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 had a higher level card.
Featured cards
Nim Guard Captain is a death splinter that costs 7 mana. This splinter starts with the void ability. Leveling up this card only increases the stats of this monster. I use this monster quite often in Frontier because it's the best tank available with the death splinters.
Rule Set, Battle, and Plan
The rulesets this time are Earthquake and Up Close & Personal. This means that only melee monsters can be used, and any non-flying monsters will take 2 physical damage per turn. There is also 30 mana available, and I can use death or dragon splinter.
This battle is very interesting because we are limited to just the death splinter since there is no dragon in Frontier. At the same time, there are also no flying melee monsters either so all monsters will take that physical damage every single turn.
| Splinter | Mana Cost | Position | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thalgrimore | 6 | Summoner | -1 Health |
| Nim Guard Captain | 7 | 1st | Void |
| Great Bear Druid | 9 | 2nd | |
| New Beluroc Aegis | 8 | 3rd | Taunt |
| Total Mana: | 30 |
My summoner is Thalgrimore for its -1 health. My tank is Nim Guard Captain because it the void ability. After that is Great Bear Druid with magic damage, and New Beluroc Aegis with taunt.
The focus of this lineup is to keep my monsters alive. I don't have many monsters that can attack, but I want my monsters to live as long as possible. With the -1 health from the archon guaranteed, I chose the only other melee monster with 6 or more health as my backup tank while the taunt monster attracts the rest of the damage.
Round 1
At first glance, I think that I have the win. My opponent has a similar lineup to mine, but he does not have taunt, and that earthquake damage will kill off that attacker soon enough. Also, my tank has one more armor than my opponent so the earthquake is unlikely to damage my card before it hits his.
Round 4
Both of us are left down to two monsters. However, my tank has two more health than my opponent because earthquake had to go through my last remaining armor before it hurt me.
I won that match a few rounds later.
Conclusion
The battle this time went exactly as planned. It's amazing to see how that one armor changed the course of the match. Otherwise, this match would have ended as a draw. Sometimes you just need those extra stats to push the fight to your advantage. It's rare but every slight edge adds up.
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.