In this experiment, I start playing Steemmonsters with only a starter deck. I want to experience first hand what it is like to join the game at the start of season 6.
source
A Starter Deck
I realize that we, as early adopters, have been spoiled. First, there were the free booster packs, which allowed us to level up our beta deck at no cost.
When the booster packs were canceled, we were able to collect tons of reward cards.
Since @steemmonsters has decided to lower the number of reward cards that would be given out for free, I started wondering how a new player would experience the game as it is now.
I couldn't wipe out my experience, but I did create a new account with only a starter deck in it.
source
This was the first time I noticed that the Water splinter doesn't have a single magic card in the starter deck. I assume there will be a valid reason for that, still, I think it's a bit odd.
The Experiment
In season 6, players get a significantly lower number of reward cards, both for completing their daily quests and as a season reward.
I'm going to try to climb as high up in the leagues without purchasing extra cards.
I did set the rule that I can sell the reward cards I win or any of the monster cards that are in the starter deck to fund the purchase of other cards. In short, I am not going to invest extra money in this account, because I want to find out how a player that can't afford to do so, experiences the game.
Day 1
I completely forgot what it was like to play with only a starter deck. Because you only have a limited supply of cards, you got to work with what you have. This is not always easy, especially for the high mana games....
I had to complete my DQ with the Earth Splinters' starter deck cards. For some reason, this is one of my least favorite splinters. I must admit that I don't play it very often.
Let me remind you that the cards below were the only cards available to play. On top of that, I'm not used to playing level 1 games anymore. Adapting to an incomplete deck of monsters with only a few abilities, was a lot more difficult than I had expected it to be.
source
I wonder what the reasoning behind the cards in the starter deck is. As you can see, the Earth splinter has - next to Lyanna Natura - 3 melee monsters in the team, and 1 magic.
The neutral splinter has three more melees...
Personally, I think it would be easier to win your first DQ's and learn the game if there would be a little more variation. But again... I assume there's a valid reason for this selection of cards.
Completing My Daily Quest
I didn't have any trouble winning my first three games, but once I had reached Bronze 3, my luck changed.
source
In the end, it only took me 13 games to complete my daily quest. It felt more like 35. And the middle part was really frustrating.
Remember, I have been playing @steemmonsters for a couple of months now, so I do have some knowledge about the game and the cards. If you are completely new to the game, it will definitely take you a lot more battles to be able to finish that daily quest.
Also, if you look at the screenshot above a little closer, you can see that the number of players at the bottom level is pretty limited. Or maybe it is just a coincidence that I played @cherhorowitz 5 times.
Anyway, daily quest mission completed.
source
My Reward
13 games and an hour spent to get rewarded with 1 card.
I think that if I would have been a new player and had spent a lot more time on completing that DQ, I think I might have considered it to be a waste of time.
How on earth will I ever grow this deck one card at a time????
I was excited to see what this 1 reward card would be. Would it be a cheap and useless Rusty Android? Or maybe the new legendary for the Water Splinter: the Ruler Of The Sea?
I got fairly lucky, though. It wasn't a gold foil Lord Arianthius - imagine it had been... - but still, it could have been way worse.
source
The gold foil Wood Nymph currently sells on the market for a little under $1. If I can sell it quickly, I'll be able to buy quite some commons and rares to expand my deck.
You could help me out by checking the marketplace and buying that lovely golden nymph so I can grow my deck a little
source
I'll keep you up to date about my progression in the game.
Not all posts will be as long as this one, but I'll keep you posted about my experiences as a 'newcomer' to the game...
source 1 - Source 2 - Source 3
Great idea and good luck on the experiment! I'm sure you will help many on the way with your knowledge... I got you some cash to work with and bought your green wood nymph! :)
Good luck and great job @simplymike :)
ah, so you were the one who picked up the wood nymph. ;)
lol.. yes she's pretty tough and figured it'd be useful to helping @simplymike just a bit :D
Thanks for buying the card, @davemccoh. It enavled me to buy quite a lot od extra cards :0)
awesome... I'm looking forward to seeing your thoughts on this account when the season is over :)
Are you surprised? I wasn't ;0)
I forgot to mention that I featured this post in my comment challenge. I think it is a great experiment which many can learn from. Not really a promotion post 😉 but it can be something interesting for the founders. On one hand, they need to please the big investors and make sure there are attractive prizes, while at the same time attract and retain new players.
That's the actual reason I set it up.
The fact that my first card was a gold card and that I'm not really a beginner, so I had friends who bought it, was a bit of downer for the experiment. I mean , how big is the chance that you get a gold foil reward card the very first day.
