Many people in Splinterlands dislike lower mana battles a lot, and while I understand that not being able to play the shiny legendaries you love can be boring, I still find lower mana games very interesting. Besides my personal liking for low mana games, these are games where you can really improve your win rate if you choose the optimal strategy.
Llama plus one big monster (like Kron) is always a good option, but many players don’t own those cards, and they are expensive to rent. Instead, let’s look at one of the other good options for low mana battles: sneak!
In a sneak lineup, speed is key. Summoners like Kelya and Quix are really good for this reason, with Kelya being a bit better because of the extra time the +1 armor buys.
Let's look at a pretty standard 14 mana modern line up in gold league.
We need some front delay, and here we have a few options, such as Kelp Initiate, Cruel Sethropod or Xenith Monk. All 3 have their own merits, but for this post I will choose Cruel Sethropod as it is the most accessible card pricewise.
Now, we need to add in some damage. Pelacor Bandit and Uraeus are a killer combo. That leaves us with 1 more mana that we can spend on further stalling our opponent. Here, our options are Albatross, Hardy Stonefish, and Chaos Agent. For this example, I will assume that we will meet a similar line up. Chaos Agent is our best option because it has dodge. Finally, I will assume that most players in gold have access to a Torrent Fiend, but I will also assume that it is most likely a level 1 Torrent Fiend.
Now for the fun part! How do we position those cards, assuming that we will face off vs a similar lineup?
Crual Sethropod is our tank, but how shall we place our fillers and damage dealers to gain the best chance of winning?
Since we expect to face a sneak lineup, we should do our best to defend against it. Therefore, Chaos Agent and Torrent Fiend should go in the back, with Chaos Agent in the last position so that we can benefit from its Dodge ability.
Now, we know that our two damage dealers go in 2nd and 3rd position. It does, however, matter how we place them. For the same reason we put Chaos Agent last, we should also put Pelacor Bandit behind Uraeus. Pelacor Bandit has flying, and dodging as much as possible is the key to winning these games. Besides that, we want Uraeus to get in as many attacks for its 50% chance to land poison.
So, how much does this really matter?
If we face the same team, our win rate goes from 50/50 to 60/40 just by putting those two cards in the right order.
If we mess up the placement of our fillers and don't protect against sneak, we will lose the game!
So, does this mean that if we play well here we can beat Llama/Pelacor Mercenary?
No, but Llama is simply not an option for many players, so, in my experience, you will face off versus another sneak combo more often than not. Understanding a "bread and butter" line up like this will win more games, and I like to win more!