As I have now been playing Steem Monsters and Drug Wars for several months, I've wanted to contribute something of ACTIONABLE value to my fellow players (and FUTURE players) - but NOT just fill my Steemit feed with daily images of quest reward - or battle - SPAM, (no offense to those doing so). Ultimately, Steemit is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of blockchain technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly "Steem Monsters + Drugs Wars player strategy diary" type series, with CONCISE and ACTIONABLE tips, would be of most value to my audience. Please let me know your thoughts (good and/or bad), and I hope that readers (now and into the future) will benefit from this series. If you gain a better understanding of blockchain, gaming, "blockchain gaming", marketing, and/or any other area of knowledge I end up exploring as this series naturally progresses, then I will have done my "good deed" (of providing value) for the week. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield...

@transcript-junky

( 1 ) I decided to buy a new 110-pack of "Orbs" BOTH to celebrate the successful Kickstarter campaign, AND to take some BTC funds out of Coinbase. As I've been following the evolution of Coinbase over the past few years, it seems that they are moving towards becoming a properly government (SEC) regulated company, and since I am weary of all things government controlled/regulated I have decided (for simplY strategical reasons) to begin GRADUALLY taking some of my crypto holdings out of Coinbase and putting them into more "liquid" assets/platforms as well. I also figure that by selling bits of my crypto and buying "Steem Monsters cards" that could be more easily justified as a "retail purchase" using crypto. In other words, in this nascent phase of crypto adoption there are "plausibly deniable" ways in which transactions can be made to look like "purchases" rather than "investments". It's a thin line. The good news is that Coinbase was the one company which enabled me to easily receive my original BTC back in ~ 2013 - 2014 (when I was living overseas in a country which was NOT under Coinbase's actual jurisdiction), and so although I could only "receive" and/or "send" crypto (mainly BTC at first) Coinbase enabled me to accept BTC from some various people for various services. This is how I accumulated my intial Bitcoin, which is now enough to leverage. Coinbase also enabled me to get a nice free "airdrop" of BCH and BSV (upon those forks), and for those things I am grateful for their service, and will keep some of my holdings in there. I just don't want to put "all of my eggs in one basket". On the SteemMonsters front, this allows me to make the strategic tweak of selling ~ 0.03 BTC to buy one additional "Orbs" 100 (+10) packs EACH MONTH until the supply of "Orbs" cards runs out. This is IN ADDITION to my daily pack-buying activity (more below), and will act as a nice BOOST of packs (each month) to feed my "pack addiction". As I have mentioned, I am now a self-admitted "pack addict", so at least I've taken "the first step". I have also tweaked my "daily pack-buying" strategy to increase the efficiency of that task, as well as increase my motivation and enjoyment of playing. I am now buying ONE ADDITIONAL "Orb" pack per day for each of the following conditions:

1 ) my basic "one pack per day" - after I finish the daily quest
2 ) one additional pack when I reach the next level of the season (ex. Gold III to Gold II, etc.)
3 ) one additional pack upon payout of each week's post in this series

The thing is that whenever I hit a significant "Orb" card in any of the daily packs, the value of that card usually offsets the extra costs of the additional packs (relative to the totol output (cost) for the packs). Also, all of the DEC of the rewards, and nonkeeper "Orb" cards add up to help offset the cost of the packs. The there is also all of the income from battles (especially those using the "Orbs' cards, which get a SIGNIFICANT amount of bonus DEC per won battle). So in the end, since the "Orbs" cards are limited edition, and have such a significant long-term return (in the form of bonus, and residual, DEC earnings) it is ultimately a SOUND strategy to buy as much of them as possible, but using a solid strategy which keeps output down and input up.

