When Splinterlands released the Frontier format several months ago, everyone was super excited. There was a lot of buzz and excitement. But over time, over time, shiny new things tend to loose a bit of their luster as the novelty wears of. However, I'm here to say that I'm enjoying Frontier Format just as much today as when it was released several months ago.
Why I Like Frontier
I really do think the limited selection of cards in Frontier format forces players to be more strategic and carefully choose their lineups since they can't just overpower other players by buying a more powerful deck. In my opinion, Frontier format is a fantastic training tool that helps new and existing players both refine their strategy. So, in today's post, I'd like to share a little example of a recent strategy that I tried in the Frontier format.
The Match Begins
This was a gold level match with 25 mana and all Splinters available. However, it had two unique twists that altered my strategy. First, no units had armor, and secondly, no magic units were allowed to be used.
This Changes Things
If you have followed some of my previous posts, you know that the Water and Earth Splinters are my two favorites. Especially when it comes to the Frontier format, I think that Water is incredibly overpowered. My normal strategy is to use the Water Archon that gives a plus one magic boost and then load up my team with Water-Logged Wizard, Saltwater Mage, Mystic Scaleweaver, Lunakai Howler, and Great Bear Druid. When this team takes the field, they are pumping out a combined total of 14 magic damage per turn....that's not something many opponents can resist.
The New Plan
Unfortunately, I simply wasn't able to use my favorite team for this match. So, I had to switch things up a little bit and try a different strategy. As I was looking at the conditions of the match, I decided that the Earth Splinter would probably be my best bet. With only 25 mana available, I guessed that my opponent probably wouldn't be able to field a very strong team, and they wouldn't be able to create a lot of damage output for each turn. With that in mind, my strategy was to play the Earth team led by Dread Tafarian. When combined with Aurelia, this unit had eight health, which meant that it could heal a significant portion of its health each turn. I then put Mad Gearhead in the second position to deal an additional two melee damage, and I finished out my lineup with Grand Consul Minion on the back line.
As soon as I saw my opponent's lineup, I knew that I would have a pretty decent chance at victory. My opponent placed Spellmonger in the second position, which meant that it was just sitting out of the battle doing pretty much nothing for the first couple rounds. Additionally, Grand Consul Minion had the lowest health on the team, which meant that my opponent's Vengeful Monk wasted its first two attacks targeting a unit that wasn't really contributing much to my overall strategy. This entire time, Dread Tafarian and Mad Gearhead were double-teaming my opponents Frankarsgard.
I Could See Victory
By the middle of the third round, I could already taste victory. Mad Gearhead used its reach ability to finish off my opponent's tank, and my opponent's Spellmonger moved into the first position.
At this point, Dread Tafarian attacked directly into Spellmonger and took two damage from the Thorns ability. Additionally, my opponent's Vengeful Monk moved into the first position and did another two damage to Dread Tafarian.
Normally, taking Thorns damage and melee damage on the same turn would be a cause for concern. However, we were late enough in the match that Dread Tafarian was able to heal basically all the damage that Vengeful Monk was dealing each turn. At the end of the day, Dread Tafarian and Mad Gearhead were able to finish off my opponent's Vengeful Monk and claim the victory.
The Strategy Revealed
As I said at the beginning of the post, one of the things I like most about Frontier Format is that it forces me to think very carefully about the strategy that I'm using. The key takeaway from this match is that taking out a unit with the Heal ability requires a lot of damage all targeted on the same unit. I think one of my opponent's critical mistakes was that their damage output was too spread out. Instead of focusing all of their effort on Dread Tafarian, Vengeful Monk was targeting Consul Minion, and the opponent's Spellmonger was sitting there doing nothing for most of the match. If my opponent would have played a strong melee unit in the first position and two units with the ranged ability in the second and third position, it's entirely possible that the combined damage output, all focused on Dread Tafarian, would have overwhelmed its ability to heal itself and the match could have ended very differently.
Victory
Overall, this was a great match. Not only did I learn a valuable lesson, I got one step closer to earning my daily reward. I play in the Gold level, which means that I get a whole Foundations pack as a reward for completing my quests. How cool is that? Playing the game and winning matches allows me to earn more cards and continue to level up my deck. If you like action-packed trading card games that reward you for winning matches, then I'd invite you to join me in Splinterlands using my referral link.
Disclaimer
As a US resident, I am required to disclose that I might receive a benefit, such as reward or incentive, if you join using my affiliate link. All image credits belong to Splinterlands. Nothing is financial advice.
Thanks for sharing! - @lenonmc21
