In games like this, units that rely on pure numbers start to stand out more. Speed, damage, and health become the real win conditions. In this battle, I may be limited but the units I chose cannot be contained in a cell. Let's examine one of the units in this amazing battle where only the strongest, beefiest bois are the only ones allowed to stand.

Lore

he Darkwood dire bear is a very large ursid native to the Darkwood Forest in the Land of Prosperity. Adults can reach over thirteen feet in length and stand over six feet at the shoulder, weighing up to two and a half tons. They are extremely aggressive toward conspecifics and other large animals, including sentient races.

Primarily solitary, Darkwood dire bears form temporary associations during mating and when sows rear cubs. Activity peaks at dawn and dusk. Individuals mark trees with claw rakes and scent and follow habitual travel routes. When encountered, they rarely engage in bluff displays, instead favoring lethal force to defend carcasses, cubs, and territory.

https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/864/regular/16?tab=lore

Stats

To me, Dire Bear is a pure stat beast that excels at putting pressure on enemies through raw melee damage and health. With high stats, he functions more as an aggressive damage dealer rather than a traditional tank. Dire Bear forces enemies to deal with him or else he'll bring down the enemy from the front. He works best in melee-focused lineups where his damage can be maximized and kept safe with a Flank unit in the front.

Abilities

Icon	Name	Description
	Cripple	Each time an enemy is hit by a Unit with Cripple it loses one max health.
		is a match because Cripple works very well with Retaliate because Retaliate acts as an extra attack outside of Dire Bear’s normal turn. Each successful Retaliate hit can apply Cripple again. This can slowly lowering enemy max health and is very useful if the enemy is focused on heals and and tanking wanting long games. Since heal abilities scale on max health, Cripple works best on these units that relies on heal.
		is a counter because Cleanse directly removes Cripple which completely shuts down Dire Bear’s long-term value as long as the unit with Cleanse can keep activating its ability each round. When enemies have reliable Cleanse, all the health reduction work gets erased every round. This turns Dire Bear into just a fast melee unit as if it doesn't have any abilities.

Good Rules to Consider

Icon	Name	Reason
	Super Sneak	All melee units have Sneak (targets the enemy unit in the last position).
		Super Sneak rule allows Dire Bear to attack regardless of position, letting you hide him safely while still dealing damage. His high speed ensures he strikes early against backline targets and the high damage makes sure they die fast. This is really good and scary as units at the back normally aren't as strong as the main tank.
	Back to Basics	Units lose all abilities.
		Even without abilities, Dire Bear remains strong due to the raw stats alone. His speed, health and melee damage still outclass many common units despite the mana needed. This makes him reliable even when no abilities are allowed to activate on that battle.
	Up Close and Personal	Only Units with Melee attack may be used in battles.
		Dire Bear is one of the strongest melee in Frontier Mode and since only melee units are the only ones usable in this rule, he isn't affected but it would disrupt your enemy's strategy if they don't know how to play melee-focused lineups.

Bad Rules to Think Twice

Icon	Name	Reason
	Briar Patch	All units have Thorns (returns 2 damage to attacker when hit by a melee attack)
		Thorns damages Dire Bear every time he attacks. Since he relies on repeated melee hits, the 2 damage returned each strike stacks up fast. This rule punishes him heavily over time.
	Thick Skinned	All units have the Shield ability.
		Shield reduces all melee damage cutting Dire Bear’s attack in half. This slows down kills and makes him so much less effective. Fortunately, Cripple is unaffected but his main damage is still cut by half which is very bad as he relies on his high attack the most.
	Equalizer	The initial Health of all Units is equal to that of the Units on either team with the highest base Health.
		Dire Bear’s naturally high health becomes a disadvantage here. Equalizer gives enemies more health while not spending the same amount of mana for one unit making fights longer and more dangerous. The enemies can use low health units with high attack and my Dire Bear will give them the high health making these units both high health and high attack units.

Battle

Link to battle

This battle's rule is "Beefcakes," one of the rule I hate the most because I don't have strong units that passes that restriction. In this rule, all units must have 5 or more health. So, in this Frontier Mode battle, what I did is to have all of my highest health units in the game and use one unit with high damage, Kicking Roc. Fortunately, this strategy worked and the enemy had a tough time dealing with my beefy lineup of tanks.

Images were taken from Splinterlands, made in Canva, drawn in Krita and animated in Photoshop.

Support me by joining Splinterlands using my referral code.