This week's Share Your Battle challenge features Spineback Turtle! This is another one of the cards that is no longer in the starter set, and it's always fun to take an old friend out for a spin. I have plenty of memories using old Spineback Turtle in combination with a backline full of magic to mow through enemy teams.
Unfortunately, between the difficult ladder conditions from the start of the season and the meta changes since the release of Chaos Legion, this was one of the more frustrating Share Your Battle challenges for me to date. I took more losses than I'd like to admit while trying to figure out the best way to showcase Spineback Turtle. I was finally able to find a battle that did it justice, though it did involve some lucky guesses on my part.
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!
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I am hopeful - my opponent has indeed chosen an Earth lineup with plenty of magic damage as I predicted, and the armor repair from my Scavo Hireling will nullify the their Mustang's attacks. However, with 3 magic damage outputted per round from my opponent's casters compared with 2 HP healed by Merdaali Guardian, I have to take out some enemy monsters sooner rather than later.
In the first round of battle my monsters are able to knock out my opponent's Chaos Agent secondary tank and put a serious dent in their Goblin Psychic.
One more round and the battle is nearly won - at this point there are still a bunch of monsters on the field, but with the Goblin Psychic gone my Scavo Hireling can repair armor each turn to offset the Unicorn Mustang and my Merdaali Guardian will heal 2 HP per turn to cancel out the Regal Peryton's magic damage.
It actually ended up taking quite a few more rounds thanks to the Peryton dodging a whole lot of attacks (darn that 5 speed plus flying!). But it was just a matter of time until my damage took out my opponent's team. And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.
Spineback Turtle played a huge role here as a tank with sufficient HP and armor in order to stay alive while Feasting Seaweed and Deeplurker finished the job. Overall my strategy worked out perfectly - Spineback Turtle stood strong as an immovable object.
Although the process of battling on the ladder until I managed to pull off this particular victory was rather frustrating, the outcome of this matchup totally made my day - there is nothing like the feeling of predicting your opponent's lineup and then picking the perfect counter to it!
I played more than my share of Spineback Turtle back in the good old days of Alric being in the starter set of cards. Right now, Spineback Turtle can still work well as a servicable tank, but we have a lot more melee options since the release of Chaos Legion. Spineback Turtle is probably not a card I'll go out of my way to get very often, but it was nice getting to use it again and, it does have a great niche as a low cost tank.
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:
- My 2021 in Splinterlands: A Retrospective
- A look back at how 2021 went for me in Splinterlands. - Do You Smell What the Roc is Cooking? Using Giant Roc in Battle! - My entry into this week's battle challenge, a matchup featuring Giant Roc.
- Moving up in Leagues - Is it Worth It? - a walkthrough of the (relatively complex) calculations to make as you climb the leaderboard.
Thinking about giving Splinterlands a try but haven't signed up yet? Feel free to use my referral link, and be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions!