Greetings, battle mages!
It's been quite a while since I've written about Splinterlands, but I have been playing very actively throughout the year. Just recently, I had to switch from the Modern League to Wild because I currently don't have enough Rebellion or Conclave cards, and as you might know, only these sets are now supported over there.
The Wild is also getting more and more competitive, and the reason for that is probably that old-school players like me are moving back with killer cards still safely stored and ready for battle. Interestingly enough, my path just crossed with a player in Wild using only Conclave monsters and an Archon, and not just any units but upgraded, tough-as-nails ones.
So there I was with my old dusty cards, and I thought, why not share the outcome of old vs the new? But did I have a chance against these monstrous beings?
Let's find out!
Entering The Arena
The battle had a manacap of 45 with a rule of Tis But Scratches giving every unit the Criple ability.
Before I could even take a screenshot of the setup, my opponent had already used their Ambush ability to surprise my tank unit. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only ability they had, but instead, they were packed with all sorts of them, even ones I hadn't heard about before.
But before going deeper into the opponent line-up, let's take a look at my strategy and the idea behind it.
My Frontline
As an Archon (summoner), I had chosen Thaddius Brood, who is part of the Death splinter, bringing in a -1 magic debuff to all enemy units who use magic. In addition, he will also decrease the opponent units' health by 1 point.
My frontline consists of two passive units: Death Ranger and Will-O-Wisp.
Death Ranger is actually a ranged unit, but it's his defensive stats that made me put it in the first position.
This monster has the Void Armour ability that forces opponent units to go through Death Ranger's armour before being able to reduce his health, and as it happens, the Ranger also has a thick armour of six points.
Will-O-Wisp doesn't have armour, but it has plenty of health and the Flying ability, which makes it a hard target to hit.
When I mentioned these two being passive, I meant by default as Will-O-Wisp will learn magic from Skok Duksblight, who's standing right beside the swirling entity.
My Backline
This is where it gets interesting. The whole purpose of my frontline is actually to slow down the enemy, to play time.
To support that very idea, the first monster of my backline is also a passive, tankish unit. Gelatinous Cube is an old favourite of mine, bringing a lot of health to the battlefield while mostly used to protect someone far more dangerous lurking behind the square shape.
No, I didn't mean Arachne Weaver, who isn't that intimidating, although it is a very useful monster if it hasn't been reached with an Opportunity ability early on.
Arachne Weavers' speciality is the Corrupte Healing ability, which will restore 70% of friendly units' health, although reducing max health by 1. Very useful if the Weaver manages to stay alive until the very end.
Now, the real boogie man is in the last spot.
Usut is a very powerful and nasty legendary monster who can grow into a real killing machine if given enough time to use the Bloodlust ability.
Until then, his armour and Flying ability should hopefully keep it safe from the enemy Sneak monsters.
My basic idea with this lineup is to be patient and wait for the Cube to grow with Scavenger ability so it'll be big enough to be able to protect Usut, who should by then have gained more magic attack power.
Opponent Team
There are a couple of monsters I haven't yet encountered on the battlefield.
The first one of them is Arcane Skinwalker. This unit has the Void. Inspire and Shapeshift abilities, a relatively tough armour, plenty of health and a +2 magic attack.
Costing 8 mana points, it seems a bit expensive to me, but I guess under the right circumstances, it could be well worth it.
Another crazy looking, crazy expensive(11 mana) monster on their team is Gramel The Hunger.
But look at those stats! This beast has the Charge ability, making it able to use melee attacks from any position. In addition to this, the creature can also attack using its ranged & magic attacks. A perfect backline unit.
Thanks to the Inspire abilities provided by other units and multiple attacks, Gramel The Hunger can cause a lot of pain to my team in a single round.
My opponent chose Fithe Bladestone as their Archon, and while Fithe's +2 armour buff ain't gonna help them in this battle, the Void buff he is providing is sure gonna slow my magic team down a bit.
All in all, I'm up against a pretty formidable team here!
The Battle
Everything is set for the old to take on the new, and you watch the whole show HERE.
The first couple of rounds seemed quite even, although their Gramel The Hunger was as crazy as I thought it would be.
In the third one, I wasn't feeling very confident as they got my Usut down to 1 health point. In the picture above, you can see them now trying to get rid of my Skok Duskblight, but I still had the overgrown Cube...
The tide was certainly turning in the fourth round as Usut dealt the deadly blow to Gramel, and with this, it was now bound to grow even stronger.
In the end, the core team, my backline, held thanks to Arachne Weaver, who was constantly healing both Usut and the Cube. This was the key to victory.
Conclusion
It was very interesting to battle it out with monsters I wasn't familiar with. Perhaps there was a bit of luck involved in this victory, but then again, this lineup of mine is battle-tested several times and thought through.
It's always risky to choose this particular team because with Opportunity and Sneak units, they could've taken out both Arachne Weaver and Usut. Now their attacks hit the right monsters at the right time, so I guess I could call myself lucky in this one, but hey, sometimes luck is needed in Splinterlands and quite often, actually.
Thank you for reading!
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