It's time to get back into doing the Weekly Battle Challenges - this weeks challenge is the Tenyii Striker.
First things first, feel free to just go to their website directly but if Splinterlands interests you I'd be very happy if you joined up with my referral link:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=silver-edge
It's more tricky doing these now I'm using Splintermate but when I get a chance I'll definitely post a battle or two!
Now the Tenyii Striker - when I'm running the show and Fire is splinter to choose I often like to do a bit of sneak attacking and if that's the plan the Tenyii Striker is an excellent addition to the team.
Lets look at the stats:
Starting with two attack, two speed and six attack - add Tarsa to the mix and you have, at level one, a three damage sneak attacker that can take a few shots. Not too shabby to start off with.
I have the Striker at level three which means that it could do do four damage with a level three Tarsa - alas mine is only two so I'm stuck at level two which does give it the benefit of an extra point of speed.
Anyway suffice to say, for only a five mana cost the Tenyii Striker is a solid sneak attacker that is for sure!
And so on to the battle - I checked my battles and Splintermate ran a Tarsa deck against an Alric deck. Looking at the lineup it's not one I would have picked but lets have a look at how the battle stacked up.
The Battle
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_a9a5a93755e0067a7be9821294e598cd&ref=silver-edge
The rules for this battle were:
25 mana cap - Not a huge cap but not a tiny one.
Back to basics - Monsters lose abilities
Explosive Weaponry - All monsters get the Blast ability
Fire, Water, Earth or Dragon only.
The Splintermate picked
Tarsa (4) - Plus one attack and plus one health is as always pretty good;
Xenith Monk (4) - A useful card to use as a tank with self-heal but in a back to basics ruleset its advantage is gone. Strange choice - but is only four mana so maybe that is why;
Radiated Scorcher (1) - Presumably just to fill out the deck. Can take maybe a hit and could do a bit of melee damage but in essence, a filler;
Tenyii Striker (5) - Solid attack, solid speed, solid life but it can't attack from here in the ruleset. Still could be protected by slots one and two and be a handly clutch attacker at the end game?;
Djinn Apprentice (5) - With back to basics in operation it has a solid two magic damage that probably won't be mitigated so this is probably the key attacker and in a good slot at four to keep it safe for a while.
Goblin fireballer (2) - Another filler probably as it's a two mana card. Does have one ranged attack so that's something.
Spark Pixies (4) - A great card in the backline with this ruleset - five speed, two ranged attack. Awesome.
All in all, a solid team, with some strange choices (at least to me). I probably would have run an Obsidian magic attack team for this ruleset but this one uses the full cap and has some decent attack. Tarsa's health buff gives a bit more survivability and the extra melee attack on the front three cant hurt. At the least the frontline should hold for a few hits allowing the Apprentice and the Pixies to do the bulk of the damage.
As mentioned earlier the opposition went with an Alric team as follows:
Alric (3) - Plus one magic - a powerful summoner and especially good in a back to basics ruleset as Magic can really run through a team in that ruleset!;
Djinn Oshannus (10) - two magic attack, 10 health, additional attack thanks to Alric making it three attack, five speed and 10 health on top of it all. A beast in this battle for sure;
Furious Chicken (0) - definitely a filler (in this ruleset I'd probably put him in the front line but he's number two here;
Ice Pixie (2) - A great two mana card, especially with Alric as that means it has two magic attack!;
Wavesmith (5) - no bonus armor from Wavesmith in this battle but his two (thanks to Alric) magic attack is nasty!;
Pirate Captain (3) - a ranged attack for low mana and usually with snipe but not in this battle. More of a low mana filler in the team really;
Crustacean King (3) - usually in for the heals but not in this case due to the ruleset so an odd choice!
I'm guessing this enemy is using a bot too. A very strong team thanks to Alric and Djinn Oshannus but some odd choices (read Crustacean King) for the ruleset but this team will be hard to beat with seven magic attack per round to deal with and a powerful 10 health for Oshannus to get through too! On top of the back to basics there is also blast meaning his magic attack will be even more devastating!
Lets see how the battle goes.
Turn One - Oshannus that speedy guy goes first doing big damage against the Monk and the Scorcher. Spark Pixies are quick too and take the first kill with the blast damage on the furious chicken. The Ice Pixie goes next further damaging the monk and killing the scorcher. The Monk is quite quick and gets off a shot but misses that fast Oshannus. Fortunately the Djinn Apprentices magic attack cant miss and he damages Oshannus and kills the Ice Pixie. The Wavesmith kills my monk and damages the Tenyii Striker who is now in first slot (that was fast!). The Pirate Captain does some damage on both the Tenyii Striker and the Djinn Apprentice while the Fireballer similarly does the same to Oshannus and the Wavesmith. The turn ends with Oshannus still leading the enemy with five life and the Tenyii Striker forced to the front of my team with five life too.
Turn Two - The turn starts as a four on four battle with the powerfull Oshannus leading his team and of course with his speed he goes first reducing both the Tenyii Striker and the Djinn Apprentice to just two life each. The Spark Pixies though are also fast and do solid damage on Oshannus and the Wavesmith giving the Tenyii Striker who goes next the chance to kill Oshannus with a powerful three melee attack AND kill the wavesmith thanks to blast. And that is the match - the Pirate Captain can't attack from the front and the Crustacean King cant attack either. My team finishes its attacks to leave turn three starting as:
And the spark pixies quickly finish it up!.
So what have we learnt today - The Splintermate bot is quite smart as it had a team that won against a stong Alric Team. It too better advantage of the ruleset by having melee tanks to soak damage up front and allow the Tenyii Striker to come in late for the kill. We've also learnt that some bot teams are pretty dumb as using healers in a back to basics ruleset is pretty useless.
The match could easily have gone differently though with a miss by the Tenyii Striker on Oshannus or if the lineup had Djinn Oshannus maybe at the back and all the others as cannon fodder on his team.
All in all I'll take it and if you're interested at all take a look at the other things I dabble in with the links below.
Games
Rollercoin - free 1000 satoshi on signup
Betfury - cryptocurrency casino with free staking rewards
StarBets - cryptocurrency casino like BetFury with free staking rewards
Splinterlands - Play2Earn card game
Risingstargame - Free play2Earn idle game
Faucets and Mining
Cryptotab - Earn BTC while you browse
Cointiply - easy tasks, free crypto
FaucetCrypto - easy tasks, free crypto
Larvelfaucet - Login, click, free crypto for you
Exchanges
Have fun and keep on Battling!