This week's “Share Your Battle” feature is the Supply Runner, and after submitting one post of a battle using this wild-eyed, neutral archer, I thought I was finished with the SYB challenge for the week. But I still had the challenge in the back of my mind, just in case a particularly interesting match came my way.
Of course you guessed it, a good one came along as evidenced by the fact that you are reading this. So, what kind of match could lead me to submit a second post when I had no plans of doing so? How about a second Supply Runner?! So tie back your crazy, red hair and get ready for a Supply Runner Vs. Supply Runner faceoff!
But first, a few words about the star of the show. The Supply Runner is a 6-mana-cost, neutral ranged-attacker. As a neutral monster, the Supply Runner can be used on any Splinterlands team regardless of the team’s summoner’s splinter. Its level-1 stats of 4-health, 3-speed and 2-attack power are all respectable, neither top nor bottom of the line in any single aspect. This makes the supply runner a well rounded archer that works well on any team that can afford its summoning cost.
Looking at the Supply Runner’s level progression chart we find that its growth nicely fits its profession. At lower levels, it becomes faster and more robust. There’s no doubt that speed and health can only help the firey-haired archer ferry supplies in a midst of battle. At level five the efficient lines of supply the Runner establishes pay dividends to his whole band of brothers, when the Supply Runner gains the “swiftness ability” which makes every member of its team faster. Finally, at level ten the Supply Runner is granted the “strength ability” which adds health to all its team’s members. When this Runner is keeping your team supplied, your whole team benefits!
My opponent only had one high mana match in his last five and he played light. Further, he also played light on two other occasions, so I took note of that, even though in my bronze league play, I usually face Obsidian in unlimited mana battles.
I was very fortunate and received a Grum Flameblade in the Chaos Legion airdrops. Since then, fire is my go-to splinter for 99-mana showdowns.
Grum is a great card, but it is far from invincible. In fact, my strategy for these matches is to play a game of “hide the Grum” where I place the Flameblade in the middle of my pack with lots of straight ahead firepower. The hope is that by the time my mammoth, 11-mana-cost swordsman reaches the front position my opponent’s front ranks are weakened enough that Grum can notch a few easy kills and get on an unstoppable, bloodlust-fueled roll.
Filling the role of summoner, I used Tarsa. With +1 health and +1 melee attack buffs. Tarsa helps with my strategy both coming and going. On the one hand my healthier frontlines hold up for a whisker longer. And on the other hand my team is softening up the opponent that much more with increased attack power. Both combine to help ensure that when Grum finally takes centerstage he will be able to begin getting kills quickly.
For my first false tank, filling the frontline position, I place the Living Lava. This hard-hitting, fire-team staple is a force to be reckoned with in its own right. The Lava’s, Tarsa-enhanced, 4-attack power can take a nice bite out of my foe’s frontline, while its shield ability can help it survive an extra turn if I am faced with physical attacks.
My second false tank, filling the second position, is the Molten Ash Golem. Used far more seldomly in my bronze-league experience, its primary job is to put its big, summoner-buffed, 10-health body in the way of my enemy’s attacks while the rest of my team metes out punishment. That the Golem also has the “close range” ability is a bonus. I would place this monster in this slot without it, but getting that potential one point of damage per round while the ash heap is in the tank position is rarely a bad thing.
In third position is my true tank and the key to my strategy—Grum Flamblade. As previously noted, I place this card here to protect it from damage while my opponent’s team is at its strongest.
Next in line resides the close-ranged-attacking Lava Launcher. This is another card I don't see played in the bronze league very often. Sure, its expensive with a 9-mana summoning cost, but this reward card makes fire a more playable splinter in a few rulesets, including 99-mana capped bouts. I usually place this mechanized menace deeper on my team, but for this match the final position will be filled by an archer that doesn't have the “close range” ability so that team member can attack as long as possible. And the second to last position will be filled by a sneak that I fear may need as much time as possible to work through my opponent’s backfield. So, the Lava Launcher goes here.
In sixth position I place my only backfield attacker, the Tenyii Striker. With a bruising, 3-powered, melee, sneak attack, the Striker is quite capable of sliding through an opposing backfield like a fire-hot knife through butter—which in this match may be vital to root out strong archers or healers or both!
The backline position is filled by this week’s feature, the Supply Runner. With its quick 3-speed, the Runner’s main responsibility is to deliver as many 2-point, ranged attacks as it can muster.
Light led by General Sloan. Now, I'm glad I used the shielded Living Lava in my front position.
Ouch. Light’s strongest attacker is at the rear of its team, easy prey for my sneak. Totaling up the damage, my two fastest archers strip light’s taunt of armor as my first attacks in round one. Then I have eight more points on tap, so the Shieldbearer will be cooked early in round two, almost certainly before my slowed Striker acts. That spells doom for my opponent’s double-barreled shooter late in round two.
From there, the light team has lost a lot of its luster—and attack power—leaving Grum relatively safe and allowing Tenyii to run through their backfield like wildfire.
My opponent’s team is clearly designed to take on a full-frontal assault which is reasonable, most bronze-league, max-mana teams fit that description. Too bad for one of the countless “Gamecoins,” my team has a sneak. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bot, though.
You can watch my team incinerate the bot here.
It’s round two, and the enemy’s Shieldbearer is up in smoke.
Freeing my Striker to launch its sneak attacks. It’s true that I have lost my false tanks, but mission accomplished. My hard-hitting, high-health and still-armored troops are well poised to take on the depleted army they now face.
And in a fitting ending, the opposing Supply Runner is the last to fall.
Here in the bronze leagues, max-mana fire teams seem to be rarely played. It makes a lot of sense. The fire splinter has many fearsome members, but a good number of them have very low health. At my level, fire can quickly overpower teams composed of slightly more healthy fighters, but starter-deck fire teams lack the health to take on foe’s that have lots of power and health themselves.
But start adding some of fire’s heavy hitters that have more health—and aren’t in the starter deck, like Grum Flameblade and the Lava Launcher—and, suddenly, fire becomes a bronze-league, max-mana beast.
Moving out from that core, many of the game's higher mana-cost combatants can fit in very nicely. The Supply Runner is a prime example—so much so that even an opposing Supply Runner buffed by General Sloan offers the fire team little resistance.