This week's battle is a clash of Water V Water. Our opponent has the greater power. Do we have the greater strategy?
Lost Magic
"Monsters with Magic attack may not be used in battles.
Don't use Magic Reflect monsters or summoners. Focus on high speed and abilities like Flying, Dodge, Blind. Thorns and Shield are the key in this ruleset." - Splintercards
Mana & Splinters:
With 40 mana, there is plenty of space to work with especially in Bronze. As every penny is currently going toward land efforts and SPS acquisition, I have not been renting any Meta monsters over and above my usual cards. So while this has hurt me in some battles, I have a good depth and breadth to be able to succeed most of the time at least into Silver
Had Death been available, this would have been an ideal time to play an Astral Entity. But with the option of Fire, Dragon or Water I feel best equipped to bring a strong Water team to the battlefield.
Battle Lineup:
My Strategy here is to repair armour as quickly as possible and try to hit the opponent as hard and fast as possible to ensure victory.
Kelya Frendul
Using Kelya here will give me a small speed boost and apply one armour to all monsters which should allow me to repair every monster in the battle as needed. While this will require some fortune in the battle, this should prevent my opponent from wiping out my heavier hitters too quickly.
Noa The Just
By utilising Noa The Just here, I am accomplishing my focus on both speed and armour. With such a high base speed there is a chance opposing attacks focused on my tank may miss. As well as this, the Rust ability will reduce the armour of the opposing lineup. So in the event they use Kelya like myself, they will only gain the speed benefit. Magic attacks are Noa’s weakness and with the Lost Magic ruleset, I am confident that this is the perfect tank.
Scavo Hireling
I’ve placed the Scavo Hireling in second position as I expect it to have perhaps one full turn, two at the most. It is weak to Opportunity attacks and is a likely target to those. But what it does offer is Repair to my lineup and with physical attacks incoming, this is a great ability to have on hand. Typically I would combine Scavo Hireling with Void Armour as this ability is a very powerful combination. But this time around a simple armour repair (or two) will do.
Axemaster
This is one of my more recent purchases and I’m not sure how I managed without it. A definite buy for Bronze and even Silver! With Double Strike, I am expecting some good damage here and combined with the speed buff from Kelya Frendul, the Axemaster should be fast enough to hit almost everything nice and early in the round.
Deeplurker
I am using the Deeplurker to weed out the weaklings in the opposing lineup. Most importantly I want to target the Scavo Hirelings or Repair and Tank heals on the battlefield. Plenty fast and solid damage, this should be a good choice.
Swamp Spitter
Fast becoming a staple in my Water lineups. Solid damage, speed and health and a reward card so free as well! Should combine well with Scavo Hireling to keep everyone’s Armour fit and healthy. Honestly the first card I selected because at seven mana it can be costly but it is worth it!
Seastalker
I think in rulesets such as this, Seastalker is a very strong card. The Camouflage means this card is most likely to survive for a while and it’s high damage output is what I really want to utilise here. As my slowest card it will take a turn after any Repair monsters that I can think of in Modern so worst case, this card will wipe out armour ready for the next turn for my frontline. Not a card I use often but one that suits this strategy today.
Opposing Lineup
Aquatus
A very surprising selection here. With the Phase ability, all monsters for their lineup are able to dodge magical attacks using the same miss stats as a physical hit. What is surprising is that this is a Lost Magic ruleset and therefore this ability will not be of any use. My only suggested ideas are that this is the highest second level summoner playable for the opponent or that they missed the ruleset. Either way it will make for an interesting battle.
Hardy Stonefish
A surprising choice for first position, especially given there is no Kelya Frendul to apply additional armour. This card will waste an attacking round for one or two of my monsters which appears to be the strategy by the opponent.
Tide Biter
I think this is a good choice of card, a much better card at Silver when it gains Reflection Shield. But the damage of this card with the Reach ability makes it a good choice behind the right tank. I am not sure that Hardy Stonefish is that tank.
Legionnaire Alvar
With Void Armour, I think this is a pretty strong card. I feel there was a missed opportunity placing Tide Biter behind the Stonefish when the Legionnaire Alvar was in play. A strong card that would have been better with a Repair ability to support it.
Kulu Mastermind
This is the real threat of the opposing lineup. Make no mistake this is a serious card (& one I desperately want a copy of). With opportunity will go after my weaklings - Scavo Hireling and then most likely Axe Master. Ideally, I'd like to break through the opposing lineup quickly enough so this card is at the front just to direct the damage where I want it.
Wavebrood
With Taunt, the Wavebrood will take most of my first round to destroy. As the opponent is surprisingly not using Kelya, I should have a good speed advantage and assuming RNG is in my favour, this should not be a problem. I think a Wavebrood strategy is great in particular when combined with Triage but I do feel it has been wasted as a nice partnership between Kelya Frendul, Scavo Hireling, Swamp Spitter and Wavebrood could work in the current battle quite well.
The Battle
Round 1
Round 2
Final Rounds
Post Battle Thoughts:
- The main difference here was the synergy of the lineups. The opponent selected a great summoner for the wrong ruleset and this led to an uphill battle from there.
- I enjoyed the test of this ruleset and learned the value of Repair as an ability.
- Scavo Hireling is a must for Gold Foil in my opinion as it is used so regularly and is still so cheap and therefore worth picking up.
- Swamp Spitter is truly an awesome reward card and I am very happy to have mine max for Silver, hopefully I can take it high enough into Gold sooner rather than later.
Join Splinterlands:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=holdeck
Join Splex
...and rent out your cards for some juicy DEC rental fees. Save yourself the hassle of listing and relisting and let the Rental Golem take over for you:
https://splex.gg/?ref=3s5haoqkjteadpf8
How to invest without FIAT in a bear market? : https://peakd.com/hive-167922/@holdeck/how-i-am-investing-for-after-the-bear-market
Setting and redefining goals in a bear market: https://peakd.com/hive-13323/@holdeck/setting-and-redefining-goals-in-a-bear-market
Splinterlands Fire divider by freeztag
All card, icons, Splinter images and stats courtesy of Splinterlands
Ability and Ruleset blurbs taken from Splintercards
Splinter Element Icons taken from Splinterlands
I have reformatted them into PNG files which you are welcome to use here
Congratulations @holdeck2! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 5000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Check out our last posts:
Thanks for sharing! - @mango-juice
