Welcome guys to another "Share your battle" weekly challenge. This time we are playing with Ant Miners. This is a very interesting card, even more on higher levels when more abilities are unlocked. It will be fun to see how people will include Ant Miners in their lineups.
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About Ant Miners
Ant Miner is a common Fire Splinter card that belongs to the Rewards set. With his Scavenger and Shield abilities, this card could be an amazing option when played with the right cards.
Lore
Kobolds have long been considered the most skilled miners in the land. Their small stature and inherent bravery allow them to squeeze into small and risky spaces, and they are very good with tools. Recently, however, the Kobolds have apparently dug too deep into the crust beneath the Molten Mountains. This has allowed an undiscovered race of Fire Ants to breach the surface. These Ants are each about the size of a man’s fist, not large enough individually to pose a threat to anyone, but they are very good at teamwork and they operate through a shared hive mind. The Ant Miners carry tiny tools, which they use to enhance their already-formidable digging skills. They always travel in packs and lines; if you see a line of Ant Miners approaching your home, do not attempt to fight. It’s best to just give up your home.
The Battle
Same as before, I will not write about what happened in the battle as it is really tedious to write and why would someone read 1000 words about that when you can watch the battle in a minute or two. I will focus more on strategy and why I chose this setup for the battle. I hope that this will help new players with the thinking process when assembling a team.
You can watch the battle on this link.
P.S. Don't be confused, I played this battle on my alt account (Blacknblue) as my main account was low on the Capture Rate and it is really a long shot that the first battle is going to be one for Battle Challenge. If you don't trust me, feel free to donate something to poor Blacknblue 😎
My Strategy
My Strategy was simple. It was to outspeed my opponent and do some damage before he can even attack. I used Ant Miners to take advantage of Scavenger ability as there were a lot of small monsters that could die really fast.
Did it work?
Since I won the game it worked but, to be honest I didn't expect that Ant Miners will be MPV of this game. I counted on the speed of my monsters to kill some of the enemy monsters before they attack. It went another way. My Ant Miners got a lot of health due to full board and won by fatigue against healing ranged card.
Would I change anything now?
Yes, I would like to try this same setup but with Malric Inferno. It seems that plus one damage could be more beneficial than plus one in speed. Maybe I am wrong? Only testing will tell.
Cards that I used and why?
As you already know, all cards have some positive and negative sides. In the end, it all falls to how you use them and in what combination. Always remember, every card has its own role, no matter how small.
Pyre - Great summoner with a focus on speed. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to do some damage and kill some of my opponent's monsters before they can even attack. That is why I chose Pyre.
It seems to me that Pyre is even better than Malric Inferno, at least in the Bronze and Silver leagues where monsters do not have that much speed. That's why I went for this strategy. Maybe I should include Creeping Ooze as well, for more speed difference and a chance for my opponent to miss.
Living Lava - One of the best tanks in the game, if you ask me. Great attack, health, and some shield. When played with Malric Inferno his attack is going all the way to four damage which is great for a tank.
Shield - Reduced damage from Melee and Ranged attacks.
His ability is the reason why I play this card so often. It just feels hard to kill and that is what you want from your tank. On another day I may go for a Cerberus.
Kobold Miner - Another Miner in this team. Great card for only two mana, especially on higher levels. I often play this card in lower mana rulesets because you can squeeze Kobold Miner in any team.
Sneak - Targets the last Monster on the enemy team instead of the first Monster.
Kobold Miner is usually way better but this time he was against Water Elemental with Heal ability. That means he could not do enough damage to kill Water Elemental. A better strategy would be to have two Sneak attackers to make sure that the target will die.
Serpentine Spy - I love this card and I play it all the time. Two attacks for three mana is amazing. I often play him with Malric so then this card is even better.
Opportunity - Monsters with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy monster with the lowest health.
His ability is why I play this card so often. It will kill a card with the lowest health, and most of the time this is exactly what you need. Yes, sometimes he will attack Furious Chicken, but you can't do anything about it.
Fire Elemental - When you don't have Yodin this card is amazing, same as Pyromancer. Amazing speed almost guarantees that it will attack first. The only downside is lower health so it is vulnerable to Sneak, Opportunity, and Snipe attacks. To better protect your Fire Elemental!
Blast - Does additional damage to Monsters adjacent to the target Monster.
I chose this card because of the Blast ability. This ability is great in lower mana matchups as monsters sometimes have really low health. That means that with two or three attacks you can clear the whole backline. That's why Yodin is so popular.
Ant Miners - A real MVP of this match. This was a perfect game for Ant Miners. This card really shines in matches with low-health monsters when the board is full from both sides due to Scavenger ability.
Scavenger - Gains 1 max health each time any monster dies. *
I positioned Ant Miners in the back of the team but not on the last spot in case my opponent runs Sneak attack. That way this card was protected and it gained health for each death on the board. At one moment there Ant Miners had eight health which was amazing for two cost card.
Goblin Fireballer - I used this card more like a filler in the last spot since I had two extra mana after assembling my team. Goblin Fireballer is not a perfect card from this setup as he does not provide much value. He is more suited for Yodin or Selenia summoners.
Cards that would be good with this setup
On higher levels, I imagine that Ant Miners can be used as a really cheap off-tank in Yodin or Selenia setups. In that case, you want to run as much speed as possible to get that early kills for Ant Miners to feast. Interesting cards would be Yodin Zaku, Lord of Fire that will give additional health to Ant Miners, Imp Bowman, and so on...
Unfortunately, I don't own Yodin so I cant try out this strategy. If you do, let me know in the comments if it is any good. 😉
Summary
I did not expect that Ant Miners could win a game for me. This card seems like a very good one if used correctly. Best of all is that it costs only two mana so you can fit them in almost any team. Once again it is proven that every card is good if you know how to use it. So, don't sell your "crapy" cards because someday they might be worth a lot.
P.S. Thank you for reading. I hope that you are enjoying my content. If you liked it feel free to leave a comment or thumbs up.
Have fun and see you on the battlefield!
Thanks for sharing! - @alokkumar121
Interesting battle and fatigue gone in your favour which made you win the battle.
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Your lineup is really good for this Battle ruleset. Scavenger ability tremendously helped your team defeat your opponent.