Grab yourself a developer, no license is required.
Of course, you have to find gullible people to buy into your scheme.
$200 for an initial card? He's trying to recreate what happened with Splinterlands' original Gold Foil Alphas in a way that makes him a tidy profit as well. He might get investor-types to "play" but I don't see this game attracting real players -- particularly given his clear track record of not treating players well in favor of investors.
Splinterlands has a value proposition of being an excellent game. Figuring out the best strategy for this looks mildly amusing at best -- and you have to REALLY invest to stand any chance. NO THANK YOU!
Splinterlands turned into pay-to-play which is turning into a real problem for attracting and keeping casual new users. This is designed to be pay-aggroed-to-play. If he really wanted to "investigate new concepts", he wouldn't be charging outrageous prices just to help him. For a Peace, Abundance & Liberty guy, he's an awfully savage artificial-scarcity FOMO cut-throat capitalist who doesn't care about or for the "marks" who make him money.
My huge fear is that players of this game will then be given an advantage in Splinterlands. We already have warnings of it above. REALLY UNCOOL.