One of the benefits of every man and his dog playing Survival Mode to grab some more SPS rewards, is that there are far fewer people playing Modern, where I hang out. And for some reason, it seems a little easier too - and for once, it kind of feels like my RNG luck is okay. I even reached my highest ever rating of 4880, and am currently in 15th place on the leader board with less than 6 days to go.
And, the SPS rewards are pretty good also.
The SPS earnings in Survival are much higher, but to get access to the higher rewards, I would need to be competing at the top there, and I am unable to, as I would be burning my deck as I climb, so I wouldn't be able to compete for the bigger pools anyway. It is a trade-off position of course, where some people with the decks and cards to spare are able to earn very well, but I suspect that in time, many will realise that they can earn in Ranked play anyway and return.
But as said, Modern Ranked is pretty quiet.
In fact, only 68 accounts so far have gone into Champion and the points spread from 1 to 68 is 7,320 all the way down to 3,640. That is quite a gap occupied by those accounts.
But, people are playing Survival, and they are playing with Land at the moment - as the latest changes have upset the apple cart once again, and people are trying to work out what is going on. Or perhaps, that is just me. So far though, my experience with the bit of land I have, has been underwhelming to say the least. And now with the latest changes, I should spend hours trying to balance things and buy what I need, and get pretty much nothing in return for the time spent. Obviously, there are other factors in play, but my current desire to spend that time is non-existent.
Is there a cheat sheet?
Makin' Gaines
And the other thing going around at the moment is perhaps one of the deadliest snipers to date, Kelan Gaines, which is a fun promo card in the Exclusive shop. I picked up a gold one of these off the secondary market, because I think it will be a killer card - and it is! It is surprisingly versatile for many usecases, and can even be squeezed into low-Mana battles at times. Being Dragon and death, it gives some life to Lorkus, and of course can be used with Cryptic also. I have even been using it with Waka.... remember him? I have been enjoying seeing how many different ways I can use it, and it is satisfying to occasionally beat some of the Tofu spam with it. Under the right conditions, it is a decent tank also.
With the end of season coming, I would like to switch over to Survival for some fun, but there are also Brawls to participate in, as well as some tournaments. I don't have the deck to be able to do everything, so I will probably not survive this season. I think there needs to be new incentives added to Brawls though - because people just aren't very committed these days, and Guilds should be a big part of the game. As always though, there are lots of things going on, and only so much attention (and money) can be paid.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Diamond leaderboard is full of champion accounts with the lowest rating of 3720 rating. But indeed, modern rewards are higher now that some accounts move to playing survival and I think the season rentals have made those with an entire guild of multi-accounts to consolidate on fewer accounts as market has not yet adjusted with the recent change.
How come people don't move up?
I don't rent anymore, unless testing a new card or one I don't have - but I am guessing there are plenty of accounts that have been milking the cheap rents over the last months.
Currently, leaderboard placement was based on the starting league in a new season but they did an update so that next season will be based on the highest rank achieved from the previous season.
Thanks for clarifying that the rewards in Survival Mode are higher. Survival Mode is a great idea and I like it as a mode. What I don't understand is why they allowed BOTs to play in this new mode, in my opinion it wasn't a good idea
Yeah. I am not a fan of the bots. Guess it was to boost the card markets a bit and create liquidity in the mode - still not many at the top tiers.
I am earning around a thousand SPS at silver 3 in survival per day. But I only play 3 times a season in Survival. Hopefully last day of the season I will earn several thousand SPS in survival.
That is decent. I am getting between 35 and 40 SPS a win, so that is about 500 a day with my win rate, but I play all season. I would like to play some survival - but there are guild obligations! :D
I also play Modern but at Diamond I get around 12 SPS per win and I play Guild brawls too :)
With my deck, I can't afford to lose much in Survival. I have a pretty good modern deck, but very few duplicates.
I haven't gotten around to playing survival yet, but I did put some of my unused cards on the market to see if they would lease out. I haven't checked since last week.
It is pretty fun to play, because there is the "risk" of losing cards for a period - but also no limit on rounds playable.
Interesting!
I'm also enjoying the juicier payouts and reduced competition in Modern Ranked. I'm also playing survivor, but I'm not risking any of my maindeck maxed cards. Instead, I'm only using extra summoners and additional soulbound cards on my main account. Boy am I glad that I decided to keep 2 maxed copies of the Chaos Legion soulbound reward cards instead of burning them for glint!
I know it is an unpopular opinion, but I think the survivor cooldown should ONLY apply to ranked battles. Brawls and tournaments should be excluded from survivor cooldowns. Survivor is something people can do instead of ranked play, but I don't think it should affect brawls or tournaments since that is a totally separate arena of play.
yeah... I burned :D
I think brawls should be excluded at least, tournaments I am not sure, as it is an earner too. Brawls though already suffer people not paying enough attention.
But I think leaving tournaments as a place to earn just gives more incentive for people to complete their collections or rent important cards. In addition to survivor, I think we want as many reasons as possible for people to have "complete" collections. I don't think it is wise to have people compromise their tournament play based on card availability due to survivor.
4880 rating and 15th place 👀 I consider that legend for the game. I'm just trying to understand the dynamics because I've never played Web 3 games honestly but perhaps it's the higher challenges that'll require serious battle strategy. I guess Modern is the place to be while everyone else burns their decks in Survival. I hope Brawls get some love soon lol
havent actually seen this card before, it must be new but am loving his health and mana cost