Introduction
Hello fellow adventurers of the Splinterlands! I'm posting my second-ever "Share Your Battle Challenge" after discovering this great game about a week ago. These challenges and this community really help add to the richness of the game, and I'm happy to have the chance to participate in it.
As I'm new to this, I welcome any advice you have on how to improve my posting or battle strategy. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the battle!
Challenge Rules
THEME: GRUMPY DWARF
Edition: BETA
Rarity: COMMON
Element: NEUTRAL
ATTACK: MELEE
ABILITIES: Reach at level 1
Battle Ruleset
I played four battles where I tried to fit the Grumpy Dwarf into my team composition. I'm featuring one of those that I won, which used the standard ruleset and a relatively low mana cap.
For my featured battle, my opponent and I got the following ruleset:
- Mana Limit: 17
- Standard Ruleset: No modification to the standard gameplay rules and mechanics.
My Lineup Strategy
Summoner: Pyre
I like taking Pyre along as my summoner for low-mana battles, because its passive of granting +1 Speed to all friendly monsters often results in some quick kills before my opponent's monsters get a chance to strike. This "hasty" approach compliments the featured Grumpy Dwarf, and synergizes well with the other monster cards I used.
Tank: Cerberus
I often choose Cerberus as my frontline - or tank - monster for low mana cap fire splinter teams. The decent attack (2), good speed (3) and self healing lets Cerberus stand up to the other tanks found in bronze-league play.
Grumpy Dwarf
I suspect this dwarf is even grumpier in my lineup, having to stand right behind a particularly angry three-headed dog. That doesn't stop him from capitalizing on his Reach ability to harass his opponents at every opportunity. The speed boost from Pyre boosted the Grumpy Dwarf's speed to 3, which gave him an attack before most of my opponent's monsters got their turn.
Fire Beetle
This is another starter set card I frequently use in low-mana battles. Its snipe ability helps eliminate enemy threats, while its four health gives it decent survivability in this kind of matchup.
Kobold Miner
Here's another decent card from the starter set. With only 17 mana to work with, I focused on selecting low-cost units to fill as many slots as possible. The Kobold Miner has the oft-effective sneak ability, which lets it make a melee attack from any position targeted to the opponent's back row monster.
Goblin Fireballer
With just two mana left, this card felt like the best value from my somewhat limited starter collection. Compared to the Fire Beetle above, it seems lackluster for only one mana less (with much lower health and worse speed), but it fit the requirements and would help contribute nonetheless.
I'm curious if any readers have suggestions on readily-available cards to use in this slot instead. Please let me know in the comments below!
Furious Chicken
I previously received advice about this card being extremely helpful, in lower league play especially. I had to rent a Furious Chicken because unfortunately the card's not readily available to new players, and is currently fetching prices well outside my means.
I play this every time I have an empty slot and no mana available. All it does is act like a buffer, but that's sometimes enough to allow my other monsters to get an extra attack in before they're defeated.
The Battle
Click on the link below to watch my battle!
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_54d892c37ca2bd9831f4a32f32863ab9&ref=snarkycat
I got a fire vs. fire matchup, where my opponent had chosen Malric Inferno as their summoner.
Even though Malric gave my opponent's monsters an attack boost, Pyre's speed advantage gave my squad an early edge. Here the featured card, the Grumpy Dwarf, charges into action!
At the end of round 1, the Furious Chicken does what it does best, and soaks a mighty hit for the team.
As might be expected from a lower mana fire vs. fire battle, this one ended quickly. At the end of round two, my Goblin Fireballer dealt the final blow to my opponent's Kobold Miner to end the match:
The Battle Result
In the end, the speed advantage from my summoner paid off and resulted in a win. (I'd like to think the Grumpy Dwarf's guile and determination - I mean, just look at him! - played a key role as well.)
Thank you to the @splinterlands team for creating such an engaging game, and to @carrieallen for crafting the "Share Your Battle" challenge. I had a great time with this, and look forward to the next time!
Good post, and good battle!
For an alternative to the Goblin Fireballer, for the same mana cost, you might consider Battering Ram which is a neutral card with Opportunity. So depending on if you need to focus on the enemy's tank, or on their back row squishies, one might be better than the other for 2 mana. But the Battering Ram is weak against everyone using Mylor right now. Still, it gives you options. And it's DICE edition, so it'll be useful for new players focusing on building decks from newer cards.
Welcome to the game.
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment on my post. I'll take a good look at the Battering Ram; I've noticed some opponents use it, and it does pretty well in the right scenario. I'm still figuring out how to anticipate my opponent's strategy based on the ruleset and battle history, and your advice helps!
Thanks for sharing! - @rehan12
I'm pretty impressed. As a second post it seemed really neat. While the game play was indeed great to watch. One advice I can share is "No matter what, Keep on going"!
Thanks for the upvote and encouragement, @rehan12! I really try to make my posts neat and informative, and found the markdown guide included with the challenge helpful.
Oh, Grumpy Dwarf also serves as a taunt for the Opportunity ability, and since it has 1 shield, it can survive the hit no matter how strong it is, meaning, even Dragon Jumper would attack the Grumpy Dwarf first and it would require to waste two attacks on it before it can actually kill it and target someone else, didn't notice that until I saw your replay, watching how the serpentine spy wasted his attack on the dwarf, interesting. Great work =)
Thanks for your comment! That's great insight, as I overlooked that benefit of the Grumpy Dwarf, and haven't given the card much thought prior to trying this weekly challenge. I honestly didn't notice that upside to the card until you pointed it out.
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