I felt like an underdog going into this Novice Tourney. My opponent had a silver avatar. That seemed intimidating or important, right? Also, their previous battles had cards I am not sure I have ever seen outside of the Market. Well, I thought, it was only 3 DEC for a learning experience.
The most important details were the Battle Conditions
Battle Details
Mana: 23
Equalizer: All monsters get the health of the highest-health monsters
Equal Opportunity: All monsters have the Opportunity ability, which allows them to attack the weak backline cards
Splinters: Fire, Life, Earth
My Plan
With these battle conditions, I could play weak cards that have strong or interesting attacks. In my mind, I would need speed because my oppounent had overwhelming force on display in their last 5 battles. I do not have any Summoners or speed boost cards (like Brownie) so that meant Fire and Pyre.
Because of Equal Opportunity, I immediately thought of Exploding Rats, which I had not had the chance to use yet. It has Blast ability so it would be able to damage more than one card each attack. For some reason I thought it would be good to have the old standby Goblin Shaman to reduce the other player's health. I think that ended up being a poor choice and just wasted a slot.
I thought that the Equalizer gave me the chance to use one of my favorite cards, Ant Miners! Normally, Ant Miners needs to be hidden for a little while so that the special ability of gaining 1 health each time a card is destroyed can gain some momentum, but with Equalizer Ant Miners would start off with more health and might serve either as a flank defender or a last-gasp fighter in the last slot.
I also thought that Equalizer made it wise to use Serpentine Soldier, which is kind of like a bargain Living Lava.
The Battle - Full Replay (link)
The gold cards and self-healing tank had me worried, as did the 2 Blast cards they played. As I said above, Goblin Shaman just sort of died before any health advantage was seen. But Serpentine Soldier held out just long enough, and Ant Miners was a majestic site to behold, salvaging the win with an epic last stand!
It was a fun battle, and one I thought I had no chance of winning. I suppose the lesson is that you always have a chance and under the right circumstances, overlooked specialty cards can carry your team to victory.
I inevitably lost in the 3rd round to a Lobstradamus-led magic team that outclassed my own basic Water Warriors. I guess the lesson there is that better teams usually win haha!
Oh well... a learning experience, right?
Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it!!
Hat Tip to 