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With all the news and drama related to the Steemit.inc takeover not much else got attention. I myself skipped a few things as well. 
One of them being the Splinterlands news regarding their first big expansion. I call it "first big" because it will be adding much more in terms of game mechanics and not simply a new set of cards.
https://steempeak.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/a-glimpse-into-the-next-splinterlands-expansion

 

If i am completely honest the release of the Untamed set was slightly underwhelming. I wasnt a huge fan of most of the cards we got. 
With these latest changes im also starting to feel that the game is stagnating a bit. 
There seems to be a lack of new players entering the game and buying cards. At GOLD ranks i keep seeing level 1 cards which was never the case before. The market seems to have slowed down and with the change to the reward system the incentive to play has dropped off. (The cards and potions is not something i agree as being on equal grounds)
And DEC is still reducing in price as we speak. 

All that being said the prospect of the new expansion and the changes coming are promising.
1. Card crafting.
2. Buildings and land
3. Items and spells.

I was always a fan of games that offer me things to micromanage and provided active gameplay alongside. 
All these mechanics i see here are things ive seen in other games i loved, yet i rarely seen them together in one package. 
_Mechanics in old HOMM games, side activities in WoW, structure of some popular browser games, etc._

Splinterlands could never remain just what it is now and thrive. It will always require a fresh influx of new ideas and additions. 
Additions like the ones they intend to present in the next expansion and <b>additions like questing, boss fights, a good and compelling ingame storyline which i recomended a few times in their discord chat...</b>

Im reminded of a game i used to play religiously and loved dearly. "Europa Universalis 4". 
A game that has had so many updates and additions that the game at release looks nothing like the current game. 

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That game is a really good parallel to Splinterlands for many reasons. The critique EU4 gets is that you dont actually do any "on the field" battles like in Total War games. 
Yet EU4 offers so much more in multiple other areas that it blows Total War out of the water when it comes to complex, compelling, satisfactory gameplay. 
Similar to that criticism is the criticism Splinterlands might get from Gods Unchained players in terms of card gameplay.
Yet Splinterlands can offer so much more in other areas. 

<b>Splinterlands needs to take that same path or continuous development and growth like EU4 has.</b> 
I would even say that maintaining the core perception of what this game is should not be the main focus. Why not innovate and simply see where it takes you? 

As i said in the title ill be stacking DEC from now on. Usually, once i acquired couple thousand DEC id sell it on Steem-engine and power it up. Splinterlands has been really good for me and for the growth of my account, so good actually that id say that more then 1/3 of my total Steem came from spending time in the game and investing in cards. 

Seeing how much time the devs are spending trying to reach out to new partners and their devotion to bringing the game to as many blockchains as possible i find it hard to believe that card prices and DEC prices wont go up eventually. 

For that reason and due to their announcement: 

>so anyone who is interested in participating in the land pre-sale may want to pick up and hodl some cheap DEC now in order to get their land at a huge discount to the listed price once the pre-sale begins.

...ill be hodling. You can never get enough land and i love me some discount. 

Ill see you around!

;)