Watch the showcased battle here.
Featured Monster: Scavo Firebolt
This pint-sized monster packs a punch. Scavo Firebolt starts off with 2 🏹 points ranged damage, then increases to three 🏹 at level 4 and to four 🏹 points by level 7.
There's one thing I find especially odd about this monster, though. Lore says: "Scavo Firebolts were particularly changed by their proximity to the magma, developing the ability to summon and launch bolts of fire from their palms." Thus, would it not make more sense if Firebolt's attack is magic instead of ranged? 🤔
While it doesn't have any ability at lower levels, its stats are relatively good for a four-mana monster. Aside from a decent attack, its speed and health points aren't shabby either. Besides, its unlocked skill at level 6, Knockout, isn't that reliable. It is heavily dependent on a second monster dealing a successful Stun hit to take effect. So, I don't mind the Scavo warrior being skill-less in the Silver Leagues.
This Fire splinter monster also reminds me of Life's Peacebringer, one of my favorites. Both have almost the same stats and have no skills. They are also among the few in Silver Leagues having three-attack damage that falls within Little League qualification.
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My Lineup
Little League only allows monsters with a mana cost of four and below. The likes of Scavo Firebolt are particularly relevant in this scenario since it's among the few four-and-below that has attack damage reaching three points. Most monsters within this mana range only have one or two damage.
The other ruleset, Close Range, also incentivizes the use of ranged monsters since their primary weakness of not being able to attack in the frontline has been removed. So this match is kind of a perfect fit for Firebolt, right?
I have rented a level 4 Scavo Firebolt for around 2.5 DEC a day to get the monster at its Silver League peak. All the other monsters in the lineup are ones I own.
Here's my team focusing on "strong" monsters with low mana cost.
| Summoner |  | Little Leagues restricts monsters, but not summoners. So it's usually a good idea to go with an expensive Summoner with more skills. I would take out seven-mana Summoners like Yodin Zaku if I had one, but alas, four-mana Summoners like Quix are all I got. |
 | Cerberus is a reliable tank for Little Leagues. It has three melee-attack and six health at level 3, which are pretty high for low-mana monsters. But most of all, its Heal makes it extra dependable. It surely won't go down without a fight. | |
 | I got into a habit of adding a Reach monster in my Little League lineup as a secondary tank. The Close Range ruleset made it okay to use ranged monsters instead, but I ended up with my usual flow. So I instinctively placed Twilight Basilisk here. | |
 | Centaur comes next since I wanted to have a relatively beefy ranged monster to endure potential snipe attacks. If not for the Close Range ruleset, I would have tried using a magic monster here. Its Snipe skill isn't that important in this battle. | |
 | Goblin Shaman is such a strong card not to include in low-mana cap battles. Its double debuff of Slow and Weaken is quite nasty. And it's the only monster to have that combo within the Silver Leagues, so having the Shaman is a definite advantage. | |
 | Flame Imp is another capable low-mana monster and is one of my Little League regulars from the Fire Splinter. I often worry about its extremely feeble defense. But its fast speed and Flying skill enable it to dodge most physical attacks. | |
| Rounding up the team is the star of this battle, Scavo Firebolt. It's high attack makes it a very compelling member in the Little Leagues. I placed it on the rearmost because it's one of my beefier ranged monsters, so it could hopefully take on some sneak damage. . |
The Battle
Tarsa is a formidable opponent. However, the team underutilizes the summoner's strength, since half of their fighters are ranged monsters. There are several better low-mana options, such as melee monsters with sneak like Kobold Miner and Uraeus. I can only assume that they don't have those available on their deck.
Will this misstep give me a significant advantage for the win?
Watch the live battle here
My opponent's lapse in their team composition became more obvious after the buffs and debuffs were applied. Quix weakened their ranged attackers and downed their speed stat to one or two with the help of Goblin Shaman. They really should have used more melee attackers.
Now, let the battle begin!!! ⚔️
Round 1 showcased Centaur drawing the first blood. Spark Pixies failed to evade the snipe hit and is the first one to fall. My opponent's team was assaulted with speed debuffs twice, so they are pitifully slow. All of my monsters were able to attack before they had the chance to do anything.
Cerberus also dealt a killing blow to Xenith Monk and is the second monster to be knocked out in the game. Cerberus got the assist from Flame Imp and our featured monster, Scavo Firebolt.
🔥 Xenith Monk flails on the ground, trying to douse Scavo Firebolt's burning assault 🔥
Scavo Firebolt continued working hard in Round 2. It incinerated the enemy Antoid Platoon after getting softened up by Flame Imp. The rest of the enemies followed suit. Twilight Basilisk tore apart the Opportunist, Serpentine Spy, while Cerberus shredded the opposing Scavo Firebolt.
🔥 The Antoid Platoon were burned to ashes by Scavo Firebolt 🔥
They were down to their final combatant. The Lava Spider in the frontline will be able to attack because of the Close Range ruleset. But would it have a chance in a 1 vs 6 fight?
Centaur ends the battle with our 🥳Victory🥳 in Round 3.
Battle Retospective Review
The battle went incredibly well. My opponent's misstep of not including more melee monsters proved their downfall. However, even if they got this part right, I still think I could have won. Perhaps I will suffer casualties, but I would still likely emerge as the victor due to the wide gap between the two team's speed stat. All my monsters will still make a move first and evade most of their melee attacks.
But on my end, one thing I am considering to do differently for next time is to place my strongest attacker in the safest spot on the team. Scavo Firebolt should be somewhere in the middle, instead of the rear, that's vulnerable to sneak attacks.
As for the featured monster, I say I'm impressed. There aren't a lot of low-mana monsters with decent damage output. Thus, Scavo Firebolt is a great choice for fights with a limited mana pool and/or when rulesets limit your options. 🔥🔥🔥
Author's Note: In case you are wondering what's up with this four-year old account that has few blogs and barren engagement, I'd like to reveal that this
account is just an alternate account exclusively meant for Splinterlands play and publishing content related to it. I considered transferring all my game assets to my main Hive account, but that would erase all of my current progress. 😭
More details about this found on my "introduction" post.
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Attributions:
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Splinterland assets are owned by Splinterlands. Images created with Canva.