It's thorns all around with the Crystal Jaguar going to battle in Splinterland's SHARE YOUR BATTLE Weekly Challenge!
It's thorns all around with the Crystal Jaguar, Manticore, and two Crystal Werewolves making appearances in both players' battle lineups. Who will reign supreme? Let's find out in my entry for this week's Share Battle Weekly Challenge over at Splinterlands.
Theme: Crystal Jaguar
For this week, the challenge is to include the Crystal Jaguar, a Common Card from the Life Splinter, in the battle lineup.
I haven't used this card in battle before. But, looking at its stats, it seems comparable with cards like the Spineback Turtle, Crystal Werewolf, Manticore, and Biceratops—low mana melee monsters with the Thorns ability.
However, on top of Thorns, the Crystal Jaguar also has the Retaliate ability when maxxed at Level 10. This makes the Crystal Jaguar a very valuable defensive card against melee monsters since it can counterattack twice.
Thus, when placed at the back, the Crystal Jaguar could easily eliminate monsters with the Sneak ability, especially if we consider that most Sneak monsters have low life points and will probably not survive multiple Thorns counterattacks.
With that in mind, the Crystal Jaguar is suited to play defense during low mana cap battles—whether on the front end as a tank or at the backend to defend against sneak.
The Gameplan
For this battle, only the Fire, Life, Earth, and Dragon splinters were active. Mana was limited to 16 and the Super Sneak ruleset applies—good battle conditions to play the Crystal Jaguar. However, the battle was in the Gold Leagues, so the Crystal Jaguar doesn't have the Retaliate ability, yet.
In building my team, I chose Daria Dragonscale as a summoner to increase my melee damage. Then, I added Crystal Werewolf in the first position, followed by Enchanted Pixie, Silvershield Bard, Creeping Ooze, Furious Chicken, and, of course, the Crystal Jaguar at the back.
For defense, I paired the Crystal Jaguar with the Crystal Werewolf to defend the front and rear of my lineup with Thorns against melee attacks, while the Crystal Werewolf's Silence ability weakens all magic attacks.
For offense, the Enchanted Pixie's Inspire buff adds another melee damage. This means five out of the six monsters in my lineup will have +2 melee damage. And, because Super Sneak rules apply, all my melee monsters, including the Furious Chicken, will attack every round with at least 3 damage.
The Battle
Interestingly, my opponent played almost the same cards I did. We both had the Crystal Werewolf, Silvershield Bard, Creeping Ooze, and Furious Chicken in our teams.
It ended up as a Thorns vs. Thorns defense—my Crystal Werewolf vs. the opponent's Manticore upfront, and my Crystal Jaguar vs. the opponent's Crystal Werewolf on the backline.
The difference between the two teams, however, is between the buffs resulting from Daria Dragonscale and Enchanted Pixie (+2 melee attack damage) on my team and the Defender of Truth (+2 armor) in the opponent's team.
Here are the monster's new stats after the buffs and debuffs are applied:
Thus, while I focused on building a high melee damage team, my opponent focused on defense.
So, the question is can my high-attack team overpower the opponent's better-defended team, or will the opponent's armor outlast my attacks?
Round 1
After the first volley of attacks, it quickly became evident that my melee-heavy gamble is paying off because my monsters eliminated the opponent's Crystal Werewolf at the backline, losing only the Silvershield Bard in the process.
With one more attack left, we both ended the round losing two monsters--Furious Chicken and Silvershield Bard on my team and the Crystal Werewolf and Creeping Ooze on the opponent's.
Round 2
With the Crystal Werewolf eliminated on the opponent's team,
it cleared the way for my sneak attackers to overcome the opponent's backline and eliminate them one by one.
Round 3
At this point, only the Manticore was left in the other team and my lineup eliminated the opponent's team in three rounds.
Here is a link to the full battle, to see it in action: Battle Link
Thus, my melee heavy gamble paid off and the higher melee damage, together with the Crystal Jaguar's Thorns counterattack and 3 armor, helped give me the win.
At the same time, because my team's Crystal Jaguar had 3 armor, it survived the opponent's sneak monsters and protected the backline much longer than its Crystal Werewolf counterpart. In fact, it outlasted all, but the Manticore in the opponent's team.
The Crystal Jaguar Saves the Day
So, when it comes to low-mana battles, the Crystal Jaguar is looking to be a top contender for anyone playing the Life or Dragon/Life Splinter.
With just 4 mana, it has enough attack, counterattack, life points, and armor to withstand most melee and ranged attacks. And paired with the Crystal Werewolf's ability to weaken magic attacks, it also gains a better defensive position against magic users.
And as this battle has shown, when placed at the backend against sneak monsters, the Crystal Jaguar won't just survive the sneak attacks, but also deal significant damage through its Thorns ability.
So, in this Thorns vs. Thorns battle, it looks like the Crystal Jaguar is the last monster standing.
Some Musings
One thing to note, though is that in this case, the opponent used Selenia Sky as a summoner, even though they didn't use any ranged attack monsters who can benefit from its buff.
So, could I have won the battle if a different summoner was used?
Would my strategy have worked against Tyrus Paladium's +2 Armor, or Mother Khala's +1 Life, or Lorna Shine's Divine Shield? It's definitely something worth considering.
And for those interested, here is a second battle with the Crystal Jaguar, this time in the first position as a tank under the Little Mana Ruleset.
Thanks for stopping by. 😀
The cover image and all other images in this post are taken from Splinterlands artworks or screen captures from the Official Splinterlands website.
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