Splinterlands is a complex game, and it allows for various cards and strategies. Each fight is different as there are various rulesets applied, and this can give specific cards an advantage depending on how you use them. In this post, I talk about a great battle where I won because I used Giam Root.
Featured cards
Giam Root is an earth splinter that costs 9 mana. This card has strengthen to start. Leveling this card increases its attack. Since this is a foundational card, it can only go up to level 2.
This is a card that I like to use often in Foundational fights if the mana allows for it because of its high health. This means that the rest of my monsters can deal more damage before moving up to the frontmost spot.
Rule Set, Battle, and Plan
The rulesets this time is Keep Your Distance and Reverse Speed. This means that no melee monsters can be used, and the attack order is reversed. There is also 52 mana available, and I can use earth, death, or dragon splinter.
This is an interesting match because we can't use melee monsters. This limits the cards you can use, so you have to decide how to balance your monsters to win the match. Since this is foundation fights, there are no dragon cards. There aren't too many options available.
| Splinter | Mana Cost | Position | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aurelia | 6 | Summoner | +1 Health |
| Time Bandit | 8 | 1st | Cleanse |
| Giam Root | 9 | 2nd | Strengthen |
| Glimmermancer | 6 | 3rd | |
| A'lan Musketeer | 8 | 4th | |
| Kicking Roc | 8 | 5th | |
| Wilhelmdale Deputy | 7 | 6th | Snare |
| Total Mana: | 52 |
My summoner is Aurelia for its +1 health. My tank is Time Bandit. After that are Giam Root and Glimmermancer as backup tanks. My last three monsters are all ranged monsters for dealing damage.
The focus of this lineup is to keep my ranged monsters alive, as they will be dealing most of the damage. There are no melee monster,s so I don't have to worry about my backline as much. Time Bandit is up first due to its decent health and magic damage. Then it's Giam Root for its high health, and Glimmermancer as another magic monster. The rest are just ranged monsters.
Round 1
At first glance, I think that I have the advantage due to Giam Root. I think my opponent made a bad choice by using the thorns monster up front because we can't use melee monsters. Other than that, most of our lineups are the same. So my opponent is also focused on a similar strategy.
Round 5
Giam Root is dead now, but my opponent is down to just one ranged damage dealer left. There is zero chance that I lose this match now because of the damage advantage that I have.
I won that match a few rounds later.
Conclusion
The battle this time went exactly as planned. My opponent used a thorns monster while I used Giam Root, and that turned out to be the deciding factor. Our lineups were quite similar. The extra health let the rest of my damage dealers do more damage because of how long it took my opponent to kill Giam Root.
You can see my entire match here.
What did you think of my match? Was there anything you would have done differently? I think it is quite interesting to see how different players use the same card.