Today I will show you two battles. The first battle is one of the harshest lessons I've had to learn in Splinterlands Tournaments recently at Bronze level - I won't go too much into detail with this one. The second battle will be with the usual depth of detail one would expect for the weekly ruleset but mostly, it will be a showcase of me applying learning from my previous mistakes.
Harsh Lessons From The Past
This battle I am sharing immediately below is one which I lost and feel I have learned a great deal from. I wanted to share this additional battle as a teaching and learning opportunity for myself and others - but also because I lucked out and had another opportunity to put things right not long after.
As you can see from my opponent's lineup, they went heavy on the damage compared to my lineup. They also added in a Double Void set up which really caused issues alongisde their Bortus meaning only one of my monsters could penetrate Djinn Oshannus' Void.
It took my line up FOURTEEN rounds to get past the Baakjira and by which point I was about to lose my only source of decent damage in Djinn Oshannus. The remaining battle was a landslide. The battle here was not lost due to RNG. That battle was lost due to a poor selection which made two serious mistakes;
My line up did not haven enough damage - Cards such as Nerissa Tridawn and Riverboat Captain were key damage cards.
I did not account for my opponent's options and strategy - Cards like Bortus and any Void monster have excellent defensive synergy and can be used to be a real nuisance to magic users.
I did not really consider the idea of using a double Void strategy in a strongly suggested magic ruleset - Cards like Baakjira and Djinn Oshannus really secured the front line making it incredibly difficult to penetrate for my lineup.
Put The Lesson Into Practice
Here is the featured battle with my learning in action. Let's see how it goes this time.
Taking Sides
"Neutral Monsters may not be used in battles.
There are no special tricks for this ruleset, but make a balanced team." - Splintercards
Keep Your Distance:
"Monsters with Melee attack may not be used in battles.
Keep no attack or higher HP monsters in the front. Keep higher speed Magic monsters with abilities like Flying, Dodge, Blind in the front." - Splintercards
Mana
With this wide range of availability with regard to Splinters, I'll certainly be choosing Water again. 39 mana is a good amount that a Double Void strategy will be effective and leave enough space for high damage to follow right behind it.
My Lineup
Bortus
My strategy here is as the first battle, to trap the opponent's damage so by using Bortus I can reduce the incoming magic damage to make it less potent.
Baakjira
The first thing I have taken from the previous battle is a double tank strategy. Should they select magic for this ruleset, this will swing things in my favour. Worst case, Baakjira will slow the opponent down and increase my line ups speed relative to the opposing lineup. Either way, Bortus plus Baakjira makes sense to me.
Djinn Oshannus
As a reward card, this has to be one of the best cards around. It is abused in magic battles and I hope to do so again here. For the mana, the health and speed it is well worth it especially because it works so well alongside Bortus. Similar to my first battle I will select this card again because it is almost too good not to select.
Nerissa Tridawn
Taking another leaf out of my previous opponent's book, I am upping my damage to ensure that Void + Bortus is not an issue. Even if my opponent ends up using a ranged strategy instead of magic, Nerissa is healthy enough and does enough damage to last as a third tank if need be. A very powerful monster for nine mana and one I am confident in the selection of.
Venari Wavesmith
As I am expecting some ranged damage to come my way, I am adapting my plan and utilising Venari Wavesmith's Protect ability to add additional armour to my line up. This should work very nicely with my last monster's ability which should ensure the longevity of my line up in the event I come up against heavy ranged bombardments.
Swamp Spitter
I think this is an awesome card especially given it is soulbound. With the Repair ability, I am hoping to restore any lost armour on my lineup which should helo my line up to survive a little longer if they end up against a line up with archery damage.
Opposing lineup:
Franz Ruffmane
With a boost in Armour and the Gladius cards unlocked, I would not be surprised to see Captain Katie in this battle. If that is the case, I'd be pretty happy due to the way I am set up. The opponent is using a first level summoner so a number of life cards will be very limited unless they have a very wide array of modern cards. I am happy at this stage not to see General Sloan.
Pelacor Conjurer
I do love a Pelacor Conjurer but at first level this monster is lacking the more effective abilities including Magic Reflect which is gained at Silver level. I am happy to see this card here.
Djinn Renova
Djinn Renova is an excellent card to choose with the Strengthen ability which increases the health of all monsters on a line up. The two damage will be reduced down to one and will be rendered ineffective against my two tanks so it will be important to beat this card before I lose my tanks.
Captain Katie
This is one of my favourite Gladius cards. Three base magic damage is excellent and the Bloodlust ability make this a scary proposition to play against. One of the other abilities this card has at first level is Snipe so this card will be targeting my Djinn Oshannus directly. Hopefully, I can do enough damage to their frontline before this card wreaks havoc on the rest of my lineup.
Time Mage
I love a good Time Mage, this card gets significantly better at fourth level so if my opponent does manage to level up their summoner in the future then this card can really do some damage. However in this case, the Slow ability will be the most useful part of it.
Venari Crystalsmith
The Crystalsmith will be healing from the backline and this will slow down my magic onslaught. But with just a single archery damage (it gets increased at Level Four) it should pose no real threat as my Swamp Spitter should be able to repair any damage this card does.
Prismologist
I think the Prismologist is one of the better Epic cards around. Blast is an awesome ability and three base damage is huge for Blast. This card is a significant threat to my lineup. An excellent choice of card and one to put right at the back out of the way of any immediate danger. - Sneak is quite rare for ranged attackers - so a good placement of this deadly card.
Pre Battle Thoughts:
Having gone through a pretty harsh lesson in the previous battle, I feel a lot more confident in my selections and the potential victory outcome here. I think the double Void tank strategy with high health and high consistent damage will be too much for the opponent to penetrate.
The Battle
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Rounds 4 & 5
Final Rounds
Conclusions:
My opponent used a good strategy but they were unfortunate to have packed a much magic damage as they did. On the flip side, I was lucky they did not bring more ranged archery attack in this battle. But to be fair sometimes even when you look to an opponent's history, you end up with a guess as to which direction their strategy will go.
In my case things worked out this time, partly due to some luck but I would like to think the reworked lineup had plenty to do with it.
Further Thoughts to Share:
I am not the best player in Splinterlands, but what I will say is;
- the more battles you play = the better you get!
- making note of your losses AND WHY = makes you a better player!
- Sometimes your opponent can just surprise you with a selection and all you can do is learn.
- In Splinterlands you can and will make mistakes, you just have to be willing to learn from them.
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Splinter Element Icons taken from Splinterlands
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