3k DEC isn't what it use to be since it essentially comes out to $1.50 now and this was a particularly big spend since I played in many different kinds of tournaments. Normally I rent 100-200 DEC worth of stuff if there aren't any tournaments going on.
I used those cards to get 13th in the Bronze Alpha tournament https://splinterlands.com/?p=tournament&id=2a15789139996628e6b97eaec7ffe59e14b83f64 for 41 SPS
15th in the Modern Bronze GF tourny - https://splinterlands.com/?p=tournament&id=68a38c336501cce5b0012fb28ba4ecfe2ae40eef for 155 SPS
41st in the Gold Beginner Tourny - https://splinterlands.com/?p=tournament&id=c514ff1239ad915ed35524c8c11d91a4b9184c85 for 25 SPS
and 7th in the Modern Bronze Beginner Tourny - https://splinterlands.com/?p=tournament&id=bd81610051be8da6c978b95546987337f4de9fea for 30 SPS.
This comes out to 251 SPS and if you multiply that by $0.053, the price of SPS you get $13.30 which more than covers the $1.50 that 3000 DEC costs, so for me it's a no brainer.
I was close to getting another 45 SPS but you beat me in that GF tournament right at the end actually! It looks like that bumped you up from 50 to 125 SPS though so I guess I'm okay with it :P
As for Rathe, he's great in a couple rulesets but nothing special overall IMO at the silver level. Amplify is a dud ability as there aren't many good thorns / return fire monsters at Silver and it's easy enough to get from Dax Paragon so I would have preferred something like Forcefield or even just 1-2 HP.
I haven't made a post in forever, sorry about that. It's summer here in Minnesota so I've been enjoying the out doors and when I'm not doing that I'm playing my 4 accounts manually so I just haven't had time to blog.
As for the challenge, I'm actually pretty close to where I started which is pretty cool considering SPS, cards, and my packs all got quite a bit cheaper and yet I'm able to earn enough value from the game to still be around break even. If the markets ever stop going down I'll be in good shape LOL.