Hello everyone!  This is a continuation of a series detailing my experiences stepping into DAPPs, Hive, and Splinterland.  You can read part 1 and part 2.

Today I spent some time actually digging into the Splinterland game itself (as opposed to the markets).  Since it seems like buying packs is not a good strategy (packs average value is less than the $2), I have decided to buy some cards directly.  So, the challenger is figuring out which ones to buy.  To do this, I decided to play a bunch of games and see what other people are using.

I am in Bronze Tier III.  Not surprisingly, I am losing far more than I am winning.  And I am consistently losing the the same cards.  These are the ones that I will buy!  The cards that are pissing me off the most are listed below (market price in parentheses).  See a card that I've missed?  Let me know in the comments!

Neutral

Furious Chicken ($0.110) - this card costs 0 mana!  So even though it has only 1 health and no attack, it makes every lineup marginally better for free.  I have lost a few games from the chicken being in my opponent's number 2 slot and absorbing a critical shot after their tank goes down.  The chicken also acts as a magnet for the cards w/ snipe or opportunity.  Basically, a free shield.  There is really no downside to using it (other than in the 99 mana games where you want to max out the lineup with high value cards).

Creeping Ooze ($0.019)- similar to Furious Chicken, this card only costs 1 mana and can be slotted into the lineup when you have a spare mana left over.  It acts as a shield similar to the chicken, with the added advantage of slowing my team, which can sometimes be critical.

Goblin Mech ($0.063)- an expensive card mana-wise, but it packs a punch, and the piercing makes armor less effective.  I see this card used a lot in the low-mana games, and I just can't seem to beat it with any of my tanks.

Water

Sea Monster ($0.055) - I'm having a ton of trouble with this tank.  Its heal skill means that my low-level monsters just can't push through.

Life

Silver Shield Knight ($0.072)- the +1 melee can make a bunch of weak cards much stronger.  Seems to be strong in medium mana games where you can fill up the board with cheaper attackers, but not with expensive ones.  Wasted in low mana games where you can't get enough bodies onto the board.

Divine Healer ($0.14)- the heal makes a big difference to tank survivability, and the 1 magic attack isn't bad either.

Forest

Nectar Queen ($0.017) - 4 attack and 10 health plus flying to increase survivability is brutal in a high-mana game.

Fortunately, these are all within my budget, so I picked them all up!  Hopefully these cards will help me out in the arena, and allow me to get up to Bronze II.

This weekend I will tackle a few more of my unanswered questions:

Unanswered Questions

• How does the leasing market work - is it actually possible to earn returns on these things, or is the amount so low as to be meaningless?
• What incentive is there for anybody to buy a pack vs individual cards?
• What is Steem versus Hive?  What caused Hive to split from Steem?  How does Hive relate/power Splinterlands?

Thanks for reading everyone!