To illustrate this in more concrete terms, here is this week's output/input breakdown for the "Orb" packs:

[** This week I managed to make this breakdown more organized and easy to read**]

November 10th, 2019

Daily quest reward cards -
keepers (Crystal Werewolf (Gold - Level 3 - $2.98 USD (3,000 DEC) = 3,030 DEC
non-keepers (converted to DEC) - 435 DEC

"Orb" Pack (#1 - for reaching Gold II)

• non-keepers : 240/2400 DEC

"Orb" pack (#2 - for completing quest) -

• non-keepers : 330/2400 DEC

November 11th, 2019

Daily quest reward cards
keepers - 60
non-keepers - 240 DEC

"Orb" pack #1 (for reaching Gold I level) - 2,400/pack
non-keepers: 210 (coverted to DEC)

"Orb" pack #2 (for completing daily quest)
non-keepers - 360 DEC

[** Okay, I went on a binge today - more detail below **]

[pack binge]

pack #3 (against sale of Mermaid Healer, + daily pack DEC conversion) - 240 DEC

pack #4 "off the rails" - 240 DEC

pack #5 - [LUCKY]
Keepers - "Molten Ogre" (Gold - Level 4 - $1.55 - 1,500 DEC), "Enchanted Defender" (Gold - level 4 - $1.78 - 1,500 DEC)
non-keepers - 360 DEC

** ^^ I went on a little bit of a "pack binge" today. I think what happens is that if I open a few packs and don't get any good cards I start to feel a bit "vengeful", and this increases the "urge" to throw some more Steem/DEC at some packs. Like ANY addiction, the key is to put some "behavioral" (psychology) control methods into place to "save yourself from yourself". What I did in this situation is that, since I was already needing to buy new "+5 quest" AND "brilliant alchemy (gold)" potions, and was down to just around a few thousand DEC above the cost of those, I just purchased them immediately to eliminate (make inaccessible to myself) the funds I would need to indulge my "pack addiction". It worked, because after I bought the potions I had enough DEC left-over for one more pack, and I hit the above two gold cards (pack #5 above)! Once I was SATIATED I was able to "put down the packs". "One quest at a time", I guess...

November 12th, 2019
Daily Quest Reward Cards -
keepers : "Sea Monster" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.71 - 750 DEC), "Furious Chicken" (Gold - Level 3 - $11.75 USD - 3,000 DEC), 75 DEC (commons)
non-keepers : 150 DEC

"Orb" (Pack #1 - following reward card dump) -
keepers -"Dwarvan Wizard" (non-gold - Level 1 - $1.90 USD - 600 DEC)
non-keepers: 120 DEC

"Orb" (Pack #2 - bonus buy, following JUICY reward card dump - justified against "Furious Chicken" (Gold) card)
non-keepers : 240 DEC

"Orb" (Pack #3 - another bonus buy, following JUICY reward card dump - justified against "Furious Chicken" (Gold) card)
keepers -"Dwarvan Wizard" (non-gold - Level 1 - $1.90 USD - 600 DEC)
non-keepers - 210 DEC

November 13th, 2019
Daily Quest Reward Cards
keepers - "Daria Dragonscale" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.48 USD - 300 DEC) 60 45
non-keepers - 45 30 30 15 15 15

"Orbs" (Pack #1 - following rewards card dump)
non-keepers - "Mermaid Healer" - (non-gold - Level 1 - $1.89 - 600 DEC - sold on market) // 120 DEC (Commons)

November 14th, 2019
Daily Quest Reward Cards
keepers - 120 15 60 15 30
non-keepers - 300 30 15 15

"Orbs" (Pack #1 - following rewards dump)
keepers - "Goblin Chef" (Gold - Level 4 - $2.65 USD - 1,500 DEC)
non-keepers - 240 30 30

November 15th, 2019
reward card dump
keepers - "Ruler Of The Seas" (non-gold legendary - Level 1 - $3.75 USD - 1,500 DEC), "Rusty Android" (Gold - Level 1 - $0.72 USD - 750 DEC) 120 15 60 15 15
non-keepers - 15 45 15 30 30

Season rewards dump -
keepers - "Daria Dragonscale" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.50 - 300 DEC), "Daria Dragonscale" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.50 - 300 DEC) 120 75 60 30 45 120 60
non-keepers - "Sacred Unicorn" (non-gold - Level 1 - $1.70 USD - 1,500 DEC) 45 45 45 300 60

"Orb" (Pack #1 - afterr reward and season dumps)
keepers - "Dwarvan Wizard" (non-gold - Level 1 -$1.96 USD - 600 DEC)
non-keepers - 300 DEC

November 16th, 2019
reward cards -
keepers - "Wood Nymph" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.80 USD - 750 DEC), "Silvershield Archers" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.70 USD - 750 DEC), "Daria Dragonscale" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.50 - 300 DEC)
non-keepers

