Sinergy is a huge part of Splinterlands, meaning that having the best cards is not enough and a good Battlemage must also learn how to pick the right cards and put them in the right position to achieve a composition that works well with the ruleset and has a good chance of countering whatever the enemy comes up with.
With that being said, there are some situations where a single card can completely change the balance and the dynamics of a battle and the battle that I will analyze today is one of those cases.
Quora, the one-woman army
For those who don't know her, Quora Towershead, or simply, Quora, is one of the best Gladiator cards currently available. She has high base hit points, can heal herself and also she does magic AND melee damage! Ah, and also, as with all Gladiator cards, she has that terrifying Bloodlust ability, which makes her even more powerful as she defeats her enemies.
Being a Gladiator means that, in normal conditions, Quora is only playable in guild brawls but nowadays, there is a specific ruleset and also an ability that some summoners have that allows Gladiator cards to be played on ranked matches too.
Quora had a very important role in today's battle but before we talk more about her, let's take a step back and analyze the scenario step by step.
The ruleset
This is what we had in place for this battle:
So, we had 46 mana which I consider to be mid-range, Death and Earth splinters open and the Up Close & Personal rule, meaning that only monsters with melee attack may be used.
Note that the rule says "monsters with melee attack" and not "monsters with melee attack only". That distinction is very important because it means that Quora can be used even though she has a magic attack in addition to melee.
Summoner Selection
For melee-only battles, my go-to are usually the Fire or Water splinter but neither was available for this fight, so I had to use a different strategy.
I don't really have a full melee strategy for these splinters so I decided to do a bold move and go with Lobb Lowland only because that would allow me to use the mighty Qora.
The Lineup
I usually try to build my composition around my chosen summoner but in this case, Lobb was only there to enable Quora and therefore, I built my army entirely around her.
For my first position, I chose Grund, which is a very heavy hitter with his double-strike ability, allowing him to attack twice on every turn. He was mainly there because I was expecting that the enemy would have a tanker with Thorns (most likely Cursed Windeku) and that could do way too much damage on Quora so I decided to have another monster to suck up that damage and maybe remove the threat of Thorns, opening the way for Quora.
For my second position, I chose Quora herself. The idea was to have her safely behind the tank, helping to remove any threat that could be on the enemy frontline with her magic attack until it was time to step up and go on the enemy with full force, hopefully defeating some enemies to trigger the Bloodlust buff.
Then, I had Goblin Thief try and hit the enemy's backline with his sneak ability and the same goes for Uraeus, which came right after Goblin.
And, finally, the last monster in my lineup was Sand Worm which was also there to try and knock down the enemy backline but also to serve as a meat shield for my own backline.
So, with my lineup finalized, I was ready for battle!
The Battle
To make this part more interactive, you can click here to watch the battle as you read.
I was a bit surprised when I finally saw my enemy's composition for the first time, not because of his lineup, which was a pretty standard melee-only composition but rather for his summoner choice.
He decided to go with Astral Entity which debuffs the opponent's armour by 2, grants dodge to all monsters and can resurrect the first friendly monster when it dies for the first time.
My surprise resided much in the fact that I don't see Astral Entiuty in battle every day but damn, it was perfect for this situation! Or so it seemed.
As I anticipated, he brought Cursed Windeku with its Thorns as a tank and I was glad I decided not to put Quora in that position. After Windeku they had Pelacor Deceiver which wasn't really doing much except waiting for its turn to fight, then Arkemis The Bear, boosting the armor of its allies, Silent Sha-Vi, with it's feared sneak attack, Disintegrator, debuffing my melee damage and, to complete this lineup, Xenith Monk with his self healing ability.
Overall, I must say I was not a fan of their composition because, while mostly all monsters were contributing to the battle with an effect of some sort, they had many monsters that were not attacking every turn, which is something I don't like but maybe that's just me. But all in all, it looked like a pretty solid composition for a melee-only showdown and, as you will see soon, it did a number on my army.
The first couple of rounds were a nice display of how Astral Entity does well in a situation like this. The Dodge effect really showed its power and my army missed many of their attacks against the enemy, which, on the other hand, was very quick to kill my Sand Worm, leaving my backline more exposed.
The next 3 rounds were no better and, although I managed to kill the Windeku, by the end of Round 5, I had lost my entire army except for Quora!
I must say I thought things were over at this point but the mighty Quora proved me wrong and showed what she is truly made of!
With a swift strike, she managed to take down the Pelacor and then, with a little help from lady luck, she was able to dodge a couple of hits and, after two rounds, she also defeated Arkemis!
At this point, the balance completely changed in my favour and after stacking the Bloodlust effect 4 times, Quora was pretty much unstoppable now.
The rest of the battle was a walk in the park as Quota pretty much killed the rest of the enemies with a single hit on each. It was a close call but Quora showed why she is one of the most feared monsters in the game.
Conclusion
I'm proud of this battle because the enemy had a very powerful composition for this rule set and yet I came out victorious!
It was also a nice display of the real power of Quora! Once she unleashes her Bloodlust and starts defeating enemy after enemy, she is very hard to deal with and in this case, the enemy paid the ultimate price because of her.
Perhaps things could have been different if, as I said, the enemy didn't have as many "idle" cards in his composition but either way, this was a very solid win which I will remember for some time!
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