Just a quick introduction before we get down to business :) I really appreciate the feedback I've received from my first Critical Analysis Blog: https://www.splintertalk.io/hive-13323/@cadama/weekend-blog-1-critical-analysis-of-ability-sneak, which focused on the card ability - SNEAK.
While writing that piece, we tackled how to identify when to use cards with sneak ability. I somehow mentioned that reviewing your enemy's previous battle is vital with this decision though I also said that use sneak whenever possible :). That gave me an idea in writing this blog. If you want to know more how my mind functions in every battle, this is the right place. Without further ado, let's start!
By the way, special thanks to @monster-curator Team for the much needed upvote for my previous blog. You guys are the best!
Every match starts with the game showing different information but I think these 2 are the most important to look for since you are only given 3 minutes to decide what cards you will use. The 2 things are what type of ruleset the battle (mana cap, playable splinters, rules of combat such as earthquake, noxious fumes, etc) and last but often overlook is your enemy's previous battle and the cards that were used.
The information is not that detailed when you highlight your enemy's previous battle but it's enough to give you an idea what to expect. Here's what I usually look for:
Splinter Comfortability
Most players have diverse card decks and is comfortable switching from one splinter to another though, some players have splinter that they use more often that the other and sometimes it shows in their previous matches. There could be a number of reasons for this, people which rely mostly on rents sometimes does not want to spend a chunk of their resources building a competitive deck for all splinters. You'll also see this Splinter Comfortability with BOTS. Some BOTS often use the same splinter over and over again (I am looking at you dragon splinter :)). Knowing this gives you an advantage on what type of attack or defense you'll expect from them.
Summoners
Some summoners have "battle breaking" impact with the result of the battle. This is not only applicable on Legendary summoners like Yodin Zaku or Scarred Llama. It applies on all summoners. I specifically look for summoners which have counter for each type of attack like Mylor Crowling with Earth and Owster Rotwell for Death. These type of skills (thorns and magic reflect) have significant impact on which type of attack you will choose for that battle since your winning condition has been heavily countered by a summoner and we have not included the monster cards.
Neutral Cards
Aside from the 2 above, this is something I also keep my eyes on when analyzing my enemy's previous battle. Combat conditions are random so it's not often that the battle condition is No Neutrals (you cannot use any neutral card for the battle) that is why knowing your opponents neutral cards is essential. Even if the enemy's past battles consist of different splinters, the common denominator can be what neutral cards he/she is fond to use. You often see neutral cards that have high impact on the battle like the Lord Arianthus and the ol' reliable Sand Worm. Seeing these cards on your opponents repertoire will already give you an advantage on what cards you should select to counter them.
These 3 examples of what I look out for is what I call tendencies. Each player have their own tendencies in which they decide on how to battle. I myself like to focus on the backline monsters and that is my tendency. Here's an example of a battle which I use all these 3:
The top line is my battle with this player. Here's my thought process and I'll use the 3 tendencies I analyzed from him/her/it (bots :)):
The Splinter Comfortability
This one's easy to spot. He loves the Death Splinter :). From my experience, Death Splinter is either Range or Magic and tons of disables. Therefore, I decided to use the Bone Golem as my Tank since it has armor to soak the range damage, Repair ability at Level 5 to replenish the destroyed armor and Void for magic damage reduction. I also used Owster Rotwell for this fight to reflect those Magic Attacks.
The Summoners
The enemy used the summoner: Zintar Mortalis from the previous fights which game me a clue to stay away from melee. Though Bone Golem is melee, my backlines consisted of range and magic attacks which was not affected by the enemy's summoner skill which is minus 1 melee attack.
The Neutral Cards
Last but not the least, the neutral cards. Though Shadowy Presence is not a neutral card, its use is vital for the planning and composition of the cards that I'll use. The enemy used Shadowy Presence as tank twice and he used Lord of Arianthus on the previous other 3 battles (not included in the screenshot).
Since the enemy previous battle review before the fight only shows you the cards that were used and not including the rulesets, this is were your assumptions may win you the battle of backfire. For this case, I assumed that this player uses Lord of Arianthus on high mana cap ruleset and Shadowy Presence on low mana. Therefore when we battled, we had the luxury of high mana cap ruleset which led me to believe that the enemy will use Lord of Arianthus as his/her tank. Keeping that in mind, the enemy's Lord of Arianthus is Level 3 which adds the Magic Reflect and Thorns ability (ouch).
Upon understanding all my enemy's tendencies, I decided to go for my bread and butter which is starting with the backlines with range monster cards. Knowing that he will use Lord of Arianthus as Tank, my cards with Snipe ability can easily go for the backlines while ignoring the tank. Still used Undead Priest even when the Tank has Magic Reflect since the Weaken and Slow ability is essential for my cards to be able to attack first and kill the backlines instantly.
To cut this long story short, I won the battle without breaking a sweat with all of my cards alive :)
Closing Remarks
These are only guidelines which you can use and master while playing SplinterLand or any game that gives you an opportunity to analyze your opponents previous battles. This is not fool proof and does not guarantee a win to each battle. It only gives a slight and I mean very minimum advantage since most battle still depends on each card level for a certain league. Though, having this in your repertoire is a must if you want to take things very seriously and win your battles methodically.
It would be my pleasure to talk more about this aspect of the game with you in the comment section and if you have any other ideas or topics in mind, don't hesitate to let me know. Also I highly encourage to correct me on any of my statements on this blog, I strongly believe that mistakes makes a person better. Hope you enjoyed this topic!
By the way, if you are a newbie and need some cards to start your SplinterLands journey, you may want to take a chance with my free card giveway blog: https://www.splintertalk.io/undefined/@cadama/community-giveback-program-free-card-giveaway-3
Thank you and happy grinding to everyone!