"Orbs" (Pack #1 - after rewards card dump)
keepers - "Armorsmith" (Gold - Level 4 - $3.15 USD - 1,500 DEC)
non-keepers - 300 DEC

From the above data you can see that my core "one pack per day" strategy ended up working out fairly well (in terms of the income versus output). So that strategy works, HOWEVER, there is one problem. One interesting thing that I relized this week is the importance of having constant "DEC liquidity". That is, a few days ago I needed to buy new "brilliant alchemy (gold)" and "brilliant legendary" potions (in addition to needing to buy a "+5 reward card" potion every five days). It turns out that - although ALL of those potions are VERY valuable in the long term, for scoring "super cards" - the acute output of DEC (in combination witn my nasty "pack habit" - EVEN when I am able to keep the (above) "controls" in place) put me in a situation for a few days this week that I was essentially down to less than enough liquid DEC to score EVEN ONE pack, or buy the necessary "+5 reward cards" potion (every five days). This was a good lesson for me, though, because it forced me to figure out ways to HUSTLE to get my hands on an additional daily 2,400 for AT LEAST one daily pack. Firstly, I realized how important it is to stick to my strategy. Each pack costs 2,400, which actually takes a lot of battling time/effort to make (when you factor in the descreasing "capture rate" and other complicating factors. One saving grace here is the tournaments, where it is possible to win enough DEC in one tournament to cover that pack. So I am working on playing as many tournaments as possible now, WHILE ALSO being EVEN MORE strict about sticking to my strategy and keeping my liquid DEC above at least 2,400 DEC/day (plus the cost of the "+5 reward card potion every five days --> 3,600 DEC (potion) / 5 days = 720 DEC/day. So will need 2,400 DEC + 720 DEC = 3,120 DEC of baseline DEC earnings per day to stay afloat with the mininum "one pack per day" strategy - and this doesn't account for the cost of the "brilliant" potions, which I will analyze in the next post (since I need to collect more data on that). The point is that I have to do the more detailed calculations with the goal of maintaining consistent DEC liquidity to stay on course with the strategy. The STRATEGY itself is not the problem. The liquidity issue is.

( 2 ) Following on from #1 (above), in the comments section of the previous post in this series, @mawit07 asked if I had considered buying the 100 (+10) "Orbs" pack and simply opening the cards at a slower pace (ex. "one per day). My initial reaction to this was that, since I have a nasty "pack problem" that I would likely not be able to control myself enough to stick to the (one (to three) pack(s) per day strategy. However, in light of the "liquidity problem" explained above (#1) I gave this some further though. I have also been watching the "Orbs" pack supply steadily go down, and had 1,000 Basic Attention Token (BAT) sitting in Coinbase for a year now (since November 2018) which has move up by just $0.01. So I thought it would be a good idea to EXPERIMENT with this "slow batch opening" strategy, and bought another 100 (+10 free) batch of "Orbs" packs. I have been pleasantly surprised to see that I've been able to manage sticking to the strategy, with one motivation being that I decided it was okay to open the 10 FREE packs immediately upon purchasing the batch. This is some good incentive. I now have a nice BUFFER of packs to maintain DEC liquidity, and some leverage, so that when I hit some larger "super Orb cards" which I no longer need (ex. "Corrupted Pegasus" (non-gold), "Mermaid Healer (non-gold), I can sell those for additional DEC liquidity, and/or to buy more packs to add to my reserve stash. The focus at this point is hitting the MAJOR "Orbs" cards (ex. the final "Minotaur Warlord" (Gold - to max him out), "Dwarvan Wizard" (Gold), "Mermaid Healer" (Gold), and "Corrupted Pegasus" (Gold). I think it is worth keeping at it with this strategy until the remainin supply of "Orbs" cards runs out. I am METICULOUSLY documenting the accounting, so I can present everything in these updates. The longer-term goal is to then apply the same strategy to the upcoming "Untamed" edition card (packs), so that I am consistently buying and opening "one pack per day" using assets earned "in-game". more detail on this to follow in the next update.

