Steem Monsters - I finally have some Dragons (And how YOU can get some!)
Image from Steem Monsters
What is Steem Monsters?
Steem Monsters is the hottest new game deployed on the STEEM blockchain. A digital collectible card-game (like The Elder Scrolls: Legends) that, hey, is actually a lot of fun! EOS Knights was the first breakthrough of an actual, fully developed, blockchain game -- Steem Monsters gives it a LOT of competition.
The Elusive Dragon Element
Like in Magic: The Gathering, cards in Steem Monsters are identified with different factions (called Splinters.) They are represented by various colors and names, for example: red cards are a part of the Fire Splinter, blue for Water, black for Death, etc.
Seemingly, the Dragon Splinter is the hardest to come by. Out of the 155 total cards I own, only 3 of them are Dragons: not even enough to build a playable deck with! Also, checking out the Steem Monsters marketplace, people are paying a high price for these cards. A typical Steem Monsters card might only set you back $0.02, however the range of price for Dragon cards (from cheapest to the most expensive) at the writing of this post is:
Dragon Whelp - Level 1 - (Promo release) - $4.00
Lightning Dragon - Level 2 - Gold - (Alpha release) - $4,500
How I Found My Dragons
The first bit was just encoutnering some luck. Steem Monsters card packs are $2 each and contain a random generation of cards (with the exception of you're guaranteed at least one card of Epic rarity per pack.) It's very unlikely to receive a dragon opening two (or even twenty) packs and you might be better off spending SBD at the marketplace if you're really serious about dragon hunting.
That being said, out of the 47 packs I've purchased since August (I can't believe it's been that many!) I've found a single dragon:
The Chromatic Dragon
Level: 1
Rarity/Release: Legendary/Beta
Current Value: $4.90
Not bad! But as you can see, if you're going to start building a Dragon deck, it's more financially effiecient to head over to a site like PeakMonsters to purchase individual cards from other players with your SBD!
I also backed @SteemMonsters during their Kickstarter campaign! At the $25 level, the rewards included two Dragon cards not found in the card packs you can purchase (part of their Promo release.) Here's what I received:
The Dragon Whelp (x2)
Levels: 1 & 4
Rarities/Release: Common & Common-Gold/Promo
Current Values: $5.00 & $14.83
So, Why Can't I Build a Dragon Deck?
In my battle with @cryplectibles, I was able to play a Water deck with only three Monsters. What's the difference? It all comes down to the Summoner.
Each Splinter (except for Neutral) has 2 different Summoners to choose from, which is required to use in order to play Monsters from the Summoner's associated Splinter. I have Summoner cards for each Splinter... except for the Dragons :)
Selenia Sky is the name of the cheapest Dragon Summoner I need in order to play and she currently costs $13.60 at Level 1, kind of steep considering I only have 2 playable Dragons (I can't play both versions of the Dragon Whelp at the same time.) Also keep in mind that in order to summon my Level 4 Dragon Whelp, I'd need to combine multiple cards to get Selenia to Level 3, which would cost a total of $68. Yikes.
What Dragons do You Have? Do You Play with a Dragon Deck?
Let me know in the comments below! I'm probably not going to shell out $68 for a Summoner, but I'm curious to know what it's like to play with these dudes. Looking forward to hearing from you all!
Yeah the dragon deck is expensive!
Another note, being a legendary summoner, Selenia has different ranks. She can summon up to a level 3 common at rank one, and a level 5 at rank 2!
I had also been unaware until recently that you can summon your high rank cards with a summoner that cant support them, and they’ll just appear at the max possible rank. I’d been afraid to rank cards too high for fear I’d make them accidentally unplayable if I overestimated my summoner, but thankfully that can’t happen. So your 4 rank whelp would show up as a rank 3 with a basic level 1 Selenia.
This is a really good point, thank you. I can certainly enter in with the dragon deck at a level 1 summoner. I feel like eventually I'd end up spending the additional $ on her once I get half way there lol. Eventually I'll give in, but maybe not anytime soon.
I should have donated more to their Kickstarter campaign but I didn't know anything about Steem Monsters back then and figured the $25 was a safer bet in case this game was something I didn't like :D
I mostly play my dragons! I too got a Chromatic early, and as it was about my only legendary, and wanting to use him, I did drop about $10 to get Selenia. Then I backed the KickStarter for $50 and have the Whelp, Royal Archer (that thing is a sniping ass kicker!), and rare Shin-Lo card. I was lucky to get a Lightning dragon in a recent pack so now mainly just lack the Golden dragon.
I do fairly well, but think I’ll be kept out of high ranks playing dragons due to not getting cards to combine & level up. Even if I had them, I’m not sure I would due to their rarity. I’m waiting to see if a system to earn XP through play is created as has been mentioned in the past.
One thing you may not realize... Dragons play their splinter + one other color of choice! So if you get Selenia you can absolutely field a team. My earliest were usually Selenia and the Chromatic tanking, and then a healer & archers behind due to Selenia +1 to ranged attacks. Blue is my favorite as at level 3 the Crustacean King can heal & ranged attack.
I regret not grabbing a Selina when it was ten bucks, I had seen it too. I sit having three dragon cards for show only ;_;
Check that collection again... 😉 Thanks for all the Fundition support and I totally suck and haven’t mailed your Skyward Omnibus yet... sorry!
Oh dude, you fucking rule, thank you!! I was off to finish today's quest but now I'm torn on playing around with dragons. "First world problems"
I patiently await that Omnibus to check it out (last two comics I have got from Steemit have been awesome, I know Jeremy wasn't on here, but it is through the power of Steem I got it!)
I did not realize Selina could summon dragons plus another Splinter! Thank you!
Consider uploading all your biohacking videos to keyport.tv
Hey dude! Checking it out, thanks :)
I'm s-s-s-s-s-SLOWLY starting to get a ROUGH sense of what this is all about. Can you PLEASE do a post detailing the new "quest" feature. Being able to concentrate on something as CONCRETE as the quests, and having the incentive to earn some free cards, would go a LONG way, I think, in helping the newbie maintain the ENDURANCE required to reach the BASIC competency level. I SO MUCH want to reach that level right now. Please help...
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