC = ~ 5.734 Steem ~ $0.186 USD/Steem = ~ $1.06 USD

Spent :

2 x "Wave Runner" (Gold - Level 3 -1,132 DEC )

14 x "Elven Defender" (non-gold - Level 1 - 450 DEC -- bumped up to Level 6 to increase health from "+8" to "+9")

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
"Goblin Thief" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.54 USD - 500 DEC)

• 100 DEC

Daily Quest (yesterday's "fire" quest) -- fire quest always takes more time, so I finished this one slowly today
keepers -

• 150 DEC
  nonkeepers - 45 DEC
  potions - +1 legendary potions, +1 alchemy/gold potions
  DEC - 66 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
"Wave Runner" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.35 USD - 500 DEC)

• 20 10 10 DEC
  nonkeepers - 15 DEC
  potions - +1 legendary potions, +4 alchemy/gold potions
  DEC - 67 DEC

May 2nd, 2020

Starting DEC : 8,311 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 81.61%
Ending DEC - 9,233 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 97.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 922 DEC = ~ 3.57 Steem ~ $0.186 USD/Steem = ~ $0.66 USD

Spent :

2 x "Undead Rexx" (Gold - Level 3 - 1,054 DEC (132 DEC over-budget today, but earlier in the week I UNDER-spent by a few hunred DEC) -- bumped up to Level 4 with only two card remaining to Level 5 (to unlock the "trample" ability).

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "dragon" quest)
keepers -
"Undead Rexx" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.36 USD - 500 DEC)

• 20 10 DEC
  nonkeepers - 20 60 DEC
  potions - +1 legendary potions, +0 alchemy/gold potions
  DEC - 303 DEC

May 3rd, 2020

Starting DEC : 8,176 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 96.73%
Ending DEC - 72,940 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 98.65%
Balance = DEC Earning = 64,764 DEC = ~ 270.923 Steem ~ $0.188 USD/Steem = ~ $50.93 USD

Spent :

2 x "Hydra" (non-gold - Level 1 - ~ $25 USD - 35,399 USD -- bumped up to Level 3 ( to increase health from "+8" to "+9" and add the "retaliate" ability. This is one of my favorite cards, and I hope to max it out with the additional six cards if/when I get additional JUICY airdrops). For now I am happy to experiment with this card with the extra health and "retaliate" ability for a month or two.

29,365 DEC

6 x "Undead Rexx" (gold - Level 3 - 3,373 DEC -- bumped up to Level 6 (to increase "melee" from "+5" to "+6", and add "retaliate" ability")

25,992 DEC

1 x "Elvin Mystic" (Gold - Level 2 - 2,676 DEC -- bumped up to level 4 to unleash the "silence" ability on this gold version of the card)

23,316 DEC

1 "Furious Chicken" (Gold - Level 3 - 4,824 DEC -- it's a MUST to buy up one "Lucky Golden Chicken" per shopping spree. only six cards remaining to max out this LUCKY guy ( or rather, gal).

18,474

1 x "Phantom Of The Abyss" (non-gold (legendary) - Level 1 - 5,678 DEC -- bumped up to Level 2 to add the demoralize" ability)

12,796

3 x "Wave Runner" (Gold - Level 3 - 1,636 DEC -- bumped up to Level 9 to unlock the "snare" ability

11,160

3 x "Bone Golem" (Gold - Level 2 - 6,776 DEC -- bumped up to Level 5 to unlock the "repair" ability)

4,384

3 x "Fallen Spectre" (non-gold (legendary) - Level 1 - 4,909 DEC - finally bumped this card u to level 4 (max), because it is now useful in the new " " battle mode, where thevery low "+1" health can be increase to a quite high level to make this card powerful. I was going to evantually max this card out, but now have more incentive because it is more useful with the new battle mode.

• 505 DEC (a couple of hundred DEC over-budget, but that is not a biggy)

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack + ceebration pack for reaching "Diamond II" season level -> + 10 loot chests - +50 total season loot chests))
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "dragon" quest)
keepers -
"Undead Rexx" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.36 USD - 500 DEC)

• 30 DEC
  nonkeepers - 80 DEC
  potions - +1 legendary potions, +0 alchemy/gold potions
  DEC - 303 DEC

Got:
4 x "Yodin Zaku" (non-gold - Level 1 - $12.99 USD - 1,000 DEC) cards PLUS
1 x "Yodin Zaku" (gold - Level 2 - $120.00 USD - 50,000 DEC) cards
In the "Yodin Zaku" airdrop.