3 ) I came up with a JUICY morale-building idea for our "DEC Hunters" guild. We are making great, and consistent, progress in the guild (having just hit "Level 7" of the Guild Hall, and "Level 6" of the Quest Lodge (which now gives us a 7% DEC bonus on won battles, PLUS 4% off of the cost of potions (which ends up being a significant discount (ex. ~ 10,000 DEC when I buy the 100 (+10) "Orbs" pack batches), and other valuable in-game stuff). After I purchased my first "Furious Chicken" (Gold - Level 3 - $6.50 at time of purchase last week) I went ahead and purchased ANOTHER one a few days later (at the then low price of $6.50). Then I ended up hitting a THIRD one (after the price shot up to ~ $12.00 USD). And since I will still need ONE MORE card to boost the "golden chicken" up to Level 5 - and therby unlock the very powerful "rage" ability - I thought that in the MEANTIME I would put the cards to use by launching a NIFTY "Lucky Golden Chicken" campaign for the members of our guild - particularly the NEWER members. Basically, after a new member joins, and shows that they are making a genuine effort to contribute consistently to the guild (which I can judge because all of their cumulative activity is documented on their profile in the "members" section, AND can view their entire collection from there, or on PeakMonsters.com), and have a "serious enough" collection of cards (sans the "golden chicken") to make their playing efficient, I lease them one of the "Furious Chicken" (Gold - Level 3) cards for a week or two. This serves a few valuable purposes for them, and for the guild. Firstly, they get to try out this (often underestmated) valuable card, whichi gives an IMMEDIATE extra 10% bonus DEC per won battle just by adding him/her to the battles (as there is usually extra room available). Secondly, they can earn some extra DEC to supplement their contribution to the Guild Hall, and so in this way they can begin contributing more as a way to (sort of) "voluntarily pay their dues" for being able to IMMEDIATELY enjoy the 7% DEC "Guild" bonus (and 4% discount on potions) which they get upon joining. This also allows the older members of the guild, who contributed for MONTHS to get the current level, to BOTH recuperate some of the DEC we've contributed, AND do some additional (more indirect tasks/projects) which can help the guild continue to move forward (ex. recruit new members, think of (and run) project like this "Lucky Golden Chicken" one, etc.). In other words, there are OTHER WAYS (besides just making daily DEC contributions to the Guild Hall) which can help the guild progress, and so the senior members can take on the role of "higher management" (in a sense) to work on the more "macro" aspects of the effort. Done this way, I believe EVERYONE wins. The members have responded very positively to my "Lucky Golden Chicken" program, and my plan it to just keep buying up "Furious Chicken" (Gold - Level 3) cards when they are at the lowest prices, so that I have a large reserve stash of individual cards (some of which need to "cool down" for a week after I unlease them) for as many guild members to have a "Lucky Golden Chicken" in their arsenal to feed the Guild Hall. The other good thing is that EVEN when you don't contribute DEC to the Guild Hall, ALL members' daily completed quests continue to be counted towards leveling up the "Quest Lodge", and so that is another significant way to contribute. I do the quest every day, so that's ~ 15 quests per season just from me. I (under)-estimate that we are consistently clocking in AT LEAST 10 completed quests per day at this point, and so by doing the numbers I estimate that it will take less than two seasons to reach Level 7 of the Quest Lodge at the current natural pace). We've also read the official @steemmonsters account news that "Guild wars" are a feature which is being worked out, and so hopefully our consistent effort will put us in a good place to benefit from that new feature when they roll it out.

4 ) I had to dial down my general activity on #DrugWars this week, simply due to being spread thin on various other projects, in addition to keep my SteemMonsters "pack addiction" under control. It takes quite a bit of time and energy to play (and win) enough SteemMonsters battles to "SCORE that next pack". It's "one day at a time" when you're a low-down "pack addict", trying to scrounge around for some spare DEC for that next fix. Well, the good news is that even if/when I can't put full concentration on my @drugwars activity I CAN maintain my daily contribution of 500k (drugs), 500k (weapons), and 500k (alcohol) to the gang buildings, and that is a substantial amount to help the gang along. The good news is that I talked with the other gang member who has consistently been doing daily gang jobs, and asked him if it might be helpful if I (and other members) simply send him up to 250 "mama" units after he completed each gang job, since the results breadown of his gang jobs shows that he is losing ~ 250 "mama" units. He explained that if I send him units they cannot be used in battle, BUT that the time int takes him to recrut lost units has been decreasing as a result of the other gang members contributing daily to upgrade the gang buildings. This is perfect, since I have been so busy that I have basically only been able to contribute my daily 500k drugs, 500k alcohol, and 500k weapons, to the gang buildings. But since this is a significant amount of daily resources then I feel like I am "doing my proper share" while he earns some extra resources for all of the members. So that seems to be working out well, and I can divert more energy to SteemMonsters WITHOUT becoming a "grifter".

