When I started in Splinterlands in 2021 I always ignored joining a guild, I had little knowledge about the game and the only advantage I had in participating in Brawls was earning merits to buy gladius cases and earn gladius cards. This was a bad decision of mine because currently gladius cards make a big difference in Splinterlands as they can be used in ranked battles and tournaments, those who started winning them before will have an advantage and those who started later will be at a disadvantage since winning large amounts of merits is not easy.
Another great thing about guilds is that your earnings in ranked battles will increase based on the level of the guild's Lodge you are in.
After splinterlands announced that it would distribute SPS rewards in Brawls battles I went to chase the damage and managed to join a guild with a Tier 3 arena, I was lucky because I was playing in a high league at the time so I was accepted. After joining the guild and participating in my first Brawl, I felt that I was missing out on a great experience because I didn't have a guild, the battles were more fun than ranked battles and I could also exchange ideas and strategies with other guild members.
I was inactive in Splinterlands for a while because the rewards were low, actually from what I'm observing they are still low but I like the game and I still believe in it, so little by little I will build my deck which will currently be focused on the chaos edition cards legion, as rewards in the modern format seem more attractive now that bots have been banned there. I will also increase my deck of gladius cards as much as possible.
For starters, I'm going to increase my gladius card collection by opening 25 gladius cases that I bought with the accumulated merits before I quit the game.
Each gladius case costs 2000 merits and I spent a total of 50000 merits.
I decide to open all 25 at once, I usually have more luck with packs when I open in large quantities.
This time luck smiled at me, I got great cards and also got an epic foil goild, that alone would be 10000 DEC if I decided to burn it for profit but I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do that, but if I do then I'll use DEC to buy chaos legion cards or as an investment renting cards to play in the high leagues.
I also had 1 chaos legion pack left so I decided to open it and try my luck, usually I prefer to sell the packs and buy the cards on the marketplace because it's cheaper most of the time and also because I can select the cards I want.
I didn't have any luck with the pack but getting some of the cards I wanted so it wasn't too bad and it's also fun to open the packs, you never know when you're going to hit the jackpot.
My focus will be on the modern format and I will use my profits from battles, brawls and tournaments to build my deck little by little, this is my current strategy.