As I wrote in my last #steemmonsters blog (HERE), I've been saving my DEC hard and trying to buy the summoners I need to get to lvl 5.

If you haven't noticed now, I guess you never will.... The price of all summoners has started to skyrocket. I'd say some cards seeing a 100% increase in asking price.

I've been concentrating on getting my WATER splinter upto lvl 5 and so I've been buying the old water wizard himself, Alric Stormbringer:

I've been playing #steemmonsters (aka #splinterlands) for a good while now and have built up a rather substantial "reward" card base, so much so that my monster levels far exceed the summoners I have.

I'm sick of only making it to GOLD I and I'm determined to make it to the DIAMOND leagues once again. I have faith in my strategies and deck combinations for battles, but as good as they are, I just get out gunned and out muscled by the cards I'm now facing.

You see, getting summoners to level 5 allows you to unlock a whole new level of abilities from your monsters. Some of the weaker cards now become essential to winning, cards that never get played at lower levels are now first choice picks.

Last night I pulled the trigger on my largest, most expensive card purchase (to date). Prices for individual summoners are so much more expensive than buying already combined cards. So with 8 summoners still needed to make it to lvl 5, I sifted through the market place, in search for a bargain.

I managed to come across a lvl 3 (5BCX) summoner, listed by @sourovafrin, for only $1.60 per BCX. For context, this morning, Alric Stormbringer are fetching $2 per individual card. I couldn't wait to save enough DEC to purchase this card, so bit the bullet and spent some steem.

It's always a gamble when buying cards and a million thoughts went through my head...... Are these really a good investment? Will the prices come down the moment I buy this? Bla Bla bla!! All I know is, I enjoy wasting hours playing this game, so it's definitely worth it regardless of price.

After picking up those 5 cards, that are now on "cool-down" , it leaves me with just having to find 3 more to make it to level 5, and the promised lands of DIAMOND leagues. Hahahahaha

I still think the prices of individual summoners has a long way to run yet and as they sell more, and the scarcity becomes even more realised prices will climb even higher.

With the release of the new UNTAMED collection still a few months away, I do think about the effect it might have on the prices of cards. I understand that these ALPHA and BETA sets will never be reproduced and so therefore have a "collectors" value to them too, but new summoners means another accessible way to climb the leagues for less money..... Only time will tell what the new collection brings, I just know, for now, the FOMO has me good and proper and I want to do the best I can right now!

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. It turned out to be a rather long winded post about just buying a few cards.. Lol

If anyone has any spare summoner cards to swap/sell, please don't hesitate to get in touch.