It allowed me to buy quite a lot of extra cards. But this is not how it normally goes.
Fortunately, my 2nd and 3rd card were Creeping Oozes. They are worth 6 cents or so... :0)
Thanks for featuring it, btw :0)
Not really 😜
I was just sad I couldn’t pick it up myself 😉
the fact I finally beat dorabot at getting something is worth more than the card itself :P
Here is the reason why Dora didn't try to buy it :)
lol... so I have a slightly higher price than Dora! Cool :) ... I hope Dora's right and gets filled there, I'm hoping to get many more if it falls like the other gold commons did (30c is where I really want them)
:D
lol
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here
You got yourself another follower, @itsjustme, simply because I am curious how your experiment unfolds. I'm a relative newcomer to steemmonsters (been playing since early Dec.) and my initial impression has been just that: a bit of a letdown, especially after hearing those stories "from the good old days" when you got beta-cards in your reward,or let alone get free booster packs. Still, I believe it's not as bad as if I were to enter this season. So I'm curious to see what your experiment reveals. Also, I like how you put into words your experience of starting out from nothing.
To me it seems like steemmonsters is changing so fast and suddenly that they may undergo the danger of turning players away... until... there are only the die-hard players / early adopters left, along with a bunch of bots. That's when the game will become a spent fad, and instead of battling users will stick to "collecting" cards. Would hate to see it come to that, and the folks behind the game would also, I'm sure, but it wouldn't be the first game that went beyond its peak... until then, let's get some more cards, hehehe!
hahaha, it's like I hear myself speak, lol.
I'm afraid they're moving in that direction and that eventually there will only be players who can afford to spend a lot on cards.
But the more reward cards I see appearing, the more I think that in the end they will form a complete deck, with a reward card summoner and all. I'm not sure of it, but it sure seems to go in that direction.
And if this is true, it'll change the entire gameplay again.
I've been going back and forth about whether I should sell and get out now, while I still can, or should stay in the game. A couple of days ago, I sold a lot of cards, only to regret it the day after, lol.
I guess we have no choice but to wait and see what happens...
Well, at the moment it's still fun, so I'll continue with it. Once that changes, I can still sit on my cards for a while and forget about them, hoping that they'll be worth more. That should happen to beta cards, now that there are no more new ones coming out. except for the ones in starter packs.
And maybe a lot of them ... bots?
Also my advice: don't spend the dollar for the upgrade.
Try another week or some days to see how hard it is.
"cos you are very luck to get this one Gold Foil from the first Reward.
Also - you did not show the problem and algorythm to solve it - lack of RC
when your account has only about 3 Steem Power... How about this moment?
Who and when delegate you additional enough SP?
I actually didn't run out of RC during my battles the first day.
I did when I published this post. I wanted to edit it, because of the @checky - comment above, but couldn't. The system told me I ran out of RC.
I still had to play the DQ for today, so I delegated 20 sp from my main account. (It was too much of a hassle to create a separate Gmail account in order to create a separate Discord account and ask SM for some RC. I'm not even sure they give out anymore. It used to be an automated process, but it wasn't this time. Maybe they don't offer SP delegations anymore. I should look that up.)
Anyway, I did take note of it so I can mention it in my post tomorrow.
And don't worry, I've already spent way too much on SM. I'm one of the fortunate few who can.
I've been fighting for the rights of new people who want to play but can't afford to buy their way up for a couple of weeks now. Because with every new update, they are closing the door a little more.
It has really become 'pay for play', and I only found out a couple of days ago that that is exactly the direction the founders want to go. Before, I still had hope that it would be different.
There are so many people here on SteemIt who really can't spare the money to even buy a starter deck. If they have been lucky, they got to play someone else's and shared the profits, or they won one in one of the giveaways. But since the booster packs disappeared, their chances of ever getting more than a level 1 deck have disappeared.
I have been playing since the beginning, so I was fortunate enough to have the 'free booster packs' seasons, which allowed me to build a large part of my decks for free. I'm afraid that the rules of the game as they are now, are going to make it more difficult to get new players to sign up.
That's why I wanted to do this experiment. A brand new account with only a starter deck, and the plan to spend absolutely no money. I just want to see how far it can take me, and for how long it will remain fun.
taken from meme contest
Maybe I could help some - if you know them
lets them try
Steem Monsters Giveaway! Win Free Monsters Pack and get started!
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by Monster Mother from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.
Congratulations @itisjustme! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click here to view your Board
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPIt's hard to believe that you got a gold card as your first reward card. All I get is gold Vampires. 🤣🤣🤣