Splinterlands Strategies: Is Bytzantine Kitty the Black Lotus of Splinterlands?

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Several days ago I watched an video by @hawks21 about the Untamed Legendary Summoners.

This YouTube creator who posts on HIVE is quickly becoming my favourite video content creator regarding Splinterlands content.

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The title, 'Sorry New Players: New Summoners Won't Be As Good As Kitty And Yodin' struck a chord and instantly got me watching his content.

I was actively playing Splinterlands during 2019 but mostly ignored the Untamed expansion, thinking it weak compared to Beta.

I purchased around 100 packs and looked at the cards. Abilities such as Knockout and Snare I thought were terrible, especially the former. Knockout needs Stun to do anything, how crap is that?

After what seemed months, the airdrops started. Diamond Dragon, Gloridax Guardian? They both were making me positively limp.


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...'they are better than first impressions show, but I am not a fan of either card'...

I was dropped several but sold them all. Why did I need these weak cards when the reward cards of the time were so much better?

Give me some of that Spirit Miner, The Kraken, and Lord Anus anytime.

What I didn't see coming were the Legendary Summoners. You need to remember that Splinterlands what not what you see in today's world.

Crypto was in a deep bear market, STEEM (Yes, it was the STEEM days), was trading at 10 or 11c per token and I was far more interested in buying this shit-token than accumulating these useless Splinterlands cards.


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...'I have changed my mind about Chanseus the Great. He may not be the greatest but he is useful and quite rare'...

'Chanseus the Great' was revealed, and in my quick estimation was far from great! It didn't have any attribute enhancers for one.

Where was the +1 Armour, +1 Attack, +1 Speed, etc..?

The Beta Legendary Summoners I could understand. They had great attributes, especially that Valnamor.

I was gifted 2 x Chanseus the Great; far more than I deserved for my poxy buy of 100 packs. They were immediately sold.


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...'Lir is the natural counter for Yodin. I recently bought a MAX level Lir. She's situational, and I feel in time will be considered a MOX of the Splinterlands world, if only for scarcity'...

Lir Deepswimmer was one of the next airdrops. Pah, that looked shit and I only got one. Lir was dumped very quickly for peanuts.

For some time I didn’t even take any notice of what was coming. Scarred Llama Mage and Mimosa Nightshade were dropped. I got zero SLM’s and possibly one Mimosa.

…'and then Yodin Zaku was dropped, and that card made me take notice'…

I can't for the life of me remember if I was gifted any but this was one hell of a summoner. I grabbed 6 BCX and created a Level 3.

In those days this was enough for the Champions League. No need to waste more money on combines. I could easily get into Champion II every season.


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...'is this the undisputed most powerful card in the game? I feel it is'...

The final drop was Byzantine Kitty. It looked like some stupid anime card, I bypassed it and was dropped a grand total of zero.

well... what a mistake that was…

@hawks21 talks about the THREE defining summoners and their counters in his video. Yodin Zaku and Byzantine Kitty he highlights to be the power cards with Scarred Llama Mage coming in second.

Will cards ever be created that are so powerful again? He thinks not and that power creep will be bad for the game.

It got me thinking about the time I owned 2 full sets of Magic the Gathering power nine cards and sold them very cheaply.


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...'I sold my last Near Mint Unlimited Black Lotus for £160 in 1997. I appear to be fated to repeat past mistakes'...

Black Lotus is the most expensive card in Magic the Gathering, much like Byzantine Kitty is to Splinterlands.

Is there a true counter to this Summoner, or could one be created?

He goes on to explain counter-measures for Yodin and Llama but cannot find one for Kitty.


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...'am old conversation with @azircon. Fortunately I took his advice or I would also be splashing out lots of DEC for a Mimosa'...

I delayed writing this article as in the past few days I have gone on a spending spree and bought myself ALL of these cards and it has cost me a LOT.

I see these summoners being likened to the Black Lotus and Mox cards of the Magic: The Gathering world. There are few for sale and I don't see them reducing in price soon, or ever.

Going forward I would advise you to NOT do what I did in 2019. You see... the Chaos Legion Legendary Summoners have started to drop.


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...'People are complaining Grandmaster Rathe is not as powerful as the Untamed Summoners. I personally hope we don't get any more cards as game-breaking as Yodin and Kitty'...

Grandmaster Rathe is not a bad Summoner. Grab some before he goes out of print. I know I have and will be getting several more soon.

The SPS Airdrop ends in just over a week. I see a large Chaos Legion pack buy coming when it does from many of buyers who are releasing their liquidity pool funds. I don't feel it will be long before the second Summoner sees daylight.

