One of the best things about playing Splinterlands is that there is always something new to learn. Maybe it's a different strategy for succeeding in a unique ruleset or maybe it's learning to use a new strategy in a different way to succeed on the battlefield. In today's post, I want to share how I used the the Taunt ability to help me win a match against a powerful opponent.
Pre-Battle Analysis
This match had a unique ruleset with 54 mana available and only the Life and Death Splinters could be played. Additionally, This match only allowed a maximum of five units to be used.
My Strategy
If you have followed my previous blogs, you know that the Life Splinter is one of my least favorite Splinters. So my first choice here was easy. I decided to go with the Death Splinter. However, there's much more to Splinterlands than just picking the specific Splinter that you want to use. I also had to choose what units I wanted to play and what order I wanted to place them in.
Since I could only play five units, I decided to focus on using as many high mana units as I could and trying not to leave any mana on the table. In first position, I decided to place Nim Guard Captain. This is a strong unit that resists magic attacks. In the second position, I decided to play Grim Bonewhip because it has the reach ability. I also decided to play Arcane Skinwalker because it has a powerful magic attack as well as a little bit of armor to resist melee damage.
Putting a tank in the first position and a melee unit with reach in the second position isn't really a groundbreaking strategy. However, what I did that really helped was to place Umbral Elemental with its taunt ability in the fourth position. This was a key strategy because it helped spread out my opponent's damage, but it also protected A'lan Musketeer.
A'lan Musketeer was a key piece of my strategy because it deals two ranged damage and it has the double strike ability, which essentially means that it is dealing four damage per turn. As you can see, my opponent played two opportunity monsters, Vengeful Monk and Olivia of the Brook. If I wouldn't have played Umbral Elemental, these two monsters would have quickly eliminated A'lan Musketeer and Grim Bonewhip. However, by making them focus on Umbral Elemental and wasting their attacks chipping through his armor, I was able to preserve two different units, keep them in the fight longer, and allow them to keep pouring damage onto the opponent's units.
Additional Piece of The Puzzle
One additional strategy that helped me make the most of A'lan Musketeer's ability was to choose the correct Archon. As you can see in this screenshot, I have three Archons that are capable of working with the Death Splinter. However, the only one that I have leveled up is Thalgrimore. Although this is a Foundation card and is technically a little bit less powerful than Reklah, I still chose it because it had the ability to summon higher level units of A'lan Musketeer. Even though Reklah is a more powerful Archon per BCX, the simple fact is that I didn't have it leveled up enough to summon the most powerful version of A'lan Musketeer. The key point here is that sometimes a high level copy of a "weaker" Archon can be better than a low BCX copy of a "stronger" Archon.
Join Me In Splinterlands!!
This match help me to better appreciate how Taunt can be used to protect my most valuable units, but I also earned some SPS and Glint! Earning SPS and Glint for winning matches is one of my favorite things about Splinterlands because it allows me to collect additional cards and level up my deck. If you enjoy action-packed trading card games and you're interested in the possibility of earning additional rewards for playing the game, then I'd invite you to join me in Splinterlands using my referral link.
Disclaimer
As a US resident, I am required to disclose that I might receive a benefit, such as reward or incentive, if you join using my affiliate link. All image credits belong to Splinterlands. Nothing is financial advice.