The Dragon Splinter is awesome - it has some of the most powerful cards in the entire Splinterlands Pantheon, but they do tend to be quite expensive, especially the summoners.
Then again, Dragon enables you to use Dragon cards with any Splinter, so I guess the premium price is to be expected, because this mixed-splinter option makes Dragon Splinter cards the most useable after neutral cards.
It follows that having a decent Dragon deck is well worth the investment: despite their initial expense, an investment in Dragon cards is the most cost efficient way of expanding your repertoire (after buying neutrals).
There's the added bonus too that Dragon cards tend to be the most fun ones to play with, IMO.
But which are the most effective Dragon Splinter cards to level up for the money?
Not to give too much away, but....!
It's very easy to figure out the best value cards to buy. We just need to visit @darthgexe's most excellent stats tool to see which cards have a combination of reasonably high play rates and win rates, and the results are as below...
NB - two points to note here for Dragon. The play rates will probably be lower for Dragon because of the combining aspect - you're LESS likely to play any one dragon card than if you were playing a pure deck from any other splinter, because every time you play Dragon you're probably going to play a few cards from the combination Splinter, so I'm going to look at some cards below with fairly low play rates.
It's also worth noting that I took the data before the Fork, so this is a week old!
Ordered by play rate
Ordered by win rate
The results above are just for the Diamond League, which is the league I tend to start the season in, and so most of the plays are going to be with cards levelled to at least their 'peak cost efficiency' if not their absolute max.
Below I'm going to consider just the cost to peak efficiency IMO. For many cards this will mean maxing them!
Cards Analysed in terms of cost to peak efficiency
Above is all cards ordered from cheapest to most expensive to peak efficiency (IMO), below I'm going to give my rough order of cards I'd buy if I didn't already have all of them to peak efficiency!
Manticore to level 5
To think this was a reward card back in the day, I accumulated quite a few for my daily quests and bought enough to take him up to l5 - SO handy for Earthquake and a decent second tank too!
Gold Dragon
It may be 4 times as expensive as the Manticore, but look, it's played 4 times as much and it has a decent win rate - it is a card you're probably used to seeing on the winning team!
Scale Doctor
For $15 this is a bargain for a maxed legendary - you have to play him with the right rule set, but trust me that combination of buffs can be MOST effective!
Dragon Jumper
He's expensive, but he's a must have - any no shields rule set, combine him with Screeching Vulture from the Earth Splinter, and it's carnage!
Robo Dragon Knight
I think his low use rate ATM is purely a reflection of him being so new (even with the high mana) - but WHAT A TANK! Combine him with repair and heal, and this is one durable monster!
Final Thoughts
I wouldn't rule out any of the other cards necessarily - The Vigilator I'm a big fan of and the Fire Spitter is useful too, and good with low levelling, also Gloridax Guardian I think maybe underused and undervalued, as is the Diamond Dragon (especially useful if you make use of Last Stand) but many of the Dragon Splinter cards are too rich for me - The Fiendish Harpy for example, it's just not as valuable as the Gold Dragon, and one has to prioritise if one is on a budget, which most of us are!
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
My favourite splinter to use for one-off battles when the daily quest is done. Manticore behind the tank is often the plan :)
He is a fairly decent second tank! I can hardly believe he was a reward card, they used to get churned out!
Scale Doctor really is worth a look, he is the most infuriating card. He's got a great suite of abilities!
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
what summoner are you using for dragon? I have Daria at lvl 4 which is not enough and want one that will allow me to play dragon effectively...
Kretch is cheaper but there is no benefit to playing him
I tend to use Selena, I took advantage of the TH sell off to get one relatively cheep.
I do also have a maxed Darla/ Daria and and Carla or whatever their names are, oh and that 5 mana magic plus one dude, but I hardly ever use him.
Fuck I've spent a lot on this game!
I don't however, have that ridiculous mage summoner!
I have got my Manticore to L4 so he has thorns now. Some of the others are too expensive for now.
Have you seen Onward? It features a manticore and a gelatinous cube!
The music in the trailer is very appropriate.
Looks like quite an entertaining movie!
We watched it last week and it is fun. A few bits for fans of magical card games to enjoy.
This is a great post and from it I picked up a level 2 Dragon Jumper!
Hey I'm glad, it's a killer card - but shields do nullify it - so best combined with something that takes those out first - opportunity, like sneak and snipe best played in double!
I really recommend the Scale Doctor too - combine it with another triage and repair monster it's a great defence set up - quite niche but probably the card I enjoy playing the most! The only problem is you really need him maxed, unlike the jumper which is more useful at L2 or 3, but that stun at L4 is great!
Stun in general is a great ability!
Another great analysis from you. These cards are all super useful and seeing their play and win ratios helps a lot to estimate where to invest!
Hey thanks, I enjoy writing them!