I believe it to be Fire. Don't expect Yodin Zaku, but buy some while you have the chance at the non-stupid prices.

I was forced to pay dearly for my mistake.

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46 comments
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I haven't been dropped many of these cards. I just play with what I get with the occasional purchase to improve some aspect. I guess you can go as deep as you want. Is it still fun?

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Is it still fun?

I still 100% rent and look at it primarily as an investment. Playing in the upper leagues is very strategic, it's a shame the lower ones are not as compelling. I know you don't look at it in the same light as me. I still have thousands of MtG cards and am only interested in the older stuff on the reserved list now. New cards are reprinted to hell and back.

The Splinterlands team have made their intentions clear about reprints and that it is not going to happen. I trust their judgement on this.

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I think it's good that we don't all need the same motivations. I mostly play for fun, but my cards are worth a bit. Maybe not as much as a while back though. Those in charge have big responsibilities to not mess it up. We can grill them at HF :)

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We can grill them at HF :)

I asked in Discord/Mavs if Splinterlands were attending HF7 and got blanked. They have Splinterfest in October and that is going to be priority, but I will be very disappointed if they veto HF.

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I'm disappointed that Hive and blogging are barely mentioned on their site. A lot more players could be earning from that and most will be into more than just the game. Are they ashamed to be associated with Hive?

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Tell them so.., if they make an appearance. Matt didn't turn up at Bangkok but several of the others did.

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(Edited)

Well, the Splinterlands community is significantly bigger than the blogging part of HIVE but not even both founders are top 20 witnesses - that tells it all: in HIVE still the old oligarchy club of early miners and former bidbot owners is reigning, and some Splinterlands whales (including myself) don't like that centralization of power.
In Splinterlands are far more different single investors with many different opinions, so in that sense Splinterlands is more decentralized than HIVE.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to grill me at HiveFest, but nevertheless, I wish you much fun there. :)

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Obviously Hive has various issues, but all those Splinterlands players have an account and could participate in other dapps. There's no cost to doing that and they could be socialising via blogs as well as earning. I play a couple of Hive games and that adds to my earnings. It's all fun to me and I want to see others get similar benefits. I just wonder how many don't even realise what else they could be doing with their accounts.

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Sure, they could, and I don't say it would be wrong if they did.
I play for example Rabona, too (just for fun).
But for some players (including myself) Splinterlands is not only a game but currently actually kind of a rather time consuming as well as profitable 'job'. Then there are also family, friends, non-internet related activities ... and some unfortunate individuals in addition are forced to do any real world jobs to earn some extra fiat money.
Maybe one of the reasons that not everybody explores all the different possible HIVE options lays in the length of a day of only 24 h ...? :)

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Yes, time is always a factor, but I think Hive has been hampered by a lack of platform branding to make people aware of other dapps. Does the SPL site even link to posts with news about the game? I just see it as a missed opportunity, but there may be issues behind the scenes that I am unaware of.

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Thank you for your witness vote!
Have a !BEER on me!
To Opt-Out of my witness beer program just comment STOP below

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If I could afford it I would buy some more Rathe's myself but I'm not in a position to yet.

Another interesting and thought provoking article, keep up the good work Slobberchops.

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I hope I am doing the right thing. I bought a L3 Kitty earlier. I want my 'Black Lotus' even though it's not fully formed. It's a big gamble.

Keep an eye on the price of Grandmaster Rathe. He's been quite stable at around $19. Llama's were once $7 each. Can you believe that?

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It would be nice to own one of those powerful summoners! But I started playing less than a year ago, so I have much more chances of getting on of the new ones... and even if they are not as strong as the Untamed ones, they are still very usefull! Personally, I buyed all the 5 rare Chaos Legion summoners at level 2 and I hope to get my hands on 1 (or 2!) of the legendary ones :) if only could I get some luck in the airdrop it would me great for my wallet XD

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With L2 Summoners, you should be good for at least Silver III given the CP. Now Modern is here, with reduced CP requirements it should be easy for you to get there. This is an expensive game, but has lots of potential. I am in way too deep TBH.

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Yup, thanks to those Summoners I'm able to play in the Silver league and get good results! But if I think I will be stuck there for a loooong time, as playing in Gold requires an investment way higher than mine... also, Modern requires less CP but, at least at the moment, is full of strong player!

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Take it a little at a time if you don't have any budget. The reward cards may seem numerous, worthless and common but they are decent strong cards (well some of them). I have seen many reward cards come and go, some are now outrageously priced.

