Hello there.
Unless you've been living under a rock these past few months/days, you might have heard about the Bitcoin Halving. For the general public that isn't interested in Crypto, it probably would have just entered one ear, and out the other. They might have read it but didn't think any of it. But for those in the crypto scene, it is a very big deal. Bitcoin, or BTC, is the first, most popular, and most valuable cryptocurrency. Even those that don't engage in cryptocurrency would have heard of Bitcoin at one point.
The price movement of BTC has a very powerful effect on alt tokens. When it moves up or down, the alts usually follow. Now what does it have to do with the BTC Halving. After the BTC halving, the amount of BTC rewarded to BTC miners are halved. This isn't the first halving, and from the previous time it happened, the price of BTC increased by a lot. It triggered a bull run, and lifted the alts as well. Because of this, the BTC halving is highly anticipated by the crypto community, and different apps and games like to create an event or promo to celebrate it. Not one to be left behind, Splinterlands has their own event; the Baron's Bounty.
Similar to the previous halving event, the team created cards that will have the Halving ability to celebrate the BTC Halving. Monsters hit by the attack from a monster with the Halving ability gets their damage halved, rounded up. This ability is very powerful and rare, since they only appear on promo cards like these. The two monsters that already have the ability, Arkemis and Halving Alchemist, are used a lot.
For this event, the team will be releasing 2 cards. Baron Fyatt, which is a Legendary monster, and Henchling Enforcer, a Rare monster. What's also interesting about these two monsters is that they are dual element, a theme which was introduced in the Rebellion set. Arkemis and Halving Alchemist were Neutral monsters.
Baron Fyatt is a Fire and Death element monster with Halving and Scattershot at level 1. Scattershot is usually difficult to use because of its randomness. There are abilities that work well with it like Blast, and Poison, but Halving is also really good with it. Being able to reduce the opponent's backline damage is huge. Having magic damage means it will always hit its target and have a chance of applying Halving [unless against a monster with Phase]. And in higher levels, it even gets the Ambush ability that lets it attack before the battle officially begins. The Blind is a weird addition to me, but it works with the debuff theme of the card.
Henchling Enforcer is a Water and Life monster with just Halving at level 1. It gets True Strike and Camouflage in higher levels. At its level 1, I can't help but compare it to the Halving Alchemist. That card just costing 2 mana is OP, although it is an Epic monster. Henchling Enforcer at 6 mana, and low stats makes it a very costly monster in comparison. It does get a lot better as its level increases. The True Strike and Camouflage makes it relatively safe and can deal consistent damage from the backline.
As if the Halving ability wasn't enough to celebrate the event, the team also decided to make their cost numerically similar to the new BTC mining reward after the halving. Baron Fyatt will cost 31,250 DEC/Credits and the Henchling Enforcer will cost 3,125 DEC/Credits per card. Buyers can reduce the cost by burning Vouchers along with their purchase. Each Voucher will reduce the cost by 50 DEC/Credits, up to a 50% discount. Each purchase has a 4% chance of being a GF copy, with a guaranteed GF card for every single transaction purchase of 25 copies.
Similar to other events, there are additional prizes in store for this event. There is a Lucky Draw, and a Leaderboard. For every 1 DEC/Credit used to buy the cards, they receive a minimum 1 point towards the lucky draw and leaderboard [vouchers don't get points]. I wrote minimum because there is a point multiplier. It started at x3 when the event started, and it continuously goes down, until x1 at the end of the event. So early buyers get a big bonus, and last minute leaderboard snipers get none. Every 10,000 points get 1 chance at the prizes.
As for the Leaderboard, the top 200 get a title, while the top 20 get extra promo cards. The first placer gets a Max level copy of both cards [Legendary, Rare, GF, RF]. I have read that there are some that had group buys to increase their odds of getting a high placement in the leaderboard, as well as more chances in the Lucky Draw.
In the end, I hope the event becomes a success. The sales will go to the team, and the players will get a lot of rewards. The BTC Halving could be the signal for the bull run, and I hope this event can be our signal for Splinterlands' own bull run.
That is it for my post about the Splinterlands' BTC Halving Event. There are still around 11 days left in the event so there's still a lot of time left to join. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for improvement.
And as always, these are Not Financial Advice, and Do Your Own Research.
If you want to start playing Splinterlands, you can use my link:
Splinterlands Referral Link