Hello Splinterlands Summoners and welcome to another post on Splinterlands Social Media Challenge! In today's post, I'll talk about the importance of speed and how it can win battles even against stronger opponents.
First, let's check out all the card's stats. Each card can potentially have four: attack, speed, armor and health. While Uriel has all four stats, there are some cards don't have armor or attack.
Attack
Strength of the attack determines how much potential damage a unit may cause the opponent. In Uriel's case, the normal attack is four but it can still be multiplied with his Recharge ability.
Speed
Speed has two effects in battle. It will determine who attacks first and it can determine the accuracy of each attack depending on the speed differential between attacker and defender. In rulesets like Reverse Speed, the slowest unit gets to attack first.
Armor
Armor acts as a shield and gets reduced first before the attack can reduce a unit's health. Magic attacks can get through armor but if a unit has the Void Armor ability then it can shield even magic attacks. There are a lot of modifiers in the game involving armor such as Weak Magic, Piercing, Protect, Rust and Repair.
Health
Health is how much attack a unit can absorb before it gets eliminated. When health reaches zero then a unit is taken out of the battle. Tanks like Uriel have the highest health in the game.
The Need for Speed
I have experienced this a lot of times where speed won me the battle. I will show one example where I'm against a more powerful opponent but my advantage in speed proved crucial in gaining the victory.
This battle left me with few choices having only three splinters available to use. I don't have an Earth splinter deck so the my choices were only Water or Dragon. I picked Water because I wanted to have an extra armor provided by Kelya. The ruleset also includes Melee Mayhem where all melee monsters can attack from any position.
My Team
Kelya (summoner)
Water units are already fast but Kelya adds another speed stat to all units. She also provides an armor to her team.
Commander Slade (tank)
Commander Slade is my favorite tank in the Water splinter and with good reason. For a rare card, his stats and abilities can compete with legendary cards. He can deal four melee damage and is very fast with five speed stats. He is very beefy with six armor and nine health, great stats for a tank. For abilities, he can debuff the enemy with his Enfeeble ability. He can also Dodge attacks and has the Deflect ability which is useful in Briar Patch ruleset. Commander Slade's only weakness is his lack of defense against magic attacks.
Giant Alpine Skink (second position)
The Giant Alpine Skink is another new tank from the Rebellion reward card. This is a common card so it's not as good as Commander Slade but it has its own merits. My Giant Alpine Skink has four melee damage and five speed similar to my Commander Slade. It has an armor of two and health of seven. It's abilities are good defense against attacks. It has Shield that reduces melee and ranged attacks and it has Phase that gives it a chance to dodge magic attacks.
Coastal Sentry (third position)
Coastal Sentry is an exceptionally great offensive card. My Coastal Sentry can deal four melee damage and has four speed. It has two armor and six health. The problem is it's a melee card and don't have the Snipe or Sneak abilities so its use is limited with Kelya as summoner. However, it can be used in rulesets such as Melee Mayhem so it's one of the cards I immediately picked.
Deep Lurker (fourth position)
Deep Lurker is a card I mostly use whenever I choose the Water splinter. It's only six mana but has great damage potential with four attack and has the Snipe and Poison abilities. I use it in high or low mana battles making it so versatile.
Uraeus (fifth position)
Uraeus is another card that I usually use. It's a neutral card that can be included in the team of any splinter. It deals decent damage for only three mana and also has the Poison ability. It can wreck the enemy backline with its Sneak ability.
Halfling Refugee
Halfling Refugee is a one mana card that I usually use as a tank in low mana battles. He can deal three melee damage, has three speed and health of six. He is a decent tank in low mana battles. I also use him in the backline to guard against Sneak attackers.
The Opponent Team
The opponent is very strong, all cards are maxed including two legendary cards. The summoner he used was Immortalis, a nightmare for Kelya because of his Shatter buff. He also decreases the opponent's health by one. If you compare the lineups, I am at a severe disadvantage except that my units are much faster than his. All my units have speeds of three and above. With Kelya's speed buff, it becomes four and above while my opponent's fastest unit has a speed of four and he has units with speed of one. This means that all my units will get to attack first before most of his units do each round.
The Battle
My units attacked first as expected and eliminated two of my opponent's units before they can even attack. It also left his Goblin Psychic poisoned and will soon die. He managed to eliminate two of my units but soon it was four against one. The elimination of two of his units in the first round was crucial since they didn't get to do damage to my units. My opponent's team was stronger overall but I had the important advantage in speed that led to my victory.
Final Thoughts
Splinterlands is a game of strategy. Having the strongest and maxed level units does not immediately guarantee victory. Summoners (players) still need to determine the best combination of units to use in particular rulesets as well as anticipate the team his opponent will field in battle. This is what makes Splinterlands a fun and challenging game.