The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. No matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong with it.
_{from “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns}

For quite some time, the Fire Splinter was my favourite splinter. I had the best monster cards and the strongest summoner in that particular faction. However, more recently, I've found that it is a touch underpowered and for some reason, I find myself losing quite a bit with it. However, it does have some pretty awesome cards in it... and some of them are really low in mana cost as well, which makes it pretty decent choice when Magic is hobbled or the Little League battle condition is in play.

The Serpentine Spy is one of these decent cards... with the Opportunity strike and combined with the melee boost from the Fire Summoner, this little sneaky guy can help wreak havoc in the soft squishy parts of the enemy line up... weakening the support monsters and possible taking out some of the enemy glass cannons. That is, as long as your own front line tank stays up... this guy is a glass cannon in his own right!

The Battle

In this featured battle, I had the battle plans well laid out for a Little League battle... this is the sort of battle where the Fire Splinter with some pretty decent hard hitting monsters starts to shine, plus that stupid Lord Arianthus is out of play! However, I had failed to take into consideration the OTHER battle condition (Reverse Speed...) which is ultimately what threw a spanner into my well-crafted team lineup....

I led with the Flame Monkey... this was as a cheap meat shield as I had a spare 1 mana and nothing else to spend it on! Next up was the Cerebus, which at 4 mana is a great hard hitting, self healing and vengeful (revenge) powerhouse in the Little League matches. This was the REAL first position monster... but I would let the Flame Monkey take a few punches first...

Next up came my melee spoilers... the problem with melee monsters is that only the front guy gets to swing punches.... except if you have Opportunity, Reach and Sneak monsters. The Kobold Miner and the Serpentine Spy at 2 and 3 mana each are pretty nasty monsters that will tear apart the enemy team from within and behind... hitting with a pretty hefty 3 Melee damage each (after the Summoner bonus...), these guys are pretty weak in terms of Health, so you had better hope they never reach the front lines!

Finally, I added the Creeping Ooze... I had 1 mana and it was out of habit to slow down the enemy team.. except, I had failed to read the battle conditions fully, and it only served to BUFF the enemy team... sigh, and to top it all off, I forgot to add my Furious Chicken!

Round 1

As expected, the Flame Monkey took a couple of hits before going down... I was hoping that it would at least attack before going down... but nope, none the less, I still hadn't twigged that the speeds of the monsters were all reversed! Anyway, this didn't matter, as I hadn't expected the Flame Monkey to do much more than take hits... so, the Cerbebus was now in the lead position and the real battle was about to start!

The Kobold Miner and Serpentine Spy got straight to work taking out the Furious Chicken and damaging the Swamp Thing... this should be a quick battle if I get the Earth Elemental into the first position, then the enemy team wouldn't not enough firepower to outpace the healing of the Cerberus. The Cerberus starts to make short work of the newly promoted Failed Summoner...

Round 2

The Cerberus takes a ton of damage but survives... no matter, I only need to take out either the Failed Summoner or the Swamp Thing and I will be in the clear! The healing will keep the Cerberus alive until then!

Uhhhhhh... both the Kobold Miner AND the Serpentine Spy miss their attacks on the Swamp Thing?!??!!?!?... I am a bit confused (still not catching onto the reverse speed still...). I could have used that extra health that the Swamp Thing is supressing... no matter, I can still do it I take out the Failed Summoner.

... and Cerberus MISSES! That makes for three misses in a row from ALL my attacking monsters! (Still not cottoned onto the reverse speed....)

Round 3

Oh no! The Cerberus goes DOWN... and the Failed Summoner is healed to full Health... this is suddenly going pear-shaped! (still not wise to reverse speed....).

The Kobold Miner lands his attack this turn... but it isn't going to be enough... I can't get through the Healing in time, as my glass cannons are now in the fore!... it doesn't help that my Serpentine Spy MISSES AGAIN!

Round 4

SLAUGHTER... I'm down....

.... hey look at that, it is a REVERSE SPEED battle condition, that is why I kept missing! DAMN IT!

Conclusion

Read the F%^&#%&%#-ING Battle Conditions! I was too quick to jump at the Little League part and I completely missed the Reverse Speed condition. The opposing summoner did play cards that were "slow" and took advantage of the reverse speed condition, whilst I shot myself in the foot by playing "faster" cards and then buffing the enemy team with a "slow".

Still, without the Reverse Speed condition, this would have been a good line up... the Flame Monkey meat shield before allowing the Cerberus to come into play... two glass cannons to wreak havoc on the enemy insides... and some rear protection (although, I could have used a Furious Chicken at the back as well!).

My team had a good line up and out-leveled the enemy team as well! However, they deployed with a team that took advantage of the battle condition, and I went down in a humiliating way... I guess this was karma for the previous battle, where I stomped all over a team of level 1 cards!

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