Welcome everyone! Today I took part in my very first Splinterlands “Share Your Battle Weekly Challenge.” As part of this contest, it was a requirement to use the neutral Mantoid monster in the battle. In this article, I want to give a brief overview of my lineup, my strategy, and my general impressions of Mantoid as a monster.
To start with, it's important to note that Mantoid is a ranged monster that normally possesses the Snipe capability; however, one of the unique things about Splinterlands is that the ruleset can change on a game-by-game basis to add variety and keep things interesting. For this specific match, sneak and snipe abilities were disabled by the ruleset. Therefore, Mantoid lost Snipe and functioned as a normal range monster.
Strategy and Lineup
Since ranged monsters can not attack from the first position, my primary strategy was to build up as many monsters in front of Mantoid to absorb damage and give him the best possible chance of damaging the enemy from afar.
Since Mantoid is a neutral monster, he can be used with any Splinter, but I prefer the Earth Splinter because it has a very strong primary card in Unicorn Mustang. I chose Unicorn Mustang as the first position card because he has strong health, a good attack, and good speed which usually allows him to attack first. The Void ability reduces the damage that he takes from Magic attacks which helps him stay in the fight longer.
One of my favorite Earth monsters to put in the second position is Centauri Mage. This monster again has high health, and because it has a magic attack, it can attack from the second position and deal damage when unicorn Mustang is in the fight, but if Unicorn Mustang gets knocked out, Centauri Mage can easily move into the first spot and continue dealing damage, unlike a ranged monster. The high health once again protects my ranged monsters in the back and allows them to deal damage without moving into the first position where they can not attack.
In the third position, I used the Furious Chicken. This is a good place holder card that costs 0 Mana to use and is effective for putting one more spot between Mantoid and the front lines. Creeping Ooze in the fourth spot is good for slowing down enemy monsters and giving my team the chance to attack first. In some battles, I will put Creeping Ooze at the end of my lineup so that it will absorb any damage from monsters that attack the rear of my team, but in this battle, Mantoid has high health, and I thought it was more important to put monsters ahead of him to prevent him falling into the first position and being unable to attack.
Match Analysis
With only a few Mana left, I chose to put Khymer Princess before Mantoid. This gives one last chance of damaging the enemy and preventing Mantoid from having to reach the front lines.
Once the battle began I was happy to see that my opponent had chosen the Life Splinter and put Shieldbearer in the first spot. My summoner Wizard of Eastwood was able to lower the armor of Shieldbearer making it easier to target his health directly.
In the end, the Earth Splinter with the Wizard of Eastwood at the helm was able to prevail over the Life Splinter and carry the victory. I feel that the combination of Unicorn Mustang and Centauri Mage in the first two positions is a very strong because it gives a large health pool and Unicorn Mustang can deal a lot of damage to an enemy monster while Centauri Mage slowly whittles away directly at their health.
Overall Impression of Mantoid
In some ways, I also prefer that Mantoid’s Snipe ability was disabled for this matchup. Perhaps it's because I'm a rookie player, but I prefer dealing as much damage to the enemy's monster that is in the first position and getting it out of the fight as quickly as possible. Since most people put their strongest monster in the first position, most of my battles that I win are because I have been able to knock out the enemy's first position monster before they knock out mine.
Overall, it was a good match, and I’m proud of Mantoid for helping play a part in the victory. That being said, I generally prefer to use Goblin Chariot in most of my matches instead of Mantoid because I do like the fact that Goblin Chariot attacks the enemy's first position monster. However, in these matches where snipe abilities are disabled, I prefer Mantoid because he gets an extra three health for the cost of only one additional Mana.
Thanks for reading!
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