Intro
I will be 100% honest and say I only purchased the barking spider on peak monsters today when I first read the contest post. My feed is pretty busy, so I would have missed the announcement if I wasn't looking through @splinterlands page of posts.
I didn't even read the full prize, but I liked the idea of taking one card and explaining the strategy behind that card's placement.
General Strategy
This is my first time entering Silver and I currently have the highest ranking I've ever earned on Splinterlands which is currently 1275.
The reason I've gotten a few win streaks in is noticing - for reasonable mana battles - that an order that takes advantage of each card type helps to ensure if things don't go as planned you have backups.
Here is my general strategy for placement.
1st: Melee Tank
2nd-4th: Magic
5th-6th: Range
Clearly, if the battle restrictions say no magic, I need to improvise.
Barking Spider
Going into the first battle with the barking spider, I knew I would have it in the last two positions. While this does leave it vulnerable to some sneak attacks, it's high health helps protect it for a bit.
This is the card I got off https://peakmonsters.com/ for about 600 DEC which I had on hand. It is nice that it's gold because it will help me earn more DEC when I win. The mana cost is a bit high and it would be a no-brainer if it was a 2 or 3 cost card.
Winning Game
Here is the setup I had on my third try where I got the win. I organized my players like this:
- Goblin Mech / Melee
- Unicorn Mustang / Melee
- Tortisian Chief / Magic
- Elven Mystic / Magic
- Mantoid / Range
- Barking Spider / Range
The biggest concern I had with the opponent's line up was the presence of not one, but two melee tanks. When I say tanks, I mean a character that has a large amount of health and/or shield. Here is their line-up.
- Bone Golem / Melee
- Parasitic Growth / Melee
- Giant Scorpion / Melee
- Mantoid / Range
- Elven Defender / Melee
- Goblin Chariot / Range
Observations
Their position 1 and position 5 were the tanks. I also had a couple tanks, but stacked them in the front to protect the range, which were placed last.
My summoner took out all shields that were 2 or less, which gave me a huge advantage on the jump. The bone spider took out their position one early on. Their goblin chariot took out my first tank which left their second tank against my second tank at the end. The last three hits to the opponent's remaining player were from the remaining magic and range in my 2-4 positions after a few of my characters died.
Final Thoughts
The opponent had too many melee cards that took fire while not being able to retaliate until they got to the second position.
In comparing tanks, my tanks had a combined 8 attack, 16 health, and 5 shield compared to the opponent's tanks that had 5 attack, 14 health, and 1 shield after the summoner removed 2 shields. The slight edge in tanks and the fact that the opponent's second tank was in the 5th position gave my range and magic time to work on the other cards while melee cards were not in striking position.
Another note is the fact that there was a 99 mana limit. This huge ceiling allowed me to take out two high mana cards that would typically have not be seen together.
As far as the barking spider, it did excellent in the supporting role as it's speed was higher than all but one of the opponent's cards. It got to strike at position one early in the turn cycle.
Would I use the barking spider again? It depends. If there is a low mana limit, I may opt for a higher damage range. If I get a high mana limit and I need to take out shields, my summoner with the barking spider is a great combo.
Video
Battle Link
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=429f2f36d3e8778fb299b94784b3e6ad0f4a99f1&ref=rubenalexander
Contest Link
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/share-your-battle-weekly-challenge-barking-spider
Twitter Link
Battle Links
1/3: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=f1ed2a075a68a34b6dc33d6ff7db355fe402731e&ref=rubenalexander
2/3: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=3c106e7ca307addbb319a0f6f7cf22f4715654b2&ref=rubenalexander
(w) 3/3: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=429f2f36d3e8778fb299b94784b3e6ad0f4a99f1&ref=rubenalexander
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 0/32)
Thanks for sharing! - @xawi
your barking spider barked really well😂 . It is really fun to see people using barking spider and when you said you bought it just for the battle it reminds me of how I purchased few cards just because of these challenges nice job their keep splinterlanding 😉
Yeah. I need more low mana high health cards like that.