5 ) When I first started this series, I did so following my intuition. For the first year-and-a-half after joining Steemit (in August of 2017) I had indulged my "writing problem" in some SERIOUSLY eccentric masterpieces which "Wowed" my then THRIVING audience of dedicated Steemians. That was a sort of (first wave) "golden age" of this platform, but many of those people were unable (for various reasons) to stick it out, by not being able to foresee the LONG-TERM FUNDAMENTAL value (the ""x" factor" of the Steem blockchain (and Steemit, by extension). You can look back through my feed to see some real "eccentric" diatribes of "Zen-like" wisdom, in addition to my artwork, and a few other JUICY series I had developed. I watched all of this natural waxing and waning happen (often in direct correlation with the price of Steem), but by using my "magcal power of intuition" was also able to "predict" (and follow) the major developing trends, and knew that I could figure out a way to stay "on course" - that progress happens in "lulls and spurts", and that the key to evolution is knowing when to "move forward" versus knowing when to "stay in limbo". Earlier this year I began to see "hints" that "gaming" was slowly developing into a MAJOR trend which would become the "game-changer" (quite literally) of blockchain - and so as all successful individuals/organizations know that the first step of progress is "research and development" - I started moving my focus in that general direction, and figuring out ways to INTEGRATE my "writing problem" with my "gaming problem", while also rolling those in with my "online marketing problem", resulting in a 'cluster-f*ck" of innovative course-recalibration. I could begin to see the larger (macro) trend forming, and know that two of the key "areas" which would be pivotal in this current "phase two" of our collective "blockchain journey" would be "social media" and "gaming" (and a COMBINATION of the two). This is what inspired me to launch my other two weekly series posts : "Trending Blockchain Gaming News" and "Trending Blockchain Social Media News". The research required to publish BOTH of those weekly series posts feed into this more focused series post, while at the same time, my #steemmonsters and #drugwars activities provide data for analysis to then further the research. My point here is that whereas in (what I like to term) my "first phase" of Steemit activity I focused on my more artistic writing, artwork, and more general aspects of marketing, in this evolving "phase two" I believe we have reached the "tipping point" where we now have something MORE CONCRETE to explore blockchain through. That is, "blockchain gaming" dApps like "SteemMonsters" and #Drug Wars" (and many others which are hitting the market) are now allowing us to ACTUALLY USE the blockchain technology in a more 'EMMERSIVE" manner. We are making transactions to buy and sell assets, we are converting assets, we are learning (through ACTION) the various UNIQUE features of blockchain, ad how those features create a COMPLETELY NEW FORM of gaming, and interaction online.

To touch on my main point here, what I am saying is that this series is NOT just about "How I play the "Steem Monsters" and "Drug Wars" blockchain-based games. This series is an EXPLORATION into the "evolution" of blockchain gaming, starting on the "ground floor" with one (or two) of the games which are most easily accessible and familiar AS A RESULT of my accumulated experience with blockchain via two years of consistent activity on Steemit. As a PLATFORM, Steemit provided an "on ramp" through which to "get a feel" for blockchain interaction, to which blockchain gaming applications like "Steem Monsters" and "Drug Wars" are the NATURAL "next step" up the evolutionary ladder that is blockchain. So as you, my readers, continue investing your time reading these (oftentimes) rather TEDIOUS series posts, keep in mind that the intention of these posts is to explore blockchain gaming as a PHENOMENON, using the specific (and high-quality) application like "SteemMonsters" and "DrugWars" as real-world "case studies" of blockchain gaming in action. If you view these posts in this light I believe you can gain some serious insight, and enjoyment, from these posts, and the significant amount of effort I put into CREATING these posts will not be wasted. I mean, after all, every minutes I spend research and writing these posts is time I COULD BE playing SteemMonsters and/or DrugWars. Haha! So, with that I will conclude this until next week.

I hope you find some/any of these tips useful in increasing your understanding and/or skill level in the Steem Monsters (Splinterlands) and/or Drug Wars game(s). More JUICY tips to come with each weekly update, as I become more experienced and successful in the game.

See you on the battlefield...

@transcript-junky