Hey guys! On my account @alpha.set, I managed to hit rank 28 in just 28 games starting from a rank way out of the top 100 (rating of 2401). 

This got me thinking on the expected return on investment of an alpha deck by itself. 

# A conservative estimate 
Let's say I average Diamond 3 and finish in Diamond 3 in a 14 day season (very conservative as I have finished in champion every season with this only alpha deck). 
That's 10 * 14 reward cards from dailies, but let's say you miss some and only get half of them, which is 70 cards. You also get 40 cards as season reward. That's 110 reward cards in 2 weeks. Furthermore, you also get 10 beta packs, which let's say you can liquidate at $1.25 each. The [current expected value of reward cards are around $0.09](), but let's say you average less than half of that at $0.04. 

Your 110 reward cards will be worth $4.40
Your 10 beta packs will be worth $12.50

That yields you a total of $16.90 per two weeks at a **VERY** conservative estimate. Fact is, if you play for more than 20 min a day you'll likely get much more than just $16.90 per fortnight for playing a game. Normally, I play Steem Monsters while I'm in queue for League of Legends which means I'm essentially just playing Steem Monsters when I'm waiting, which yields a 0 opportunity cost! 

# Return on Investment Calculation
Let's say you earn $16.90 per fortnight, that's $439.40 per year. As a owner of many alpha decks, I'll be happy to lease out my alpha deck for $5 per week, which means the player can still expect to earn $179.40 per year for playing Steem Monsters at an **extremely conservative estimate.** This doesn't even include any potential tournament winnings if the player is really committed to the game. 

# Leasing out Alpha Decks
At $5 per week, a delegator can expect to earn $260 per year. At 20% ROI, that's still $1300 per alpha deck. However, as the game expands I expect the amount players can expect to earn to increase, and the price of alpha decks to increase too, especially when alpha only tournaments start coming out *soon*. 

# Alpha decks for sale
Yup, I wrote this article to talk about this bit. I currently have 4 alpha decks and I simply can't play with that many. I have two that I want to sell. I'm selling 1 for $1300 or you can buy both for $2500. I accept most cryptos and if you're interested in arranging a purchase, feel free to comment below or contact me on Discord on cryptoeater#5209.