This week's Share Your Battle challenge comes with a new name and a new format - the Battlemage Challenge! And while I enjoy a change of scenery as much as the next person, there is quite a bit of additional RNG involved - instead of simply being able to use a monster in a battle with the proper splinter allowed, you need to find a specific ruleset. Unfortunately, today at least I could not for the life of me find a battle with the Aim True ruleset. So this particular battle features some alternative rules and is getting submitted to the Social Media challenge instead, but not to worry - I'll do my best to try again later this week!
Before we get into our battle, a few words about the (sadly absent this time) Aim True ruleset. This is a fun ruleset to play with, because it eliminates the possibility of attacks missing. This is an obvious nerf to monsters with evasion abilities, and a huge boon to low speed monsters. Notably, one of the monsters featured in today's battle - Grum Flameblade - is excellent in Aim True. With just 1 speed he can often miss under normal circumstances, but in an Aim True battle he is sure to hit, which gives you that much more chance of triggering his Bloodlust ability. Anyways, on to our fight for today!
If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup? Read on further!
This was the ruleset for our battle. Odds One Out is the big one, eliminating roughly half (all the evens!) of the monsters from consideration. We also have Stampede and Tis But Scratches - rulesets which are impactful, but only mildly so at lower monster levels. Finally, we have a fairly large amount of mana to work with, as 48 is more than enough to bring nearly whichever monster lineups we may choose.
A relatively large amount of mana to work with and no rulesets which are strong enough to dramatically tilt the battlefield means that Yodin is a strong possibility for this battle. With ranged attack and health buffs as well as the very useful Blast ability, Yodin is a solid generalist and a good choice in a wide range of battle conditions.
I started my team with my tank and secondary tank. Grum Flameblade is a solid tank, hitting hard for 4 damage per turn. Yodin's Blast ability gives Grum a second chance to trigger Bloodlust, as he will be able to deal some splash damage to my opponent's monster in the second position. Tenyiis Striker is there as an off-tank, meant to stand in if there is an emergency, as well as to dish out some Sneaky damage to my opponent's back line.
The middle of my lineup contained some solid ranged attackers to make the most of Yodin's summoner buffs. Ash Mirage is speedy AND bulky, with the Headwinds ability which will come in handy if there is a Yodin mirror match. Blood Maker is another great ranged attacker to use with Yodin, as Scattershot gives us a great chance to potentially do double splash damage if the attack hits the middle of the enemy team.
We'll round out our team with as much damage as we can fit in. Lava Launcher is extremely tanky for a ranged attacker, as well as being able to attack even from the front with Close Range. Serpentine Spy gives us a very reasonable 2 attack for 3 mana, and with Opportunity it will also give us the potential for extra splash damage thanks to Blast.
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I am hopeful - my opponent has chosen a team which is heavy on ranged attackers, which means that Ash Mirage will be extremely helpful. On the other hand, my team is at a serious level disadvantage - the enemy team appears to be fully maxed out for the Gold league, while I am working with much lower level monsters. We'll have to see how it goes!
In the first round of battle things get off to a horrible start - my Grum Flameblade and Serpentine Spy both go down, My team is able to do some heavy damage to my opponent's Pelacor Deciever and weakens some of the middle monsters, but this is looking like it's going to be an uphill battle.
The fight continues and both teams exchange heavy blows, and by the start of round 4 the battlefield has cleared out considerably. I am pleasantly surprised to see that I have a path to victory - thanks to all of the Blast damage flying around, we are both down to two monsters remaining. And if I can manage to take out Lira, then my opponent's team will be unable to attack!
My luck holds out, and Living Lava is able to land the finishing blow on Lira. This one turned out to be a nailbiter, but the outcome is clear - with Dhampir Stalker stuck at the front, my Living Lava can close out the battle at its leisure And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.
My strategy for the battle worked out perfectly - Yodin's powerful set of summoner abilities enabled my team to overcome a significant level disadvantage. Blast, as well as some solid monster positioning, allowed me to pull out the win, if just barely. A ranged lineup enabled by Yodin is an extremely strong strategy to have as an option, and is one which I will do my best to keep in my toolkit as long as Untamed remains usable in the Modern format.
Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:
A Marathon, not a Spirit...err, Sprint - Using Spirit Hoarder in Battle! - A battle challenge, featuring Spirit Hoarder!
Splinterlands Economics: Causation - A look at causation, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!
Splinterlands Economics: Ceteris Paribus - An introduction to the concept of Ceteris Paribus, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!
Thinking about giving Splinterlands a try but haven't signed up yet? Feel free to use my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=bteim, and be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions!
All images used in this article are open source and obtained from Pixabay or Unsplash. Thumbnails borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Canva.