Hey there good peoples of Splinterlands,
How are you all doing today?
I hope everything is going great with you all...
In this week's Splinterlands Social Media Challenge I'll write about the strategy and tips on winning in the dangerous ruleset BLAST.
Please note, this is my second writing on the 'blast' ruleset. You can read the other blog here - Splinterlands SM Challenge: Exploring The Blast Ability | A Week Full Of Blast..
I'll also share the strategy and team setup of the best battle I won in the 'blast' ruleset.
So, read on...
A Few Words About The 'Blast' Ability
Before sharing the battles, let's learn a bit about this 'blast' ruleset.
So, in the 'blast' ruleset, it is possible for your monsters (and the opponent's monsters too) to deal additional damage to the adjacent monster/s of the target monster.
This is why this ability/ruleset is so dangerous. It does double damage. First damage is when your monster attacks the opponent's monster. And the second blast damage is due to the blast ability to the adjacent monster/s.
This ability is so powerful that you can defeat a level4-5 opponent with your level 1 team with the perfect card combination and the ruleset.
Strategies To Win In The 'Blast' Rulset
You need a solid strategy to win in this ruleset. Even if your summoner and team are the higher levels than your opponent (and vice versa), you can still lose a battle (and vice versa) without a perfect strategy.
Then again, even if your enemy's monsters have high attack powers, you can still beat them with your high-speed team.
Let's learn those strategies that worked for me -
Strategy #1: Make Your Team 'Fast And Furious'
This strategy worked every time for me.
In the 'blast' ruleset, attacking first is always a winning factor. If you can beat your opponent with speed and attack them first, you'll always be on the winning side.
This is because, when your monster attacks an enemy monster, he did additional damage to the adjacent monster/s. That's a 'double-damage' formula.
And to make this formula work, your team should be 'fast' enough to attack the opposing team 'first'.
And if you can eliminate a monster or two before even they can attack, you will receive fewer attacks. So, that's an extra.
how to make your team faster??
Use the monsters in your team with the 'swiftness' ability obviously.
Preferred monsters to use -
Fire Splinter- Flame Imp, Countess Sinash
Water Splinter- Ruler Of The Seas
Earth Splinter- Brownie
Life Splinter- Baby Unicorn, Silvershield BardSupply Runner
Death Splinter- Lira the Dark
Dragon Splinter- Naga Assassin
Neutral- Spirit Miner, Supply Runner
Strategy #2: Make The Enemy Team 'Sloowww'
That's another way to implement the above-stated strategy.
Make your enemy team 'slow to crawl', attack the enemy's monsters first, and eliminate them before they can attack and be the winner.
how to make your enemy team slower??
Use the monsters in your team with the 'slow' ability.
Check the below-shared battle for an example of this strategy where I used the summoner Quix The Devious and the monster Black Dragon to make the enemy team slower.
Preferred monsters to use -
Fire Splinter- Scavo Chemist, Goblin Shaman
Water Splinter- Baakjira
Earth Splinter- Swamp Thing, Fungus Fiend
Life Splinter- Time Mage, Divine Healer
Death Splinter- Boogeyman, Undead Priest
Dragon Splinter- Serpentine Mystic, Black Dragon, Diamond Dragon
Neutral- Creeping Ooze, Venator Kinjo
Strategy #3: Using 'Taunt' And 'Reflection Shield' Ability
In this strategy, you place a high-health monster with the 'taunt' ability (luckily every' taunt' monster has high-health) in the 1st (or last) position and place a monster with the 'reflection shield next to him.
The taunt monster continuously takes attacks from every monster of the enemy team, and the 'reflection shield' ability monster keeps the back-line safe from the 'blast damage'.
The only limitation of this strategy is that it can work up to a certain time until your 'taunt' monster is alive. After that, it all depends on the speed and the health of your remaining team monsters.
Check the below-shared battle for an example of this strategy where I used the 'Wave Brood' as the 'taunt' monster and the 'Venator Kinjo' as a 'reflection shield' monster.
