Introduction

Hello fellow summoners,

This week, you may have noticed that my "weekly" challenge is actually a monster that was the weekly monster a few weeks ago. I have not written a Splinterlands article for a long time and I just want to revisit them as some contain monsters that I love to use! So don't worry if my Splinterlands weekly monster is different from yours, I'm still catching up!

So the weekly monster from a month ago was the Serpent of the Flames. The Serpent of the Flames is an epic Alpha/Beta card belonging to the fire splinter. Welcome to the weekly challenge featuring the Serpent of the Flames!

Card Levels

Serpent of the Flames starts of pretty weak at level 1, serving mainly as a medium mana fast tank. As it gains extra levels, it starts gaining awesome abilities such as Poison and Piercing as well as a lot of attack. The combination of these things allows it to quickly overtake Cerberus as my favorite cheap Fire Tank. In fact, I love to play Serpent of the Flames in my Zaku and Plado teams instead of Cerberus!

Rulesets

This match was a low 16 mana battle with the rules Aim True (Monsters always hit) and Lost Magic (No Magic Monsters). All Splinters were available except Earth and Dragon.

Summoners and Monsters

It was a low mana game so I decided to go with my sneak team. Usually I go with Cocatrice but with Aim True, I decided to sacrifice placing more monsters for a more solid Serpent of the Flames.

Plado Emberstorm:

This guy is just AMAZING for sneak teams. Gives +1 melee and +1 speed while bringing your enemy's health down by 1! All round good summoner.

Serpent of the Flames:

Serpent of the Flames will be my main tank for my Plado sneak team. Its high health and high attack will make it the perfect tank to protect my sneak monsters while doing massive damage to the enemy.

Kobold Miner

Solid 2 mana sneak monster. Does a lot of damage for its low mana and has a good amount of health and speed, perfect for a low mana sneak team.

Elven Cutthroat:

An etra sneak monster, this fast but cheap sneak attacker is very commonplace if you are going to have a sneak team. Goes well with my Kobold Miner.

Furious Chicken:

My bait for a possible sneak team. It can tank 1 shot from any of my opponent;s sneak monster and because it is lost magic, I predict there will be one.

Battle Analysis

You can follow the battle here: https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=e531e2573176170282c7b19ade91d26c0fb968c6

Turn 1

Looks like my opponent had a similar idea and went with a standard Tyrus sneak team. His main tank is the Crystal Werewolf and the feral Spirit and Silvershield Assassin as the sneak attackers.

The battles starts with my Serpent of the Flames Piercing the +1 armor off the Crystal Werewolf and into its health to lower it down to 4. The Serpent also poisons it. My Kobold Miner and Elven Cutthroat tag team to bring down the feral spirit but not before it manages to take out my chicken. The assassin in turn, takes out my cutthroat. The Crystal Werewolf attacks the Serpent of the Flames and the Serpent fails to retaliate.

Turn 2

The poisons manages to take 2 health off the Crystal Werewolf and my Serpent quickly brings it down leaving only the assassin alive. The Kobold Miner takes out the Silvershield Assassin's armor afterward. The Silvershield assassin attacks my Serpent twice but not before it retaliated, bringing the health of the assassin down to 1 and poisoning it.

Turn 3

The poison at the start of the turn takes out the Assassin and leaves me with a win.

Very well played on my opponent's part and without the Serpent of the Flames, I probably wouldn't have won that.

Conclusion

I find Serpent of the Flames very useful in cases such as the battle above since it is a meaty tank and it can do a lot of damage. The Retaliates and Poison can also help out in sticky situations as seen in the battle. Without the Serpent of the Flames, I would have completely lost that battle. My verdict on this monster is that even though it can be replaced be monsters such as Cerberus, sometimes sacrificing that extra 2 mana is worth it to get such a powerful monster with awesome abilities on your team.

Thank you for reading my article and remember to BATTLE ON!