Well each season is getting tougher. It seems that the other players are investing more into strengthening their collection than I do.
In the past weeks I brought 3 summoners to level 6, allowing to start powering up my monsters up to the max limits of the Gold League. But still I am getting my ass kicked.
It could be of course, that this is also due to a lack of tactical skills on my side, which will be partly true.

But I do keep running into players with already maxed out monsters for the Gold League in Gold III. This of course is a little bit demotivating. So, this does raises some question, which I do need to answer myself. The complete set of answer will answer the big question if I should keep on investing into the game or if I should decrease the investment rate or maybe even completely stop with investing and go with the flow!

Did I make the right investments?

Well this one is a hard one to answer. First I did start with brining the Fire, Water and Life summoners to level 6.

Fire

Fire was chosen because it was fairly cheap. Also when I did had to play the daily quest with Fire from the middle of the season on, it did cost me lots of battles, ECR and rating points. That is why Fire was the first to have the upgrade. The idea was to decrease the impact of having to play a daily battle with Fire.
Together with Malric, I also did bring Pit Ogre, Cerberus and Flame Imp to level 6, which is the max of the gold leagues for a rare monster. Goblin Shaman and the exploding Dwarf were brought to level 7.
Still it is very hard to complete the daily battle with Fire. Also do know that I do have a the Lord at level 3.
The problem here is maybe the Elemental Phoenix, which is only at level 1. But o man, it is very expensive to power this baby up. It goes for over $10 on the market!

Water

Well it was also not too expensive to bring Alric to level 6. Combine this with the fact that I do love to play with water and you can understand why I did really wanted to have this one on Max level for the Gold Leagues.
Here my monsters are too weak at the moment. The Sea Genie which I often due use, is at level 8, but all other Common monsters are only at level 6.
My rare monsters are not in a better shape! I do have a leased Medusa at level 6 (my own is at level 5) and a Pirate Archer at level 6. I would be pretty cheap to bring the Frozen Soldier also to level 6 (around 7 steem) but I have no clue how I should use it in a water setup.
At the moment I am trying to bring the Water Elemental to level 6. 8 more are needed. For the moment I will try to purchase those on the market with the DEC I do win in the battles.
My legendary here is in a much better shape. The rules of the seas in proudly sitting at level 3 and only 4 more are needed to have it maxed out at level 4.

Life

Well I did upgrade Tyrus toward level 6 at the end of last season when I had to play one of the last daily quests with Life. An extra motivation behind this was that my Silvershield Paladin was already at level 6. Just like my Crystal Werewolf!
Most common cards are only at level 6 expect the armorsmith who is staying behind with only level 3.
In the Epic range I really would like to have the Air elemental at level 5, but also here a huge investment is needed. Bringing this mighty card to level 5 would require an investment of just below 110 steem. Not sure if I do want to do this!
The Unicorn was my first legendary at level 3. Pretty happy with that and also for this only 4 more cards are needed to get it up to level 4.

Booster packs

It appears that I am a maverick. So, probably to many booster packs were bought. If I would have bought only 50% of those and invested the rest of the Steem into single cards, my collection would have been better. But I do like the magic moment of turning the cards. And as we all know magic has a price! And the price was paid!
So, if I decided to continue with the investment or if I do want to decrease the investments, for sure I will have to downsize the purchases of the packs!

Overall

Yes, I did made some good investments. But I also went overboard with the packs. Packs are bought hoping to hit a legendary. Nothing more, nothing less. Also summoners are always happily received when opening a pack! The last 5 to 10 packs were more or less a letdown, but the decision was made and I will have to life with it!

Tactics

Also here we are talking about an investment, but this is more a time investment. I can max out all the cards I do want, but as long as I keep on playing the same setups I will be doomed. Just like that it is wise sometimes to adjust your lineup with the previous played cards from the next opponent. I do (sometimes) look at the last played cards but I do look more at with element he is using!
So, I could probably improve massively by reading more tactic related steemmonster posts and spend more time on discord.
I am willing to do this, but my time is limited. But even one article a day would be a major improvement.

