I am a shrimp. I wanted to play Splinterlands because I kept hearing how fun it is and how I would have a Lambo for every day of the week after playing only a week or two hahaha! I might be exaggerating on that last point. But the hype around Splinterlands is all about the fun gameplay and the ease with which everyone wins cards and gains mountains of DEC and all the profit stuff.
Well, for a shrimp neither are true for most of the time.
You start out paying money for the chance to someday win money by accumulating wins and power and all that. But what you actually encounter is you having Power = 4 trying to battle teams with Power - 186,999 and getting 5 wins so that you can get 6 DEC from the Daily Quest. There is something, ohhh, just a liiiiiittle discouraging about that. Luckily a kind soul leased me 3 gold foil summoner cards so that my power is over 6,000 and I can play in Bronze 1. That way at the end of the season instead of opening only 5 I can open 9 chests of single-digit-DEC, potions for packs I never win, or common cards that are in the free to play deck anyway! hahaha! Despite making many mistakes, getting destroyed by Krakens and various 'roided up Elementals and Efrits and that frigging ghost dwarf miner guy, I am starting to figure out how to only lose nearly all of the time haha!
Well, I still have hope. Yes, I have hope because every once in awhile, I come up with the perfect battle plan totally on purpose. And in those battles the glory is sweet!
As a shrimp in Splinterlands, you gotta take your glory where you can get it! I am going to savor this battle because it give me hope that if I ever win some serious cards, I might have both fun and success.
The League: Bronze I
The Daily Quest: Death
Mana: 20
The Special Battle Conditions: Close Range - range attackers could attack from the first position
My Power: 6,240 (essentially all from 3 gold-foil summoners, which I couldn't use in this Quest)
Opponent Power: 19,590
I knew I had to play a Death Summoner, and my opponent had played a variety of summoners. S/he generally chose tanks with a healing card healing the tank. What disturbed me the most was the Water Elemental, which is fast, self-healing, and does good damage for a range attacker. My plan was to take advantage of the Special Battle Conditions, and given that my opponent had fought 48,200 more battles than me (no joke!!!) I figured s/he would have range attackers, too.
Death turns out to be a great Splinter for this battle because of Contessa L'ament, who reduces opponent range damage by 1. I figured I would need to get rid of the healer card, whichever Splinter my opponent played, so I wanted my range attackers to have Snipe as much as possible. I also figured I needed to get an advantage quickly or I would just get pummeled to death, so I gave a slot to the Undead Priest, who is pretty wimpy but who reduces opponent Health by 1. I had 2 spare Mana so I threw in the Undead Badger with Sneak so that if any opponent had armor the Badger might get rid of it before my range attackers started doing damage.
Here was the lineup for battle:
I felt pretty good about my choices. In fact, I thought I had chosen a really good lineup! I was excited for the battle to commence!!
For once, there were no missed attacks for my shrimpy wimps in the first round, so advantages of -1 range attack and -1 Health to all opponents, combined with both of my range attackers ganging up on the same opponent each round meant that I didn't lose a single card the entire battle.
Here is a link to the Battle: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=9035e85e06d2b8604fd8bb4d2ed334be3e246d36&ref=pregosauce
There is hope for us shrimps!!!
Now, I just need to do this 23,000 more times and I can earn my $10 back! I joke because I love! ...and because after a battle like that, the game feels very fun :)
Thanks for reading and for letting me share this rare moment of glory with you!