Started From the Bottom, Now I'm Here...Still at the Bottom

3 things happened recently, that then all came together at once.

1. For an unrelated purpose I created an alt account.
2. Since I backed the Untamed Kickstarter I had a promo code for a starter set.
3. The team at Splinterlands is planning to focus a lot of effort into getting new players involved in the game. This has had me wondering what it would be like to come in new.

So I decided to try it. The sign up process was really easy. Their goal seems to be to obfuscate the steem side of things in favor of an easier interface to just experience Splinterlands. Mission accomplished. If I didn't know any better, I would think I was just signing up for the game, like you would on any other site. To their credit, if you want to have your keys that is an option available to you, and that really wasn't very complicated either.

I redeemed my starter set code and found I had a bunch of Commons and Rares from Untamed (maybe one of each of them?). I hit the Battle page, received a quest, and I was on my way. This guy was my best friend today:

My quest was to win 5 matches with the green splinter, and he was my only option. Winning was really really tough. His ability is nice when it matters, but I found that often it did not. The only time I really had a chance of winning was when my opponent was using Tyrus (so my summoner ability negated their armor bonus), or when they didn't seem to fully understand the rules (using all melee monsters without the ability to attack from non-first positions, for example). Other than that, completing the quest was definitely a grind.

I'm not sure if I've just gotten used to using better cards, or I just don't know the Untamed cards very well, but this was definitely harder than completing my Gold level quests with my normal account. I really think it's just that the Untamed cards are not as powerful as Alphas and Betas. Certainly there are some nice abilities that come with the newer cards, but those really only factor in at higher levels of play, IMO.

Specifically with the green cards in the starter set, the lack of healing took some getting used to. My normally mode of play with green is to lean heavily on healing. The opponents I encountered who were using green used the same strategy and had success against me.

In the end, for my efforts I was rewarded with this:

Not the best card by any stretch, but in future battles with high mana limit, this card could be the deciding factor for sure.

Overall, the game was pretty tough on a newbie. I was definitely getting discouraged after my 6th or 7th consecutive loss, but eventually I got there. I'm honestly not sure if I would have kept on with it if I was a new player who didn't already believe in this blockchain and this game. Maybe today was just bad luck and tomorrow will be better. But without investing money in this game past the starter set, or being given cards by a friend, I don't see how someone would be able to advance through the ranks.

I plan to keep playing daily quests with my alt account as time permits, so I suppose I will find out over time.