Alright guys, this weeks Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge is all about Retaliate.
WHAT IS RETALIATE?
When hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker.
The rules of battle were:
- Unprotected: Monsters do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs.
- 99 Mana
- All Splinters available aside from Water.
Great, I love unlimited Mana matches! With this in mind I knew I could fit a ton of value in to support my Retalite troops.
[Lyanna Natura]
I chose Lyanna Natura as my summoner for her +1 health ability to give my Retaliate tanks a little more sustainability.
[Stonespliter Orc]
To lead my team I went with a powerful but rather fragile tank. His 3 melee damage is nice, especially with Retaliate, but 1 armor and only 4 health makes him an easy target. I knew I was going to have a tank support though so I was not too worried about the squishy-ness. Honestly for 6 mana though I would not choose him in most situations. Maybe if the right restrictions were put on battle.
[War Chaang]
Coming in behind Stonesplitter Orc is another unit with retaliate. I actually use War Chaang a lot in every color. For 7 mana you get 8 health, 3 speed, 1 ranged, and 2 melee damage. Lets compare that to the Stonesplitter Orc. For one more mana on War Chaang, you get 1 less melee damage, which he makes up for by adding versatlity in the form of 1 ranged damage. FOUR more health, at the cost of 1 less shield. Personally, I believe he's the better option for most situations. I threw him in behind the Stonesplitter Orc because he has range and can act as a tank. I knew my Stonesplitter Orc would die pretty quickly and would need a back up tank.
[Kron the Undying]
This guy is a BEAST. He wins games all on his own when you can afford his mana cost. Out of all the Splinters I own he is the G.O.A.T. Lets look at his stats for a minute. For 10 mana you get 10 health, 2 speed, and 3 magic attack. Sounds great, right? It gets better. He comes with a heal ability. With 10 life you know he is bound to survive a few attacks and heal himself up for extra damage. I threw him in behind War Chaang because his 10 health also makes him beefy enough to tank when my actual tanks fall.
[Wood Nymph]
She is possibly my most used earth card. No matter the rules I always seem to be looking for a slot to throw her in. With 2 health, 1 magic, and 1 speed, she is squishy on her own but her tank heal ability is where she shines. I wanted to throw her in the middle of my squad so she has less of a chance of getting picked off before providing value in the form of heals.
[Spirit Druid Grog]
The most powerful Druidic Sorcerer in the Splinterlands. With only 1 health, and 1 speed for 5 mana you might be wondering where the value is? Well that lies in the Druids ability to resurrect. When a friendly monster dies it is brought back to life with 1 health. This ability can only trigger once per battle. Match that with his 2 magic attack and you have a really interesting card. I was excited to try it out in this line up, hoping to add more retaliate attacks, bringing back my Orc.
[Sand Worm]
Last but not least we have the Sand Worm! This is another neutral card I like to throw around in most colors. With 5 health, 5 attack, and 1 speed, this monster really puts the hurt on its opponents. Like most of these other cards, the true value comes in the form of the ability. The Sand Worm is able to target the last monster on the enemy team instead of the first monster. This allows it to attack from any position with that beefy 5 melee damage. I like to throw him at the end of my team to protect my monsters from others with sneak.
Round 1:
To start the round, the Summoners use their buffs. All my units get +1 health. The enemy starts first and attacks my Orc a couple times, my War Chaang also takes one of the blows for my Orc. The Enemys Goblin Mech attacks my Orc for 4 damage which is lethal and kills my Orc... but wait! His Retaliate ability triggers, killing the Goblin Mech in return before he goes down! Since the Orc is my first unit to go down, Grog ressurects him and brings him back to life. Then my mages go next, all three of them in a row. First is Kron, who hits the Shieldbearer who is taunting all of my units. Next is Grog, followed by Wood Nymph. She heals my Orc before she attacks so he is now back up to a total of 3 life and this is only the first round! The Sand Worms attack last. Mine goes and delivers the killing blow to the enemys Shieldbearer and his Sand Worm MISSES my Orc! Leaving him alive for round 2.
Round 2:
First off are my War Chaang and the oppponents Silvershield Sheriff. I would be worried about the Sheriff if I did not have healers on my team. He is a very strong and fast ranged attacker with the Snipe ability. Making him able to target my monsters with ranged, magic, or no attack that are not in the first position. War Chaang attacks the Sand Worm in my opponents first slot and his Sheriff attacks my War Chaang. That brings him down to 3 hp. Peacebringer attacks my Orc bringing him down to 1 health and my Orc attacks his Sand Worm, bringing that monster down to 1 life aswell. Kron is next and deals the finishing blow to the enemy Sand Worm and an Eleven Defender takes his place at the lead. It's the Elven Defenders turn next and he deals lethal to my Orc killing him. Since Grog has already Ressurected this match I will not be getting that trigger again. War Chaang steps up to the first position and switches into Melee attack making him stronger then he was previously. You will notice that the Elven Defender attacked my War Chaang and retaliate did NOT proc. That is because it is only a CHANCE you will retaliate. Grog and Wood Nymph attack the Defender, wittling it down to 5 health. Wood Nymph heals War Chaang back to 6 health. That's enough to make him survive because the opponents monsters can only do 4 damage a round to him. The Sheriff will ALWAYS use his snipe ability, so he will not target the monster in the first position.
Round 3:
War Chaang comes out attacking, the Defender is at 3 life. War Chaang suffers a blow from Peacebringer and the Sheriff attacks Kron for 3, bringing him from 11 down to 8. Without enough fire power directly hitting Kron, it is just a waste of damage at this point. He is going to continue to Heal himself everytime its his turn to attack. It's Krons turn, he Heals back to 11 and shoots down the Elven Defender. Now the opponent only has ranged attackers. Ranged attackers cannot attack when in the first position. So this renders the opponents Sheriff useless, as my monsters continue to beat him down til the end of the round.
Round 4:
Just looking at the board you can tell it's over. There's no possible way these monsters are coming back from this. Retaliate doesn't even matter at this point because it only triggers from melee attacks
Conclusion:
That worked out great, exactly as i'd planned. The hard part using Retaliate is not knowing if your opponent is going to use melee or ranged and magic. There's a 33% chance the monster will attack you with the right damage type and then there isn't even a 100% chance you will Retaliate anyways when attacked with melee. I like the idea but i haven't personally seen any cards that get me excited about it. I would probably still use War Chaang if he had a different ability. It's good, don't get me wrong but it just feels very situational.To be honest I lost quite a few times before getting this W and I relied on a lot of support cards to really make this team shine.
If you don't have a Splinterlands account yet, what are you waiting for? You can play on mobile or desktop and use a variety of different currencies to buy cards. If you're a fan of trading card games, you will love Splinterlands. Sign up now using my referral link and get started earning crypto and nfts with Splinterlands!
@yems! PIZZA Crew welcomes you to Hive! Your voice has value here.
We'd like to invite you to join our Discord where you can seek help for all things Hive.
PIZZA Crew is a Hive-powered social group empowering content creators, gamers, and YOU.
We've followed you, upvoted and reblogged your post.
We also noticed you are low on resource credits (RC) and may have trouble posting. GiftGiver loaned you some power so you can keep on Hiving.
Brought to you by the @Hive.Pizza team. Learn more about our project @ https://hive.pizza
Congratulations @yems! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Your next target is to reach 50 upvotes.
Your next target is to reach 50 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
STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Thanks for sharing! - @xawi
war chang in the second position hmmm 😛