Welcome back for another Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge. In this week's challenge, we heave been tasked to fight a match using Elven Cutthroat which is a low-mana monster that has good speed, the "Sneak" ability to attack the rear of the opponent's formation, and is also a neutral monster which means that it can fight alongside any Splinter. However, Elven Cutthroat does have low health ,and can easily be taken out of the fight by a single blow. So, join me in this battle where put Elven Cutthroat to the test against the Fire Splinter!!
The Lineup
This match was fought with only 15 Mana points which meant that I didn't have a lot of leeway when picking my team. Given the low Mana cap, I knew I wanted to play a healing monster in first position, so I chose Haunted Spirit and the Death Splinter. Although there are quite a few healing monsters in the game, I happen to think Haunted Spirit is one of the best as it costs only 5 Mana but has 7 health. I could have chosen the Fire Splinter and played Cerberus, but I wanted to use Zintar Mortalis as my summoner to give the opponent's team a -1 Melee debuff.
In second spot, I played Furious Chicken which I think was couild have been a key to my victory. Furious Chicken costs 0 mana to play, and especially in the low Mana matches, every attack matters. In this match, Serpentine Spy "wasted" one of its attacks targeting Furious Chicken which could have otherwise took Elven Cutthroat out of the fight. By absorbing one of my opponent's first round attacks, I think Furious Chicken helped the rest of my team stay in the fight longer.
I knew that Elven Cutthroat had exceptionally low health and that a single attack could take it out of the fight, so I wanted to make sure it wasn't on the front line, but I also didn't want to put it at the rear of my formation in case my opponent played a "Sneak" capable monster. Placing it in third position allowed it to be sandwiched between Furious Chicken and Twisted Jester to protect it.
In general, its a good idea to play ranged monsters in the last position as they can't fight if they move into first spot, so I finished out my lineup with Twisted Jester. One of the nice things about Twisted Jester is that it has the "Snipe" ability which allows it to selectively target the opposing monster with the lowest health.
The Match
When I fist saw the opponent's lineup, I was a bit nervous as I saw that they had a significant speed boost and would likely be able to get in a first round attack. Thankfully, Haunted Spirit was able to absorb some of the first round damage (and subsequently heal itself back to full health) while Furious Chicken was able to also deflect Serpentine Spy's initial attack. After the initial attack, Elven Cutthroat got right to work eliminating Serpentine Spy while Twisted Jester started targeting the opponent's monsters with the lowest health. At the end of the day, my team was able to carry the victory.
Analysis of Elven Cutthroat
Elven Cutthroat isn't a monster that I use a lot simply because its low health means that even a single hit can take it out. 3 Mana is a lot to spend on a monster that might get eliminated before it can even contribute to the battle, so I'm always a bit hesitant to put it in a match. That being said, it can make a nice addition to the team if you have a significant speed boost on your team or if you have other monsters (like Furious Chicken) that can deflect attacks from Elven Cutthroat. Although it isn't my absolutely favorite monster in the game, I do think that Elven Cutthroat can make a considerable impact on the match when played under the right circumstances.
Summary
Win or loose, it is always nice to enter into the challenges and try new strategies and cards. Although the primary purpose of this post is to share my battle, I always like to remind players that Splinterlands rewards players for EVERY SINGLE match that they win with cryptocurrency. Players also win from daily quests, end of season rewards, and even get free airdrops of the SPS governance token based on their card collections. It's not financial advice, but if you like trading card games or just earning crypto and NFTs, then feel free to check out Splinterlands or watch my battle replay here
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_5602fc9d639a2ada6f105fd6606f8464&ref=parttimeeconon