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I made the error to buy some of them when they were overpriced back in october/november... btw I agree with you and now I'm only trying to unlock them through daily quests, avoiding buy them on the market (even if now maybe they are to their lowest and they couldn't get any low?). Hopefully they will rise again in price one day :)

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I do always regret selling most of my original deck from the alpha, I am just glad I kept some! Still, back in it now despite having missed these treasures!

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Alpha.. Ooooo, I intentionally avoided the game knowing it would pull me in like a crack dealer. I should have taken the drug earlier..., big regret.

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Not as big as having almost all of them and selling everything but death! Of course, I would have referred it more of I had maxed them out which I didn't but still had some corkers

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(Edited)

As two decade long Pokemon player I must say, there is no BAD pokemon! All have their usage. Yes even a Pidgey! Yes even that stupid Zubat!

Fast forward to Splinterlands. In 20 years times, if you are still around, you will be considered OG in this game. That Grandmaster Rathe could be an 'unobtanium' based on certain ruleset or gameplay.

I stand by my comment that Mimosa remains useful. Especially on poison rule when you can't play Llama (as Earth is not available), plus the Magic heavy 'flavor of the day' Mimosa remains a strong counter of Magic. Not to mention, I can beat Zaku with Mimosa as well (still).

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As two decade long Pokemon player I must say, there is no BAD pokemon!

I wish I could say the same about MtG. I have shitloads I am trying to sell, slowly filtering them out on ebay. Buying a box is a big waste of money unless its kept sealed, and that takes space.

In 20 years times, if you are still around

I often think if I will be, maybe not. We don't live that long, I am no longer young.., and my family have no idea what I do and are not interested.

I stand by my comment that Mimosa remains useful.

Do you remember that conversation? I had to dig back a while to find it. I should have asked you about the rest and could have been a lot richer now!

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(Edited)

Yes I do remember the conversation. I never sold a card, I think. I did burn some GFLs. Gold lightning dragon and gold Caladam to be precise, and you can imagine the regret! Never again I say…

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I have also made so many mistakes in the past on Splinterlands that I bitterly regret and if I think about the gold cards I sold before the Splinterlands boom.... I better not think about it !LOL
I only have a level 1 Byzantine Kitty but my goal is to have it at least at level 3 and slowly I will get it upgraded ;)
@tipu curate
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I have also made so many mistakes in the past on Splinterlands that I bitterly regret

You are not the only one. Golds I didn't sell, reward cards I did.. and masses of them. I had a lot more Lord Anus once, and Screeching Vultures.. you could not give them away!

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Really appreciate the kind words! Enjoyed reading this post and agree completely. There's simply just not enough of these summoners being made if this game continues to grow in popularity.

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I think you are gaining a few more fans, just don't expect big votes every post. HIVE is a funny old place, but the large stakeholders and curation groups love original content, especially educational like what you are providing.

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I cannot agree more. A strong summoner can totally change battles; especially those can bring more abilities. Some abilities are garbage, and some abilities are treasure. I like Yodin Zaku and Byzantine Kitty, but there are too expensive already.

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Some abilities are garbage

Knockout! I wonder how many times it has triggered. Stun only works a percentage of the time, so not very often.

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Interesting that there's no counter to Kitty... affliction maybe>?

I think Rathe is pretty good TBH, worth picking up a few more while you can for sure!

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Interesting that there's no counter to Kitty...

A Summoner with -2 to Speed (for the opposition)? I can't see it happening.., that's also too strong.

I think Rathe is pretty good TBH, worth picking up a few more while you can for sure!

I have a L3 and L4, but want a few more. I won't make that mistake again.

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There's a window of maybe a couple of months to pick them up!

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I feel like I had a Yodin but I probably sold him at some point. I do have a kitty though. I think I have it rented out right now. It is only level 1 knowing my luck.

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I have a max Yodin (favorite card) and Llama, but I still need to bump my Kitty from a 3 to a 4. Hopefully in the next few months I get that accomplished.

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Are you going to Amsterdam, it's been a long time since Krakow?

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Good read. I got into MTG during Unlimited and Arabian Knights. I wish I still had many of those cards. I've played with Lotus and most of the Moxes. While Wizards was just getting started with the tournament scene before standard and 1.5, I played with Chaos Orb and made people cry with double Dark Ritual > Mind Twist combos. Great memories. Like you, I wish someone would have told me to keep them. Sharing this on https://twitter.com/PraetoriaDigest. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

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(Edited)

I played with Chaos Orb

I don't know anyone who played one, it would be wrecked in a short period of time. I was an early adaptor with sleeves but the very early days.., they were rare.

I did open fresh packs of Arabian Nights, the memories are still clear. One had a Juzam Djinn.

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