Hello there.
This week's Social Media Challenge wants us to create posts to help beginners. I created a tips for beginners post a month and a half ago which covers a lot of things a new player or beginner would want to know.
For this post, I will be discussing tips and strategies to counter the Gladiator card Quora. Just to give a brief description of Gladiator cards, they are Soulbound cards that can be obtained by opening Gladiator packs [Gladius Case]. Gladiator packs are purchasable in a guild for 2000 merits. Merits are earned through daily focus and season chests, as well as a reward after joining a guild brawl.
I decided to create this post because of a recent proposal that wanted to remove Gladiator cards from Bronze. Looking at the Mav chat in the Splinterlands Discord, some whale's comments, and some inputs in SPL Discord Tavern, a lot of them are saying Quora is overpowered, and that the card makes new players quit. I don't quite agree with that, since Quora has a lot of counters, and I think it introduces beginners to the importance of guilds. It can also be a card that newer players can strive to get, and eventually help them in their future battles.
This is Quora. It is an Epic Earth monster that costs 10 mana, has 2 Magic and 2 Melee attack, has 3 Speed, has 11-12 HP depending on the level, and has Bloodlust and Heal abilities. The Bloodlust ability gives Quora +1 to all stats when it gets a kill, and the Heal recovers 4 HP if the max HP is 12 [level 2]. To be able to use Quora outside of brawls, the Soulbound Reward card summoners are necessary, since they have conscript. There are two summoners available to use Quora, Lobb Lowland and Helios Matriarch.
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One of Quora's biggest problem is the high mana cost. At 10 mana, and the need to use a Conscript summoner [6 mana], Quora can only be used on battles with a minimum of 16 mana. So outside of brawl battles, don't expect a Quora at 15 and under mana battles. To counter Quora, there are different abilities to choose from:
| Ability | Ability Name | Comments |
|---|---|---|
 | Affliction | Quora won't be able to heal. |
 | Dispel | Useful in higher mana battles to remove the Bloodlust/Martyr stacks from Quora. |
 | Double Strike | You can kill Quora quickly. |
 | Giant Killer | Quora being 10 mana falls within the bonus damage of Giant Killer |
 | Heal | You can try to beat Quora with your own damage and sustain. |
 | Tank Heal | You can try to beat Quora with your own damage and sustain. |
 | Stun | A stunned Quora can't attack or heal. |
I recently learned that the xbot.app website has started offering battle simulations here [I don't use their bot or automation tools]. I will be using that to show some teams that work well against Quora. I won't go over all teams I know since there are a lot, but I will just share a few to give some basic ideas. I'm hoping you can come up with a lot of options on your own after seeing them. The ones I have below usually win more than 50 percent of the time in 100 simulations.
Fire
Fire has good options against Quora. Tusk The Wide is a very good counter since it has Void and high HP. Giant Killer or Stun are then viable options to kill Quora.
Water
Water has good damage to burst Quora down. Coastal Sentry can deal a lot of damage with the Double Strike. I think the UI needs some work since it doesn't show the updated stats of the monsters in higher level. Water also has some Stun monsters that can stop Quora from attacking and healing.
Earth
I think the simulator can't handle the active summoners of Rebellion correctly, nor does it give you the option of choosing the abilities yet. Underboos can grant Grund +2 attack. On Round 1 Quora deals 4 and takes 10 damage. On Round 2 Grund is down to 2, and Quora should die. There is only a 1 speed difference, so Grund shouldn't be missing its attacks.
Life
The active summoners aren't working properly, but even without it, Drybone Barbarian is still able to beat Quora. I think either buff works; the heal makes it difficult for Quora to kill it, the Speed makes it so that Drybone attacks first in Round 2, and kills Quora before it can heal. Drybone with Venari Crystalsmith doesn't lose to Quora. I also included a non Drybone team.
Death
For Death, Thaddius Brood really messes with Quora, since Quora will only heal for 3, and it only has 1 Magic damage. Windeku is a good tank against Quora because of the Thorns. Quora will be able to deal 3, but will be taking 4 from the thorns and Windeku attack. From there there are a lot of options. Pure damage with Sneak monsters, Stun with Revealer, or take out its healing with Blight.
19 Mana Quora
Some argue that Quora is unbeatable at 19 mana because of a Martyr stack. But this is not always true. Quora can become vulnerable to Sneak attacks during this time. What they don't realize is that with 19 mana, there are even more options to beat Quora.
Fire
Water
[Since the Rebellion summoners aren't working yet, I used Pelacor Bandit as a placeholder for the Fenmoor Haunt. The winrate will change because of the speed difference, but with just a 2 speed difference, it should still be favored.]
Earth
Life
Death
Quora is not always the best Gladiator
I gave 1 team example per element, and I even included a Katrelba team to beat Quora. A lot of these teams are not just effective against Quora, but can be used against other teams as well. With more mana, there are more options available to beat Quora. The mavs or whales that say Quora is overpowered most likely don't even play in Bronze, or don't know the meta. Apart from Blight and Mycelia, the monsters I used here are epic and below, and are cheap to rent.
That is it for my Quora Counter post. I hope it helps any new/beginner player that reads it. 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
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Thanks for sharing! - @alokkumar121
Thanks for the upvote.