Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock! Time is Precious, and Speed is the Way to Victory!
TIME MAGE
LORE
Time Mages are members of the Order of the Silver Shield and close associates of the Wizards' Council. They are trusted to peer through the fabric of time and reality to foretell the future or manipulate the present by slowing the flow of time. They can also speed up the aging process of armor, causing it to rust prematurely.
However, with such power also comes great risk. The future is ever-changing, and the ripples of time can affect everyone. Time Mages must undergo strict training to ensure they don't abuse their power and use it only for the most dire of circumstances.
CARD DETAILS (Level 1)
Mana Cost: 4
Splinter: LIFE
Edition: CHAOS LEGION
Rarity: RARE
Stats: 1 Magic Attack, 3 Health, 4 Speed
Abilities: Slow (Reduces the Speed of all enemy Monsters)
At Level 5, Time Mage receives the powerful Rust ability, reducing the Armor of all enemy Monsters. She's the perfect debuffer, slowing down AND reducing the Armor of your opponent!
The Match
Let's be honest: Speed is the attribute that is usually forgotten and relegated to the background.
Everyone wants strong Monsters with high Attack, huge Health and game-changing Abilities. But just a few players care about the Monsters' Speed.
And they couldn't be more wrong!
Speed is extremely important to win a game, because acting first is a huge advantage.
By attacking first, you kill enemy cards before they can attack you.
By healing first, you keep your Monsters alive for more rounds.
Also, let's not forget that Ranged and Melee Attacks can miss their target if the Attacker is slower than the Defender. According to the official rules, for every 1 point of Speed difference between Monsters, there's a 10% Miss Chance.
For example: if a Monster with 1 Speed attacks a Monster with 3 Speed, they have a difference of 2 points of Speed. Thus, the attacker has 20% Miss Chance to miss his attack.
So, the larger the Speed difference between your Monsters and your Opponent's Monster, the better.
That's why I like combo'ing Speed-altering abilities: Slow (-1 Speed to the enemy's team) and Swiftness (+1 Speed to your team).
Unfortunately, Swiftness is a rarer ability only available on higher-leveled, more expensive cards. In the other hand, there's plenty of cards with the Slow ability, including the currently free-to-play Time Mage and one of my favourite cards on Splinterlands: the Creeping Ooze, a 1-Mana Neutral card that's one of the most useful Monsters to have around!
By playing 2 Monsters with the Slow ability together, it's almost guaranteed that the majority of your Monsters will act first, giving you a big advantage.
Let's analyze my team!
My Summoner is General Sloan, the popular Life Splinter Summoner that gives +1 Ranged Damage to all your own Monsters. As the Life Splinter has dozens of Ranged Monsters with very useful abilities, he's a great Summoner to improve the value you get from those cards.
The frontline tank is the Shieldbearer. He's the classic Life Splinter tank, with 9 Health, 4 Armor, and the powerful Taunt ability. Taunt allows him to attract all the enemy firepower, protecting the rest of your team from abilities like Snipe and Sneak. Keep the Shieldbearer alive, and the enemy will never be able to kill another Monster from your team!
My 2nd and 3rd Monsters are the Creeping Ooze and the Time Mage. As I said before, these two Monsters together are debuffing the whole enemy team in -2 Speed. All my opponent's Monsters had 3 Speed but, now, they only have 1 Speed. This will allow almost all my team to attack first!
My 4th Monster is the Venari Crystalsmith. This card is one of the strongest Ranged cards from the Life Splinter due it's Tank Heal ability, combo'ing great with the Shieldbearer! This Monster will keep your Shieldbearer alive by healing him in 3 Health per round.
My 5th Monster is the Pelacor Arbalest. Due his Double Strike ability, he's able to attack twice each round. Together with the General Sloan, this Monster is able to deal SIX damage per turn, wrecking havoc in the enemy tank.
My 6th and last Monster is the Herbalist. As I had 2 Mana left, I decided to play an extra Ranged Monster, as General Sloan is effectively doubling his damage from 1 to 2. As you can see, I'm trying to extract the most value from my Summoner's bonus!
The match was a landslide! Not a single Monster of my team was even killed!
Due the double-Slow from Time Mage and Creeping Ooze, 4 of my own Monsters attacked in a row, allowing me to kill the enemy tank, Cursed Windeku, before my opponent could do anything in the game.
The Shieldbearer protected my team from the Death Elemental, Undead Badger and Silent Sha-Vi, as all these creatures had special abilities that would normally allow them to attack my backline. And, during the fight, my 3 Ranged Monsters just rolfstomped everything in the enemy team, as they were dealing 10 Damage per turn (2 from Herbalist, 3+3 from the Pelacor Arbalest, and 2 from the Venari Crystalsmith).
Thanks for reading this Battle Report, and until next time!
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Thanks for reading this post, and until next time!
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