Earnings

Well the earning of course also do play a big part in the debate. We do have 4 sides of income when playing Steemmonsters!

Daily quest

With around 14 to 15 daily quests per season, one is earning extra reward cards. Of course these rewards cards do have some value. Sometimes you do have a great pull, other days you regret opening the daily rewards.
But is hard to place a value on this. I am playing mostly in the Gold League, with maybe 1 to 3 days in Diamond III if I am lucky. So, let’s assume that I do earn 105 to 115 daily reward cards per season!
With a little bit of luck the value of these cards can easily go over $8 to $10. So around 50 steem.

DECs

Every win does earn you DEC. Depending on the league you are in, the support of the guild, a potential winning streak, Alfa cards and/or gold cards you get an amount of DEC. Of course your ECR also plays a big part. I am trying to keep this above 80%, just like my VP on the steem blockchain!
Each day 1 million DEC come available to be mined!
On average I do earn around 50 DEC per won battle. Let’s have a safe calculation of 5 times 15 won battles per season at least and you do at minimum earn 3750 DEC. So another $3 to $5 per season.
These DECs can be used for everything. A small part of my DEC goes to the Guild I am in. Since a few days, most DECs are used to buy cards on the market, but I also do send some DEC to Steem-engine. Not to be sold, but to put into my savings.
The post from @dalz (https://steempeak.com/spt/@dalz/burning-dec) teaches us, that on a day more DECs are burned than are created. So DEC could become scarce. In anticipation I do put some aside. Not a lot, but maybe it will increase in value!

Season rewards

In the last 4 seasons I was lucky to reach Diamond III, resulting into 40 extra reward cards. While I am sometimes lucky with the daily reward cards, the season reward cards are always a bummer. Last season the combined value was a miserable $1.47, the season before was even worse with only a value of $1.
But this all adds up!

Card selling!

Of course the last way to earn some hard earned steem is to sell some cards. While I did this before, I now do regret that decision. I am stacking most cards. Or to be used to power up, or keep them as an investment. For instance, I did buy my Flame Imp up to level 6. I didn’t want to wait to reach the level via the rewards due to the fact that it is close to sold out.
But depending on the level you play and the deck you already have, this could be a nice extra money in the pocket. Suppose that each day you can sell for $0.5, that is an extra $7.5 per season for just playing a game.

Fun factor

Maybe the most important thing because it is still a game. Regardless of the money aspect about it, most players do play it because they like it. Good for the founders (@aggroed and @yabapmatt) we do like it so much, that an own economy is going on. And it is going on strongly!
But all the credits to these guys! They did create a great game and keep the momentum going with extra cards, tournaments, extra rulesets and so on. When you do think that they did run out of magic, a new rabbit pops out of their sleeves! Well done, this keeps the game fun with lots of twists!

Overall

Well the income isn’t bad, but some luck is needed. Also the more you invest, the more earning you will have. Standing still is the same as going backwards!
But like in all things in life, decision have to made. Do you continue to invest or are you happy with the place you do have, knowing that if you don’t invest you could become weaker, season after season!
Well I decided to decrease the investments for the moment. I will try to buy the cards with the earned DEC! Trying to improve my rewards cards with some lucky pulls!
Still I do enjoy the game most of the time. At the end of the season, I can get a little bit frustrating. It is no joy to have to fight out 40 battles to complete a daily quest! One can say that you are playing above your level. And this means that decisions have to be made again. Do you try to have one maxed out element or do you try to balance your elements!
I do think that the last option for me is the best one! The first options does mean that lots of daily quests can not be completed because that one element which do push you up in the league, does neglect that power of the other elements! But this is a decision each one had to make for itself! Hoping that I can maxed out my cards for the Gold leagues!

So what about you?

Do you keep on investing? Do have you an certain level which you do consider your max level?
Are you happy with your investments?

Cheers,
Peter