A little Nostalgia to begin...

What I love about this card and the short battle is the simplicity. It reminds me of the Serpent of Eld tank strategies I first saw when I joined Splinterlands. I remember losing to this card several times and wanting to own my own copy of it so badly. Unfortunately, at the time I could not afford it so I did not manage to own it. Back then, things were different. Untamed Rare cards cost a few dollars per BCX. If I end up in Wild at any point, this card is on the list.

While Commander Slade and Serpent of Eld are not the same card at all, the Water tank combined with the speed and armour alongside a decent attack all made it feel like the same card again.
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So for me I look at the lineup I created and it sparked that nostalgia for me.
Quick Battle for Nostalgia Sake

While that was just a little bit of nostalgia here is the real battle that I wish to share. I love using Gladius cards and while I thought they were okay initially, it wasn't until the Reward summoners came into play that I loved to use Gladius.

Running Riot - A Battle to Remember

My Lineup:

Lobb Lowland

With Resurrect in play, it is important that I use a Gladius card to take advantage of the opportunities to Bloodlust. With this in mind, 50 mana and only Earth means one of two options; Quora Towershead or Katrelba Gobson. Either way, the Level 4 version of Lobb will allow me to play my levelled Soulbound cards and I will fill in the gaps with the lower level cards available to me.

Terraceous Hulk

I rarely use this card at all but there are times when I need something big and strong to hide behind. This is the ultimate tank for my lineup. I need something to withstand a barrage of damage with my weaker lineup behind it sniping damage elsewhere. For 11 mana this is a big outlay but the 9 health and 6 armour really make this a healthy sized meatshield. Void Armour ensures my opponent needs to work through the armour so a minimum of 15 damage is required before my backline starts hurting. With 4 damage and 1 speed this is a strong but slow card. Add in the Taunt ability and this Terraceous Hulk should have their attention for a while.

Thane Newsong

Here to act as a buffer between my front line and weaker back line, Thane Newsong will Inspire my lineup with additional melee damage.
beyond that, Thane is here with good health to slow their front line down as a small tank meat shield.

Goblin Psychic

This is such a key card that I need to pick up more again. The 6 mana here buys a healer and a 2 magic hitter. While the rest of the stats are low, earning an ability such as Affliction at Level 4 is vital as the opposing monsters would not be able to heal if the ability was effective against them. Slow and low health, this is a card to protect.

Venari Marksrat

I remember pulling this Gold Foil copy and thinking about how I was desperate to level it up to max. But honestly, not doing so has helped me much more. With just 3 health this card is a target for Opportunity. I have placed this card ahead of Katrelba and after the Goblin Psychic as I was to give Katrelba as much chance as possible to Bloodlust before hitting the front line. While the Venari Marksrat does damage, it's purpose here is to just die for the cause with the Martyr ability.

Katrelba Gobson

One of my favourite cards in Gladius. With Double Strike, Sneak and Bloodlust this is one powerful card in the correct circumstance. Definitely need to avoid Thorns though but when Thorns is not in play, Katrelba is Golden. I am hoping to see consitently increasing stats through the Bloodlust ability here.

Fungus Flinger

One of my highest level cards, the Fungus Flinger is doing a little more than operating as the sacrificial lamb. Instead it is also adding the Blind condition, increasing the opposing lineup's physical damage miss chance. The ideal situation is that the Fungus Flinger dies at some point to trigger the Martyr ability but if it doesn't, Blind is not a bad ability to have in play. Overall, 3 mana makes this card a steal.

Round 1:

With Goblin Psychic healing the beating that the Terraceous Hulk is receiving, Katrelba is left alone to do their thing. So far, not the strongest or most exciting start but the opposing Disintegrator is reducing melee damage through the Demoralize ability. Something to take out sooner or later if the strategy is to work out.

Round 2:

The first bloodlust begins for Katrelba and now the significant damage is about to rack up. With the Taunt of Mycelic Slipspawn out of the way, eyes are beginning to set on the backline of the opposing team. This should now be a good chance to Bloodlust.

Round 3 & 4:

As mentioned in the previous round, Katrelba is working to the plan perfectly, removing opposing monsters from the battle. The frontline tanks are chipping away at one another but most of the damage is being negated by Shield on the Mycelic Infantry. Something to consider moving forward on my part?

Final Rounds:

With 8 damage and beyond, Katrelba Gobson is running riot. Terraceous Hulk is battered and bruised but the Goblin Psychic is doing its thing.

Overall, I am very happy with the outcome of the battle. Katrelba Gobson really did the damage and while the rest of the lineup helped to pick of the rest, Katrelba really did some of the heavy lifting. Do I need to consider using a higher damage alternative to the Fungus Flinger and Venari Marksrat?

Goals:

• Post regularly on HIVE

I really enjoy sharing my content on Hive and I think this is the best way for me to invest in the Hive ecosystem but also directly input funds into my Splinterlands account.

• Earn 3+ SPS per day

This is mostly within Silver at the moment. I am trying to push to the top of Silver but I am certainly finding it hard to push into Silver 1 at the moment. I do need to build out my deck, especially as I am for the Modern refresh so I will be picking up low level cards from Chaos Legion and focusing on Rebellion otherwise.

• Take part in the Guild Brawls regularly

This is the best chance for me to earn around 100 SPS in a month which will help to push my earnings up beyond 3 per day. As it stands I am renting around 6k SPS and I hope reduce my rentals and redirect earnings to cards as opposed to rentals.

• Increase my SPS to 5k by end of the year

This may be a little out of my reach with just pure gameplay but I am hoping to take my 250 SPS total closer to this target with battle rewards and then supplement with blog curations as needed to reach the target. As things are right now, I am earning ~0.4 SPS per win so increasing this will be particularly helpful to meeting this goal.

Join Splinterlands:

https://splinterlands.com?ref=holdeck

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Join Splex

...and rent out your cards for some juicy DEC rental fees. Save yourself the hassle of listing and relisting and let the Rental Golem take over for you:
https://splex.gg/?ref=3s5haoqkjteadpf8

How to invest without FIAT in a bear market? : @holdeck/how-i-am-investing-for-after-the-bear-market

Setting and redefining goals in a bear market: @holdeck/setting-and-redefining-goals-in-a-bear-market

Splinterlands Fire divider by freeztag
Splinterlands Icon Divider made by holdeck and available here
All card, icons, Splinter images and stats courtesy of Splinterlands
Ability and Ruleset blurbs taken from Splintercards
Splinter Element Icons taken from Splinterlands
I have reformatted them into PNG files which you are welcome to use here

(Please note that all prices were accurate at the time of writing, sourced from Peakmonsters.com).