Splinterlands Share Your Battle
New week new season - I hope you are pleased with your recent results!
Not only is it a new season its a new challenge week, and this week its an ability theme instead of a character which i find exciting. I have take a lot from watching others thoughts on how they use certain cards in battles and plan their strategies. It has strengthened my own game and while I am still a Bronze battler I have moved to the top 300 in the Bronze one.
For this weeks challenge I have gone for Ant Miners, I also had the option of Gelatinous Cube.
At the time of this battle I had a level one Ant Miner but after this battle I leveled it up as I am currently working on my Fire deck and Ant Miner did a stellar job in this battle. Based on my Fire Summoner level I have leveled up to three. This was for a couple of reasons, bang for buck and the increase in speed and life. The danger of Ant Miner is an opposing monster with opportunity takes them out early and you don't receive the benefit the monster can offer for the cost of the mana. With the extra life and an Oose or Chicken in the team in might just give Ant Miner time to grow, plus if you have killed off a Chicken and an Oose then the Ant has gained two more life.
The line ups:
This battle was a Summoner's silence battle with a mana of 30.
I chose Fire because without the Summoner's ability and the current cards I own and felt this was the best chance of winning
Position one: Living Lava
Does Lava need an introduction? Lava is one of the toughest tanks in the Bronze divisions and very few better him (I'm not saying its unbeatable as there are weakness) I used him here for his three attack and reduced damage, this gave the opportunity for the other monsters to do damage before he gets removed (if at all in some cases)
Position two: Fineas Rage
I find Fineas to be one of the best second position monsters in the game - 8 life (on level one) high speed so gets in quickly to impact the opposing tank and can reach from the second position. Given his mana cost of 7 I only play him if I have a high mana threshold for a battle.
Position Three: Ant Miners
The monster of the moment the Ant Miners - I choose position three for Any Miner due to its early battle vulnerabilities, with starting life of one it only takes one other monster to show interest to end its journey in the battle. So I held it two back to offer the best opportunity for it to build health before it had a risk of taking position one. It is also vulnerable to blast and I also wanted plenty of positions behind it that will slowly get picked off and offer this monster health
Position four: Fire Elemental
I like Fire Elemental due to speed and damage for a level one card and the ability of blast - however, the vulnerabilities are similar to Ant Miners with low health so a middle position is chosen to give it the best opportunity of continued damage before it is picked off. Not only is it raining 2 damage every turn, you can keep it alive, to the opposing tank it is also weakening the the second position. So while the Monster card says 2 damage I see it as three due to the Blast bombing the second position. Not to be ignored is the potential strength this will offer Ant Miner, at two health its unlikely to make the end.
Position five: Pyromaniac
Pyromaniac played five because he has four health and the ability to withstand some back door beef while raining two damage to the opposing flank. With a speed of four he gets to work early with the hope of a back door chicken we should be picking up some health for Ant Miner.
Position five: Furious Chicken
The back door bird
Common tactic of the chicken in the last spot. This draws one attack from the enemy away from the main team. I like to use the chicken on the back but its also common to use them in the first position to absorb a hefty tank attack before your actual tank steps forward. In this match its sole use is to be cannon fodder, take one hit away from the team and give Any Miner an extra health - Chicken well spent.
The battle line up!
Initial thoughts before battle:
The tactic of a flying monster in the last position affected my game plan in that I wasn't sure on Pyromaniac's ability to clean up their last monster if he kept getting dodged. Which would impact Ant Miner abilities to collect health.
Dragon is a splinter that I haven't researched but once I have finished Fire i might take a look.
The Battle:
The opening phases saw the two chickens bite the dust and deliver a 2 health up for Ant Miners. My chicken goes down doing the expected job of protecting the flank. My initial concerns of Pyromaniac not being able to strike the rear line have come to fruition, the first two turns have yielded zero pain. This is proving a strong tactic for the opposition! Other than that the rest has been as expected in that the Living Lava's have been grinding away at each other.
The remainder of round two Serpentine Spy taken out with a blast form Elemental another health gained along with my Lava biting the dust delivering another. Ant Miners has gone from 1 health to 5 at this point. I am hoping that if we can stunt the remaining Lava quickly then this will take 2 fire power away from the apposition as they will have a range monster in the front row who cant fire.
Round three saw Fineas Rage killed off in the early exchanges increasing Ant Miners to 6 as they take the front spot. We finally strike the tail and one more shot and we have rid of it and with the remainder of the opposing monster not having any abilities all fire will be concentrated to the font line. Any Miner takes 2 points of damage from Elemental which also reduces my Elemental to 1 health through blast. My elemental then returns fire killing off Lava, increasing Ants health by one and bring a ranged monster to the front line decreasing their firepower. Ant Miners have their first attack by poking a monster that cant return fire haha.
Round four:
The opening move of the round killed off the enemy Dragon tail giving another heart to old mate Ant, seeing this tail monster finished with a range stuck in the front row I started to feel confident.
Ant takes a 2 hit from Elemental and blast finishes off mine which gives Ant another heart which means they only lost one from the interaction. Pyro strikes back (is this a new Stars Wars title?) polishing off Elemental and leaving the opposition no way out.
The rest as they say is history!
I was of the opinion that the strategy of burying Ant Miners in the middle worked as the time it made it to the front it was battle hardened to keep the game alive for the team to the required work around it to ensure victory in this case. The only thing will do differently is to up grade because at level three you get an extra heart starting power which could literally mean the difference between purpose and cannon fodder. Also an extra speed is picked up which can prove useful for front line work. In this battle in proved a good card to have between the front two Tanks and the back line so not to fall into the problem the opposition did in this battle where a ranged monster hits the front row. Looking back at the battle once this happened it significantly reduced the fire power and probably was a path to losing the game in this instance. Had Ant Miners died early or not been there collecting power I would have been in the same trap.
See you on the field!
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