Preferred monsters to use -
Fire Splinter- Magnor
Water Splinter- Wave Brood, The Kraken
Earth Splinter- Mycelic Slipspawn
Life Splinter- Shieldbearer
Death Splinter- Dark Ha'on
Venator Kinjo and Tide Biter are the preferred monsters that have the 'reflection shield' ability.
Strategy #4: Use More 'Snipe' And 'Sneak' Monsters
In the 'blast' ruleset, it's also a great idea to use more 'sneak' and 'snipe' ability monsters for obvious reasons.
The 'snipe' ability monsters attack the 2nd monster placed in the enemy team, therefore dealing double damages to the adjacent monsters.
In general, the low health, week cards placed in the last position, and so on. And there comes the importance of the 'sneak' attack monsters.
They attack the last monster (hopefully the weakest) of the enemy team and deal additional damage to the next monster. And the weak enemy monsters get destroyed before they can do any attack.
Now, when we learned the strategies to apply effectively in the 'blast' ruleset, it's time to apply those strategies in real-time.
To the battle...
THE BATTLE
In this battle, I tried to cover the second and third strategies I shared above.
RULESET
Mana Cap: 30
Ruleset:
Unprotected: Monsters do not have any armor and do not get armor from abilities or summoner buffs.
Explosive Weaponry: All monsters have the blast ability.
Active Splinters: Water, Dragon.
My Strategy and Team Setup
At first, I thought to use the Daria Dragonscale as the summoner in this battle because of the 'unprotected' ruleset.
Then I thought the 'blast' is definitely more destructive than the melee attack buff.
Therefore, I used the strategy of making the enemy team slow and attack first on the enemy team.
Here was my team -
SUMMONER
Quix The Devious
I choose Quix the Devious as the summoner with his amazing debuff of -1 speed and -1 ranged attack on all the enemy monsters.
1st Position
Wave Brood
In the 1st position, I placed the Wave Brood with the 'taunt' ability to force the enemy team to attack him.
2nd Position
Venator Kinjo
Venator Kinjo too the 2nd place with its 'reflection shield' ability to protect the backline monsters from blast damage.
3rd Position
Manticore
Then I placed the Manticore with its 'flying', 'reach', and 'thorns' ability.
I placed this monster in this position because after the Wave Brood and Venator Kinjo died, this card will be the tank and its 'thorns' ability will benefit more against melee attack.
4th Position
Dhampir Infiltrator
Dhampir Infiltrator with 'sneak', 'double strike', and 'cripple' ability, placed in 4th position.
As it's a low-health monster, I placed it in the middle position safe from front and back attacks up to a certain time.
5th Position
Black Dragon
In the 5th position, another important monster, the Black Dragon is placed. It has some great abilities such as 'flying', 'life leech', 'slow', and 'strengthen'.
6th Position
Naga Assassin
Then, in the last position, I placed the Naga Assassin. A good low mana cost card with the 'backfire' ability.
I placed it here because there was a big chance that my opponent will use 'sneak' attack monsters.
And if any of those monsters miss the attack on the Naga Assassin, they will get backfire damage.
Now, when my team is ready to roll, let's battle...
Team Submission
Round 01
Round 02
Round 03
Round 04
Watch the full battle in realtime - https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_67d9d384a18a0c2033c6fe801fb97d1a
Key Points Of This Battle
In this battle, I applied two strategies together.
The first strategy was to use a 'taunt' ability monster Wave Brood in the tank position and use the 'reflection shield' ability monster Venator Kinjo next to him.
The second strategy was making the enemy team slow by applying 'slow' debuff using the summoner Quix The Devious and the monster Black Dragon.
My team was already faster in attacks as the 'slow' debuff applied to the enemy team and made a few first attacks.
The Wave Brood keeps taking all the attacks (up to a certain point) from the enemy team while the Venator Kinjo protects the backline monster from the blast damage.
The Dhampir Infiltrator did a great job by giving extra damage with his 'cripple' ability. Turned out that this monster dealt the highest damage to the enemy team.
With this perfect strategy, I claimed my victory.
And that's all for today, guys.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article. So, don't forget to keep me encouraged with your upvotes and comments.
I'm happy to share with you the strategy, and team combination as well as the gameplay of the good battles every week.
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Until next time,
Peace.
Akash Kumar.
