Let's Do the Time Warp Again - Using Time Mage in Battle!

This week's Share Your Battle challenge features Time Mage! This is one of the cards in the free starter set, and one that I use fairly often in my Life splinter lineups. I actually own a copy of this for myself, not levelled up at all, but just in case I need it for when the rules rework comes out. Fun fact: I was originally going to have the title of this article be Chaos Control, because of Chaos Legion, and the fact that Time Mage slows the other team down, much like the ability from the Sonic games. Alas, I had already used that title for Chaos Knight a couple of months ago. Anyways, on to our battle!

Time Mage is a monster card in the Life splinter. For 4 mana, at level 1 (which is the level I'm using) you get a single magic attack, to go with a respectable 4 speed and 3 health. The stats aren't why Time Mage is so fun to use though, the thing that makes Time Mage really shine is its Slow ability. Bring Time Mage along in your lineup and the opposing team will move a little bit slower and be more likely to miss their attacks. Just don't use it in Reverse Spped!

If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup? Read on further!

This was the ruleset. This was a good ruleset for Time Mage because it was a medium to lowish mana cap of 23, which is where the Life splinter tends to have a good time. The Equal Opportunity ruleset means that attack order can potentially play a huge role in the outcome of the battle since weaker monsters will quickly get picked off. This means that Time Mage can make a big difference. Finally, the Life splinter is eligible this battle - all systems go for Time Mage!

General Sloan is a great summoner for the Life splinter. He gives us a bonus to ranged attack, and we'll be going with a lineup heavy on the ranged damage in order to take the most advantage from Equal Opportunity.

Leading off my lineup was Shieldbearer. Shieldbearer is a great tank - he comes with a massive 4 armor and 9 health, and has the Taunt ability. Taunt is extremely helpful in Equal Opportunity matches because it forces the opposing lineup to attack it first, giving my weaker monsters on my team more time to dish out damage.

The middle of my lineup was some extra buffer or meat shields. Gargoya Scrapper and Soul Fiend are both low cost tanks. In this battle, with Equal Opportunity, their low health counts are actually a good thing - I want the enemy lineup to attack them before they attack my more important monsters at the back. Equal Opportunity actually helps these guys in two ways, since having Opportunity means that they'll be able to attack even when they aren't at the front!

Finally at the back of my lineup came the two (arguably) most impactful monsters. Our guest star of the week, Time Mage, brought the debuffs with Slow. In the Equal Opportunity ruleset I am expecting attack order to play a large role in the battle, so being able to reduce my opponent's speed is great. Pelacor Arbalest dishes out double attacks of boosted ranged damage, and will hopefully be able to pick off some of the more important monsters on the other side.

With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I am hopeful - my opponent has brought a lineup that seems like it might be weak to my particular monster composition. My team's hardest hitter is a ranged attacker which won't be impacted by Cursed Windeku's Thorns or by the magic debuff from Thaddius Brood. And while there is plenty of damage on my opponent's team, Shieldbearer's Taunt will hopefully buy my back line a decent amount of time.

round 1.png

The battle starts off with a bang - as expected, the weak monsters are quickly removed from the field. At least on my opponent's side, anyway! In the first round of battle my monsters are able to take out my opponent's Furious Chicken, Undead Badger, Death Elemental, and Carrion Shade thanks to Opportunity. On the other hand, my Shieldbearer is able to shield (heh) my team from harm, at least for one round.

round 2.png

This battle was short and sweet - it only took three rounds! In the second round my monsters are able to knock out Silent Sha-Vi. The enemy Cursed Windeku's Thorns ends up dealing out a huge amount of damage to my poor melee monsters, but it was also taking a lot of damage in return. By the start of round three, as you can see here, the battle is all but over - my Pelacor Arbalest will get to attack first and finish off the Windeku since ranged attacks before melee when speed is tied. And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.

round 3.png

My strategy worked perfectly, and the battle ended up going just according to plan - Shieldbearer protected my lineup from the bulk of my opponent's damage, while Pelacor Arbalest and company took out the enemy monsters.

One thing to note here is that Time Mage's slow ability did indeed end up playing a huge role in this battle. Most of my opponent's lineup has a base speed value of 3. Thanks to Slow, that gets lowered to 2. In ties, ranged gets to get attack before melee (and after magic), so my Pelacor Arbalest got the Opportunity to dish out some damage before the bulk of my opponent's monsters.

I am a big fan of Time Mage, and battles like this show why - speed can make a big difference in battle! Even if it doesn't change attack order, it gives you more chances to dodge attacks, or to hit with your own. Time Mage has been, and will continue to be a staple of my lineups for the Life splinter.

Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:

Splinterlands Economics: Asymmetric Information - An introduction to asymmetric information, and how being aware of it can help us in Splinterlands.
My, My, My - Using Mycelic Morphoid in Battle! - Last week's battle challenge, featuring Mycelic Morphoid!
Splinterlands Economics: (A very brief introduction to) Behavioral Economics - An introduction to the field of Behavioral Economics, and how some of its concepts can help us in Splinterlands.

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All images used in this article are open source and obtained from Pixabay or Unsplash. Thumbnails borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Canva.