Steem Monsters - Initial Impressions, Review and Strategy

Greetings fellow Steemians!

I just recently discovered a relatively new dapp (decentralized application) running on the Steem blockchain. It's a game called Steem Monsters. It's been around for less than a year so if you join now you could still consider yourself an early adopter. This game is very well made. The graphics are eye popping and the game mechanics are smooth as silk.

What is Steem Monsters?

Beyond what I've already mentioned, Steem Monsters is an intriguing combination of digital asset collection and battle strategy gaming. You may have heard of CryptoKitties, another dapp that became very popular on the Ethereum blockchain in which you would collect (and generate) digital assets in the form of kittens that each had their own unique attributes. In the Steem Monsters dapp the digital assets you can collect, gift, trade, lend, lease, buy and sell are digital trading cards. Each Steem Monster card is a bonafide collectible and has a monetary value on the open market based on its rarity and utility in the game. A player could theoretically engage with the collecting and trading element of Steem Monsters and not even play the actual game if that's what interested them.

The gaming element of Steem Monsters is a form of trading card game along the lines of Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, Hearthstone and Yu-Gi-Oh! When you battle with other players, each of you will choose a "team" of cards which consist of a Summoner and an army of Monsters that are compatible with the magic type of the summoner. For example, if you select a Fire type summoner, you will be required to choose monsters of the Fire or Neutral type. Once both players have picked their team the battle begins. The actual battle is entirely automated, so your strategy will consist of which cards you choose and what order you place them in.

Why Play Steem Monsters?

There are three main reasons that I can think of to play this game:

1. The dapp industry is still in its nascent state. The potential for dapps in the future is staggering but in order to see those potentials manifest it needs a lot of support. Making use of dapps provides some of that support base. For many dapps having a large and active user base helps improve the user experience for everyone. Playing Steem Monsters is one small way you can contribute.
2. You can earn money by playing. One way to get money is to utilize the marketplace to earn a profit on buying and selling cards. You can even rent out your cards to other players through the delegation function to earn a passive income. There is also money to be won in the many tournaments. Finally, you can earn money by posting Steem Monsters content on the Steem blockchain (such as this post you are reading right now) and getting upvotes on it. One free upvote is provided by the Steem Monsters team to registered members every 36 hours. Often the money you will get from these methods will be in the form of Steem based cryptocurrency, which can be stored in your account or sold for your local fiat currency on an exchange.
3. For fun! This is probably the most important reason because if the game isn't fun the other two reasons won't be sufficient enough to keep most people's attention in the long term. I've been playing this game for less than a day so far but I can already tell it's addictive!

Can you think of any other reasons to play? Leave them in the comments below!

Ready to play Steem Monsters? Click Here to Sign Up!

My Experience

Thanks to @clove71 for providing me with a promo code to get me started! So far I haven't bought any cards, but I did win one additional card by completing today's quest. I had to win five ranked battles using a Water type team. My current card collection includes:

Common: 3 FIRE • 3 WATER • 4 EARTH • 3 LIFE • 3 DEATH • 3 NEUTRAL
Rare: 2 FIRE • 2 WATER • 2 EARTH • 2 LIFE • 2 DEATH • 2 NEUTRAL
Epic: none
Legendary: none

Most of the Rare cards in my collection are pictured in the screenshot above. My current collection is pretty basic but I've still managed to do really well. I played for around two hours this morning and won a majority of my battles. I even managed to earn the 2x ranking bonus a few times because of having a winning streak. My current standing in the game is:

RANK: 1837
RATING: 554
LEAGUE: BRONZE II

Below is a screenshot showing those stats:

Basic Strategy

I've only played for a couple of hours, but I think I've managed to pick up a few tips that may be useful to beginners.

• After picking your summoner, your first monster should be what in the gaming world is referred to as a Tank. This is a convenient term to describe a unit with a heavy melee attack and a large combined health + defense. This battle unit will be in the front spot going head-to-head with your opponent's tank and will be taking the brunt of the attacks.
• Sometimes your Tank will get exhausted. In this case the next monster up will take its place (and so on down the line.) Since ranged attackers cannot fight from the front spot I will usually reserve the 2nd spot for a monster that can serve as a backup Tank if necessary. In practice this means a melee fighter with a decent amount of health and/or defense. It's useful to try and pick a battle unit for this space which has the Reach ability. Reach allows the unit to perform melee attacks from the 2nd position.
• For the 3rd position, if there is enough Mana (each card costs "Mana" points to add to your team. The total amount of Mana points available to build your team depends on the individual battle) I like to put a unit that will heal the Tank. It isn't always possible to include but when I can I like to tuck it away in the middle of my lineup. The units you put at the front and end of your lineup will generally take the most damage, so keep the weaker units towards the middle.
• Finally, the last spots in my lineup are generally devoted to ranged or magic attackers. I'll usually put a magic user before a ranged attacker because in the worst case scenario a magic user can still attack from the Tank position. If a ranged attacker ends up in the very front it's pretty much over for that unit.

I'd love to hear any tips or tricks that you've figured out! Share your Steem Monsters strategy in the comments.

In Conclusion

I really like this game and definitely intend to keep playing it. I haven't entered any Tournaments yet but that is something I am very excited about trying. Now that I have the basics down and getting familiar with the specific cards in my collection I might be able to actually win something in one of these tournaments. Wouldn't that be nice? At this point I haven't spent any money on the game. I will likely buy some booster packs or pick up some specific cards in the market eventually but I am curious to see how far a person can get playing for free. I bet you could go very far without buying any extra cards.

Ready to play Steem Monsters? Click Here to Sign Up!

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