Something else this week as I'm doing some experimentation with strategies in Splinterlands, this time I'm looking at the difference in performance between Attack-Focused Teams and Balanced Teams...
While I'm sure that bots and battle helpers are pretty much able to play Splinterlands close to optimally, I enjoy the game for what it is manually trying to build as good as possible decks for each specific game rule. Something I always wondered is if it's better to play balanced decks that are hard to counter or attack-specific teams that tend to be more powerful but vulnerable to be countered.
So I put this a bit to the test playing a day of 25 Ranked battles trying to only play Balanced Teams and another day just going full out on 1 specific attack
I consider a balanced team one that has Melee, Magic, & Ranged attack so it's hard for the opponent to counter. I tried 25 matches doing this regardless of the game rules which resulted in this...
| Game | Me | Opp | Rule | Link | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Balanced (1%) | Focused (99%) | No Sneak | Link | LOST |
| 02 | Balanced (0%) | Focused (100%) | No Melee | Link | LOST |
| 03 | Balanced (90%) | Focused (10%) | No Ranged | Link | WON |
| 04 | Balanced (67%) | Balanced (33%) | Slow | Link | WON |
| 05 | Balanced (100%) | Focused (0%) | Opportunity | Link | WON |
| 06 | Balanced (25%) | Focused (75%) | Opportunity | Link | LOST |
| 07 | Balanced (8%) | Focused (92%) | Melee | Link | LOST |
| 08 | Balanced (100%) | Balanced (0%) | No Ability | Link | WON |
| 09 | Balanced (71%) | Balanced (29%) | Poison | Link | LOST |
| 10 | Balanced (100%) | Focused (0%) | Only Melee | Link | WON |
| 11 | Balanced (2%) | Balanced (98%) | Equalizer | Link | LOST |
| 12 | Focused (1%) | Focused (99%) | Only Ranged | Link | LOST |
| 13 | Balanced (100%) | Focused (0%) | Fury | Link | WON |
| 14 | Balanced (100%) | Focused (0%) | Return Fire | Link | WON |
| 15 | Focused (4%) | Focused (96%) | No Magic | Link | LOST |
| 16 | Balanced (100%) | Focused (0%) | Standard | Link | WON |
| 17 | Balanced (0%) | Balanced (100%) | No Abilities | Link | LOST |
| 18 | Focused (100%) | Focused (0%) | Only Magic | Link | WON |
| 19 | Focused (96%) | Focused (4%) | No Magic | Link | WON |
| 20 | Balanced (9%) | Balanced (91%) | odds | Link | LOST |
| 21 | Focused (59%) | Focused (41%) | No Ranged | Link | LOST |
| 22 | Focused (0%) | Balanced (100%) | Blast | Link | LOST |
| 23 | Focused (6%) | Focused (94%) | No Ranged | Link | LOST |
| 24 | Balanced (69%) | Focused (31%) | Thorns | Link | WON |
| 25 | Balanced (100%) | Focused (0%) | Reflect | Link | WON |
What I quickly noticed that the game kind of forces players to play a focused deck since many of the rules directly or indirectly prevent 1 of the Attack types to be played. Out of 25 games, I only managed to play 18 Balanced Line-ups which actually did 10W-8L in record while the matches which kind of forced me to play focused went 2W-5L. Also looking at my opponents they had only 7 out of 25 decks that included 3 different attack types. I also felt like I had to re-learn the game forcing myself at times to play differently.
I consider attack-focused teams that only have 2 different attack types at most. I notice myself playing these types of decks the most. These were my results
| Game | Me | Opp | Rule | Link | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Focused (61%) | Focused (39%) | No Magic | Link | WON |
| 02 | Focused (51%) | Focused (49%) | No Odd Mana | Link | WON |
| 03 | Focused (29%) | Focused (71%) | Reflect & no Range | Link | WON |
| 04 | Focused (1%) | Balanced (99%) | Opportunity | Link | LOST |
| 05 | Focused (99%) | Focused (4%) | Poison | Link | WON |
| 06 | Focused (100%) | Focused (0%) | No Ability | Link | WON |
| 07 | Focused (0%) | Focused (100%) | No ranged | Link | LOST |
| 08 | Focused (100%) | Focused (0%) | Range attack | Link | WON |
| 09 | Focused (36%) | Focused (64%) | No Melee | Link | LOST |
| 10 | Focused (100%) | Balanced (0%) | Fury | Link | WON |
| 11 | Focused (33%) | Focused (67%) | Reflect | Link | WON |
| 12 | Focused (0%) | Focused (0%) | No Sneak | Link | LOST |
| 13 | Focused (23%) | Focused (77%) | Return Fire | Link | LOST |
| 14 | Focused (0%) | Focused (100%) | Only Ranged | Link | LOST |
| 15 | Focues (100%) | Balanced (0%) | No Armor | Link | WON |
| 16 | Focused (96%) | Balanced (4%) | Reflect | Link | WON |
| 17 | Focused (95%) | Focused (5%) | Blast | Link | WON |
| 18 | Balanced (100%) | Balanced (0%) | Resurect | Link | LOST |
| 19 | Focused (41%) | Focused (59%) | Enrage | Link | LOST |
| 20 | Focused (0%) | Balanced (100%) | Opportunity | Link | LOST |
| 21 | Focused (5%) | Balanced (95%) | Ranged Any | Link | WON |
| 22 | Focused (42%) | Focused (58%) | No Magic | Link | WON |
| 23 | Focused (0%) | Focused (100%) | No Abilities | Link | LOST |
| 24 | Focused (28%) | Focused (72%) | Melee Everywhere | Link | LOST |
| 25 | Focused (100%) | Balanced (0%) | Reflect | Link | WON |
There was just 1 game rule where I kind of was 'forced' to play a balanced team but on the 24 others I went 14W-10L with my opponent playing a balanced team in just 7 matches with me winning 5 of those.
New Game Rule Suggestion: Balanced Out!
Looking at things now it very much feels like the game forces players to focus on a specific attack and many of the game rules increase on this. I know of enjoy a healthy balance between different attack times in matches and I would love a game rule that actually forces players to do this for a change.
- Maximum 2 Monsters with the same Attack Type Can be Used
A Game rule that states that there are a maximum of 2 monsters that can be used for each attack type would be nice. once 2 are used it can blank out all the others similar to how this is done with Gladius cards. Too often times, now the strategy based on the game rules is just to spam all the strongest monsters from a certain attack type along with the summoner that gives the biggest benefits for this.
Next Test: Nerf Opponent!
Since it looks like in most matches, players at most play 2 different attack types, I'm going to run a test where I built my team fully based on trying to counter these attacks.
Conclusion
I'm enjoying Splinterlands still very much as a manual player and think the core gameplay loop very much holds up. The game an the rules do kind of force players to make teams with focused attacks instead of including all 3. it would be nice to have a game rule that limits players in this ability forcing a more balanced approach. So far based on the limited number of battles there is no major difference for me in playing balanced vs Attack-focused decks.
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