This week's Share Your Battle challenge features Venari Spellsmith! This is a card that everyone has access to thanks to it being part of the starter spellbook but it is not one that I personally use very often, so it was fun this week to try and figure out the best way to use a card that I normally just overlook.
Venri Spellsmith is a magic attacking monster. It isn't particularly cheap for its stats - for 4 mana you get a single point of magic damage paired with 2 speed and 2 health. It also has the Dispel ability, which can come in handy if you suspect that your opponent will be using buffs. One of the nicer things about Venari Spellsmith is that it's a neutral monster. That means if you get yourself a copy, then you will be able to use it in any battle as long as the Taking Sides ruleset is not in effect. And as you'll see in this battle, Venari Spellsmith is useful in some other rulesets as well!
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!
First up: the ruleset. This was a decent ruleset for using Venari Spellsmith because I was looking to bring it along with a team focused on magic damage. Magic has a decent chance of working well in a battle with Water and Earth, and 52 mana gives us plenty of space to work with.
As I just mentioned, my strategy for this battle was to use heavy magic damage. Obsidian is the perfect summoner for this because she boosts all of our magic attackers.
I started my team off big by splurging on my tank and secondary tank. Grund and Unicorn Mustang are both high cost tanks, and thanks to the luxury of that 52 mana cap, I was able to fit both of them into my lineup. I was hoping that Grund would be able to do some heavy damage with his Double Strike for a whooping 6 melee damage per turn, and that Unicorn Mustang would be able to step up once he was done.
The middle of a lineup is usually a great spot to place support monsters, and this battle was no exception. Queen Mycelia is particularly useful, granting my entire team some extra armor. Do note that I only brought Goblin Psychic along for the extra magic damage though - thanks to the Healed Out ruleset, there won't be any healing occurring in this fight!
I rounded out my team with some more magic damage. Magi of Chaos brings two magic damage to the table, along with more durability than you normally see from a magic attacker. And finally, our guest star of the week - Venari Spellsmith - finishes off the lineup. The selection of magic attackers for this battle was limited thanks to the Even Stevens ruleset, so in this case Venari Spellsmith with a nice and even mana cost of 4 was perfect. Its low health is a little bit of a liability at the back, but the extra armor from Queen Mycelia will hopefully help a bit.
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I am feeling pretty good about my chances. My opponent has brought a lineup filled with a mix of melee and ranged damage, and none of it is particularly concentrated on any one part of my lineup. That means Queen Mycelia's extra armor will be extremely useful this fight, and my magic attackers concentrated on the front of my opponent's lineup should have a great chance to burn through the opposing monsters relatively quickly.
As expected, the magic attacks get to work quickly. In the first round my team is able to take out the opposing Diemonshark and deal heavy damage to the Elven Defender.
One more round and the Elven Defender falls, with my opponent's Deeplurker. Sadly my Queen Mycelia goes down as well, but she did her job - her armor buff protected the Venari Spellsmith, and bought valuable time for the rest of my team to deal out additional magic damage.
It took a couple more rounds to mop up this battle, but after my opponent's Deeplurker was gone all that was left were a few ranged monsters. I still had the bulk of my magic damage left, not to mention the Unicorn Mustang, so it was just a matter of time until victory was at hand. 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 - my team's tanks at the front held on strong while my magic attackers mowed through the opposing monsters. Venari Spellsmith made it through the entire battle and did a great job of boosting my team's magic damage output.
While I won't normally choose to bring along Venari Spellsmith for battles where all of the monsters are available to choose, it has a niche thanks to its 4 mana cost. In rulesets where your options are limited, such as Even Stevens or Little League, Venari Spellsmith can sure come in handy! I will be sure to keep it on hand as an option to use when the time is right.
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:
Splinterlands Economics: Value - A look into the concept of value, and how we can apply it to our advantage in Splinterlands.
Flying Above the Carnage - Using Dragons in Battle! - Last week's battle challenge, featuring Dragons!
Splinterlands Economics: Yield - An introduction to Yield, and how we can apply it in Splinterlands.
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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.