Six ways to earn money from playing Splinterlands (Steemmonsters) - The journey of a Maverick

Here we are, a year after I decided to buy my first pack of Steemmonster cards.
2018-06-07, 15:00 - toocurious - steemmonsters- 2.123 STEEM P-VEIRK5SVLS
Just one pack, because I was curious… Yes, STEEM was worth a bit more at that time.

After that first pack and reading up on the whole project it spiraled out of control quite fast and soon I was buying 100 packs at a time, because they came with a bonus of 10 (the 500 pack option did not exist yet), all based on a gut feeling that this game would go somewhere. More specifically that the guys behind this were going to make it a game that would live up to its promises: a fun collectible trading card game with true ownership that had the potential of becoming the next big thing on Steem/the blockchain world.

The biggest key factor here was the fact that one of the founders @aggroed had invested quite a lot of money himself and was (and still is) the biggest hodler in terms of value in cards (around 53k if I am correct). Besides being a founder, he is also a very well respected member of the Steem (PAL) community, so I thought to myself, if I can’t trust these guys, who can I?

In the very beginning I was buying cards that didn’t even have stats on them and nobody really had a clue how the fighting was going to go, but somehow I felt the need to invest more than 10k into this game and that is something I had never done before.

To be honest I was almost ready to give up on Steem, because of my very flawed Steemit blogging experience, but SM even got me to buy a ticket to Steemfest3 to meet the founders @aggroed and @yabamatt in Krakow and my premonition was correct, these were two very smart and kind people who were totally aware of what they were trying to accomplish and had an amazing drive to do everything in their power to do so.

A LOT has happened since then and the main reason I am writing this post is to get everything straightened out in my head, because I have been living and breathing this game for the past year. That means playing, trading, reading discord daily, trying to improve the game through discussions, investing more, organizing tourneys before they became automated, designing the levels up card, etc

Now, we are at a point where I feel that the first circle is complete and it is INSANE what the steemmonsters team has accomplished so far, frankly I am very surprised this whole thing has had so little media traction in the blockchain world. I am sure it will come, just wait for the next alt bull run.

Let me point out some of the remarkable things that they have achieved already:

1. Make a fun strategically card game on a blockchain
2. Create a lively community
3. Create value out of nowhere
4. Survive a bear market
5. Grabbed the bull by the horns in not waiting on SMT’s and creating their own token engine
6. Connecting another blockchain (Tron) to the game
7. Bringing the game to the next level by creating an the ingenious in game currency DEC, which is now the biggest reason I am confident that this game will succeed
8. Restoring value to gold and early alpha editions (aka living up to the promise to the early investors), because of the design of DEC
9. Basically showing what the fuck is possible on this blockchain

DEC - What’s it all about?

When DEC came out, I felt like the exploding dwarf and could not wrap my head around all of the possible actions this update brought, a couple of minutes after it came out I burned some of my extra cards to get to 2500 DEC so I could buy my first ORB and see what cards would pop out. It wasn’t the greatest success in terms of goldfoil or legendary cards, but it was a very cool experience that I was able to get something new in return for cards that I had not been using and was not able to sell on the market. After that I became intrigued by the mystery prize potion and invested 6000 DEC, so I would get a chance to win something big (I had a suspicion it would be the new legendary summoner) in the next coming 5 days. The best I got out it was an ORB which contained a legendary new monster. So not really a success so far either, but again a cool experience.

Now I gain DEC by playing the game, which is a big incentive for everyone to play more, as you can trade it on steem-engine or buy cool stuff with it like potions or skins. The DEC effect is already viewable on stateoftheapps where SM has climbed the rankings and the total of daily players has become way more consistent over the last couple days. The camel graph where the peaks represent the end of season will definitely change over the next couple of weeks.

The DEC price itself has been rising steadily over the last couple of days and there a (small but consistent) trade volume.

The whole DEC update has also made my whole investment go up (especially my goldfoil account)

22 may 2019

26.09.2019

That's an increase of 1250$.

I really believe that the value of these cards can only go up from here on, since DEC made my cards more scarce and every card now has a minimum value of dec linked to them, plus they are mostly alpha and alpha goldfoils.

What’s next?

The first big thing will be that you will be able to delegate your Steempower to get DEC in return, which I can tell you will make the SM account grow insanely. Edit: That just happened, you can now delegate and get a stake in the upvote bot DEC profits.

The promo tokens from the TRX campaign will be redeemable, which will bring a whole set of new cards and new players to the tables.

The future?

There will be guilds, where you can play in team to compete for prizes
You will be able to own a workshop, which will allow you to create and sell potions, another possible way to earn DEC.

Collaborations with other blockchains

Ways to earn on SM:

1. Play, earn DEC and sell it
2. Buy cards, HODL and sell later (get a maxed coca while you still can, you will thank me later, on the market for 18.50 atm)
3. Play tournaments, earn STEEM
4. Play daily rewards and sell them on the market if the price is higher than the amount of DEC you would get, if it is lower or equal, burn them and turn them into DEC and sell it or get orbs and sell those cards
5. HODL DEC and sell later, as the game continues to grow, so will the price of DEC
6. Rent out your cards through @peakmonsters

Some thoughts:

• If you want to start playing, try to buy alpha cards (if you have enough to invest, buy the goldfoil ones), they give you a huge bonus in DEC earning while you are playing.

• Don’t play too much per day, as a rule I would say, play till your capture rate goes down to 75% and in the case you haven’t completed your quest yet at this rate, keep playing till you do. Reward cards are also a way to earn DEC or Steem.

• I think we’ll be able to buy cards/workshops with DEC as well in the future, so you upgrade your deck usin DEC.

• Yes, I have an alt account for my gold foil collection goodasgold, for a couple of reasons: I did not have enough funds left to get all the goldfoil legendaries, which are a necessity to compete at the highest level, so atm I can ‘only’ be really competitive at the gold level tourneys with that account, not diamond. By playing with that account I can practice my skills at the gold level. As a side benefit I find it sometimes quite slow to play only one account, so I can play two at the same time and focus completely on SM, instead of drifting to too much other stuff. And now with DEC I get to earn double the amount for playing the same amount of time.

Some numbers:

Let's say I win on average 33 games per day at an average of 300 DEC = 10000 DEC, at the moment that would be 27 STEEM if I would sell it on the market, since I still want the new cards and orbs, I am reinvesting everything in orbs and mystery prizes (which is probably not financially the smartest to do, but so much fun)
= 10000 * 14 = 140000 DEC

On weekends is when I play the bigger tourneys, where on average I win around 100 STEEM in prize money.
= 100 STEEM (37500 DEC)

Reward cards daily quests
28 (per day) * 14 (per season) * 100 DEC (average value)= 39200 DEC per season

Rewards cards end season:
150 Champion 1 + 80 Champion 2 = 230 * 100 DEC = 23000 DEC

Top 50 finish
20 Beta packs on average = 100 cards * 100 DEC = 10000 DEC

Total of 249700 DEC every TWO weeks
= 499400 per month
= 1375 STEEM per month

These are just some rough numbers, but it is to give you (and me) an idea of what SM financially can bring, besides being a super fun game!

Now imagine STEEM is back at 1$ or 2$, that would be crazy…

Feel free to ask any questions if you might have them.

And if you haven’t start playing yet, get in now, let me know in the comments, I have some starter codes left and will send you a welcome gift ;)

Check out:
Steem Monsters

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