Splinterlands is on the tip of everyone's tongue. So much so that it feels like everyone has caught up with all the basics. You choose cards based on your Quest or your read of the matchup and battle conditions then the most powerful monster squad wins.
But DOES it?
I have fought 1,094 battles now. That seems, well, insane. I can not name many other things that I have done 1,094 times, on purpose. I know I am not really very good at winning battles with my squad of mainly starter cards (518 total wins, though I feel a need to point out I lost 6 matches in the past two days because the system refused to register my teams even though I submitted them with more than 1 minute to spare... Pride is a dangerous thing!). Yet, I did feel like all of the remaining surprises were going to come in battles against Summoners and Epic/Legendary cards I had never heard of.
Little did I know.
The matchup was straightforward, in Bronze III, so no special battle conditions. The Mana limit was 15, and my opponent had played lots of different hands so I just focused on my own little dudes.
When I saw the lineup, I was not super optimistic, but thought I had a shot with a little luck
As the battle progressed, I found that I did NOT have luck. I missed a key strike and soon found my lonely Haunted Spirit up against 3 Fire monsters. I will confess that I shouted at my computer a bit, then clicked Skip to Results ready to gird for the next battle.
I could not understand how I won, so I replayed the battle.
After a dozen rounds of tedious whacking and healing, Round 21 came along and all of a sudden everyone started losing HP because of "Fatigue." Here is my opponent taking the first of several brutal waves of Fatigue damage.
So, eventually I won this battle because of Fatigue and my higher base HP combined with healing. Was it skill and strategic brilliance? No. Definitely not.
But did I learn that the path to full knowledge of Splinterlands is a long one? Definitely!
So for all you fellow Noobs out there, just know that sometimes Fatigue puts its weary weight on the scales to determine the outcome of your battle.
Here is a link to the replay if you can stand all two dozen rounds! https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=a0ed6ccc8b95b0045527fe00ea8478f79651c3a1&ref=pregosauce