I was thinking about how to make the most out of unit's magic attacks and looking around the Splinterlands marketplace for what might inspire me. Magic damage already ignores armor, but when you add Opportunity into the mix, it gets even crazier. Instead of just hitting random targets, magic units with Opportunity can clean up weak enemies fast before they even get to attack. It’s one of those ideas that sounds small on paper but when you stack it with the right archon and the right strategy, the concept starts to snowball really hard.

That’s the idea I wanted to test in this battle. I used Marlai Singariel as my archon to boost all magic units and tried to make full use of Opportunity. Even with Earthquake Modifier working against me, the power of boosted magic damage was enough to carry my team through a really tough fight.

Battle Breakdown

Modifier in this Battle:

• Earthquake - All nonflying and snared units take 2 physical damage at the end of each round.

My Thoughts on Modifiers

• The Earthquake Modifier deals 2 damage to all non-flying units every round which makes Flying units the best option to use here. Normally, players would go for units that can avoid that damage and stay longer in the fight. But I decided to take a different route and focused on magic damage instead. It’s a non-meta strategy that relies on hitting fast and ending the match before Earthquake can tear my team apart. The main idea is to win before I die which is the opposite of the expected meta approach for this battle.

Team Composition

Archon: Marlai Singariel

• Good archon for the +1 magic attack. She is the cornerstone of my strategy since most of my units depend on magic attacks which makes her ability very valuable.

Units Chosen

Unit 1: Daigendark Surveyor

• Cheap 2 mana tank unit that is good against magic attacks because of Magic Reflect. Even if it’s weak in stats, it can bounce back some magic damage back to the enemy and still work as a very useful tank.

Unit 2: Mar Toren Trader

• I have an extra 3 mana and I don't have a better unit to use. I could've used Halfling Refugee but I am on the dot because of Earthquake Modifier damaging my team which made me pick her instead as a filler.

Unit 3: Abyssal Elemental

• Good tank. Has 1 magic attack and Resurgence ability that can revive him again with max armor and max health which is very strong in any fights especially where you need a good tank to delay the death of the back line.

Unit 4: Shock Trooper

• High 4 magic attack unit. This is dangerous at long fight because his Electrified debilitation deals 1 damage to my team every round on top of the Earthquake damage but I took the risk because his magic damage is worth the risk.

Unit 5: Quillstorm Mage

• I added him as I want some extra magic damage. The combination of Opportunity and magic damage is really appealing especially when it's increased by Marlai Singariel, letting him act as some sort of a finisher for my games.

The Battle

Opening Rounds:
At the start of Round 1, Shock Trooper quickly eliminated Great Bear Druid which is huge as this gives me access to the enemy's back line. His high damage is really good for this quick "Hit fast, hit hard" strategy. Quillstorm Mage will help but not so much because of the friendly fire I have on this build.

Mid-game:
Quillstorm Mage kills Little Sister even before the round ends. This gives me a lot of advantage because by the start of the next round, I'll get hit by Earthquake modifier and Electrified debilitation. That's 3 damage each round. So, I need to finish the battle quick.

Final Rounds:
With the combination of Earthquake modifier and Electrified debilitation and Thalgrimore's -1 health, my Quillstorm Mage's 4 health quickly diminish. I'm still lucky though because Shock Trooper survived with 1 health and the two remaining unit's damage is enough to take care of the enemy's health for this round.

👉 Watch the full battle replay here
https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_417c2f7f8fc040355443063f432e1684

Results & Reflection

What strategy I was aiming for:
The strategy for this battle is based on Marlai Singariel. Her +1 magic is being maximized by using a lot of magic attacks. Since I don't have any Flying units, my goal is to hit fast and hit hard and hopefully, I take their units out before they can take out mine. It was a risky plan but sometimes the best way to survive Earthquake Modifier is to end the fight before it lasts too long.

What surprised me:
I was surprised at how good my strategy would work. The enemies both have Flying abilities that would ignore the damage they would get from Earthquake. I was in a lot of disadvantage on this game since I am taking damage from Earthquake modifier, Electrified debilitation from Shock Trooper and the enemy Archon's -1 health. Still, with all of those disadvantages, the strategy worked more than I expected.

What I learned:
I learned that the meta is not always correct. The meta play in this battle is to use Flying units to negate the Earthquake Modifier damage which is what my enemy did. Yet, I won and they didn't. I learned that not because something is good in theory, it would be the same when the battle starts. Sometimes what looks risky ends up being the most effective plan of all.

Closing Thoughts

This battle showed me that being at a disadvantage in a fight doesn’t always mean losing. You can be on the bad side and still come out on top as long as you have the right plan and understanding of how the modifiers, abilities and damage works. You can still outplay teams that follow the meta play even with these negatives. I went into this battle expecting to lose but instead, I came out learning something new that the most proven strategies can sometimes be overcome by new improvised ideas.

Even when the Modifier seems against you, there’s always a way to make it work. Sometimes all it takes is trusting your build and watching the plan unfold just like you imagined.