Since the Gold version is Level 2 I decided to liquidate the four non-gold cards (which is amounted to Level 2 (1/3) combined) to buy up some of the more expense cards upgrades I have had my eye on. I sold each non-gold "Yodin Zaku" for $12.00 USD, and they sold within 15 minutes. I hope someone who DID NOT get a gold version of this card can use those extra non-gold cards to max him out. For now, I am content with the JUICY gold version (Level 2). The total value of the five cards is -> $120.00 + 4 ( $12.00 ) = $188 USD (at the time of the airdrop).

When you add this $188.oo USD to the previous two airdrops, valued at ~ $68 total, it works out to a current total of $256 USD, which ironically was the projected amount I made for ALL of the remaining airdrops :

https://steemit.com/splinterlands/@transcript-junky/steem-monsters-drug-wars-power-strategy-tips-38
Drake Of Arnak - $24.30

https://steemit.com/splinterlands/@transcript-junky/splinterlands-drug-wars-power-strategy-tips-45
Mimosa Nightshade - $43.00

Actually in the first post above (upon landing the "Drake Of Arnak" airdrop) I wrote the following:

"Even if we extrapolate from the value of THIS ["Drake Of Arnak"] airdrop, and multiply $24.30 USD x 11 (additional airdrops) this would work out to a hypothetical value of $267.30 USD to offset the ultimate cost of ~ $1,400 USD for all of the pre-sale Untamed packs I've actually purchased with Bitcoin. That would essentially work out to a TOTALLY FREE 100 (+10) promo batch of Untamed cards (or 550 individual Untamed cards) just from the value of the airdrops - any of such 550 cards which may be "super cards"! That's actually a very good deal, and proof that my decision to spend the $1,400 USD on all of the pre-sale packs was a sound one."

As you can see, I had extrapolated a total value of ALL 14 remaining airdrops to be $267.30 USD of value, whereas just with this new 5th (of 14) airdrop I have basically hit that number - and there are STILL NINE (9) airdrops remaining! So, was my $1,500 USD expenditure on 878 Untamed packs a sound investment? Well, $1,500 USD - $256 USD = $1,244 USD - and so that is ALREADY a savings of $256 USD, and with the current value of Steem at $0.188 USD that works out to $256 USD / $0.188 USD = 1,362 Steem = 323,414 DEC. And since a 100 ( + 10 free ) pack Untamed* promo batch costs 200,000 DEC I basically have recouped enough DEC value through the airdrops SO FAR to potentially purchase almost 1.5 promo batches. But this overall equation DOES NOT account for the value of the 878 packs of Untamed cards which I have ALREADY opened, and the 256 packs I have NOT YET opened. So, in the grrand scheme of things, even if I get ZERO additional airdropped cards, I think the purchase of the 878 packs has provided an IMPRESSIVE return so far, and it was ultimately a VERY SOUND decision to buys all of those packs.

May 4th, 2020

Starting DEC : 6,712 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 100.00%
Ending DEC - 7,763 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 78.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,051 DEC = ~ 4.898 Steem ~ $0.185 USD/Steem = ~ $0.906 USD

Spent :

"Goblin Thief" (Gold - Level 3 - 1,186 DEC -- three more cards to go to Level )

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "dragon" quest)
keepers -
"The Kraken" (non-gold (legendary) - Level 1 - $1.33 USD - 1,500 DEC)

• 130 DEC
  nonkeepers - 130 DEC
  potions - +1 legendary potions, +0 alchemy/gold potions
  DEC - 128 DEC

Whew! These posts are growing dense - but that's okay. Take what resonates with you,and leave the rest. I hope you find some/any of these tips useful in increasing your understanding and/or skill level in the SteemMonsters (Splinterlands) and/or Drug Wars, and/or "Prospectors, and/or any other game(s) - and the " blockchain gaming " industry as whole - which I end up exploring as this series evolves. More JUICY tips to come with each weekly update, as I dig deeper into this whole REVOLUTIONARY PHENOMENON, and become more experienced and successful in the game(s).

See you on the battlefield...

@transcript-junky

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