Like me, a newbie, it is hard to grasp how to play and win battles consistently. You will read a lot and still not understand a lot.
Worry no more, because this newbie who has suffered to read and play has decided to give you a gem with this post.
What you need to understand is that there are cards, and these cards are grouped into various types, the players or cards all have multiple abilities and elements to which they fall, another important thing to remember is that the summoner comes first, at the very first. The summoner does not fight in the team but often has special abilities that boost or add abilities to the teammates. Now let us break everything down:
The first to look at is the summoners and their respective elements, for instance, Tarsa is a fire element summoner, meaning if you choose her, you will have access to fire-type cards or warriors. Let us use Tarsa as a use case: If Tarsa is chosen as your summoner, she has a mana cap of 4 and will add +1 point to all Melee Attack units on her side and +1 Health.
Since Tarsa is selected, it means we have the total mana cap - 4 (which is the mana for Tarsa).
Now, we know that the +1 Melee would be best used on Melee cards, preferably those that have 2 or more Melee attack damage, this way, the card would have 3 or 4 Melee attack damage respectively.
So, Tanks are those cards with shields, the value in the shield shows the number of attacks it can take, if an opponent's melee attacker has 1 Melee attack damage it it hits your Tank which has a shield of E.g 3. Then your Tank would now have 2 shield powers remaining. Note, that this does not apply to magic attacks, magic will ignore the shield and attack the health directly.
Ideally, a tank to pick should have some Health and Attack points, one thing to remember is that you need to pick cards with fewer mana caps and if possible should have special abilities.
We call them tanks because they can receive
These cards are the cards with a sort of rounded weapon on them, the number inside of this rounded object is the attack power or attack unit the card has. They are close-range attackers Example:
Do you see the "1" there? Yes, that is the attack point so if it attacks an opponent, it would reduce -1 of the opponent's health, if the opponent has a shield, then it would reduce -1 of the opponent's shield first.
One important thing to note is that: Melee cards will always attack the first card on the opponent team unless it has a special ability that allows it to attack any other member of the opponent team.
These cards have an arrow piercing a target, just as the name long range depicts, these cards can attack from the second position and above, meaning {2,3,4,5,6} Some cards have special abilities that allow them to attack in the first position.
Avoid putting a long-range card in the first place!!! Else it will sit there doing nothing and wait to die.
These cards have a purple can with thunderbolts inside of them, the special thing about them is that they can attack from anywhere in the unit. Their damage nature is just like the melee cards, just that, their attacks can ignore a shield and attack an opponent's health directly.
All cards basically have speed, this is indicated by the boot with the wings on a card, so what is so special about this so-called speed? Well, it gives cards the ability to evade attacks from opponents.
This is a typical battle group setup.
Summoner: Tarsa
Reason: She's a fire elemental, and can give +1 Melle Attack point and +1 Health point to the other cards
Position 1: DISINTEGRATOR
Reason: A tank with a shield of 2 points, and has a melee attack of 2 and has 5 health. Tarsa would grant this card with an extra +1 melle attack and +1 health.
Position 2: RADIATED BRUTE
Reason: A melee unit with a special ability that allows it to attack from the second position in the unit. Has 2 melee attack points and 5 health points.
Position 3: CHAOS EVOKER
Reason: A magic card with 2 magic points, 3 speed points for evading attacks, 1 shield point, and 2 health points. This card can attack from anywhere.
Position 4: DJINN APPRENTICE
Reason: A magic card unit that can attack from all positions, and has a magic attack point of 2, 2 speed points, and 4 health points.
Position 5: SUPPLY RUNNER
Reason: A long-range attack unit with 2 attack points, 3 speed points for evading, and 4 health points.
Position 6: SCAVO FIREBOLT
Reason: A long-range attack unit with 2 attack points, 2 speed points for evading, and 4 health points.
Have you ever heard of quenching a fire with bigger water? Yes, you can plan your cards well yet when you meet absolute power you can forget about all the tricks up your sleeves. There are powerful cards out there and you just can not defend against them.
I am not saying this discourage you in any way, but just know you can play fine and still lose to other players, not because your lineup was faulty but because your opponent had way more powerful cards.
All images are from Splinterlands