Introduction
Hi everyone! Welcome to another episode of Splinterlands Brawl Report brought to you by The Jedo! This post will explain how I approach some of my battles in Tier 4 Brawls while representing TeamPH. Keep in mind, this is a Wild Gold Fray where cards are limited to Advanced Level caps. I will feature one or two matches and will walk you through my thought process in deciding which Summoners and Monsters to select in different combinations of Rulesets and Mana Caps. To be fair, the games that will be featured may not always be the ones I win! Depending on the results and how unbelievable the games are, I might even add more games to the spotlight.
Now, I am not an expert player by any means and I will have some misplays from time to time. Any comments or suggestions that could help me improve my decision making and rules analyses are welcome and will be very much appreciated! Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a new player in the game, I would like to hear from you! We can all be better together! Let's get into it!
Preface
The following Brawl results are from the most recent Brawl Cycle. My results from the previous Brawl can be found HERE for reference. For this Brawl Cycle, I planned to put my games in a little earlier than usual. I played a couple of games via the Training Grounds but realized I wasn't feeling it. I only won 3 games out of 10. Not a good sign! I decided I shouldn't force myself to play any more games in this state. I waited another hour or so until I felt ready to play again, and play again I did! Got a better result this time and I then proceeded to enter the Brawl Arena! Let's see how I did!
Brawl Results
The Brawl ended with me taking home 7 wins but suffering 2 losses. Lots of games played and lots of lessons to be learned! Not perfect, but still pretty good! I got 2 free wins from flees but hey, a win is a win! Onto the Featured Battles!
Featured Battle 1
We will open our Featured Battles with my 4th match of the Brawl. This one ended in my opponent's favor, completely out-sustaining my backline even though we almost had a similar lineup.
This was a 28-Mana Match with Taking Sides, Reverse Speed, and Explosive Weaponry as the rulesets. This meant Neutral units cannot be used in this battle. This also meant that units with slower speed are preferred, and that I need to watch out for Blast damage. Fire and Earth were both inactive for this match.
My Strategy: Play Baakjira in first position as a giant meat shield and sustain the whale as much as I can. Weapons Training would be helpful to add some offense to my strategy and include supporting monsters in my backline.
My opponent played an almost similar lineup but with distinct differences. I went with a defensive summoner in Bortus, reducing enemy magic damage by 1. This negated the buff from the enemy summoner, Alric, who instead increases his team's magic damage by 1.
We both utilized Daarg Deathblast with his Weapons Training and Triage abilities, and Anasth Soothsayer, with his Cleanse and Tank Heal abilities. I played Kelp Initiate as another Cleanse monster who can receive the magical damage capability due to being adjacent to Daarg, while the opposing team had Albatross instead, providing additional Tank Heal to the opposing tank while also receiving the magic attack attribute.
The X-Factor in this match? The enemy Mermaid Healer, providing secondary Triage to the opposing backline.
Both Baakjiras received the other player's offensive damage while the Daargs were obtaining Blast damage dealt by the other team's units. I was hoping that my Merdhampir can keep applying Cripple attacks to the enemy Baakjira, slowly lowering its total health, meaning Heals and Tank Heals become less and less effective. What I wasn't able to support, though, was my own Daarg's health.
I only had one Triage monster and my Daarg kept trying to heal himself. My opponent, on the other hand, had 2 of these abilities, ensuring the enemy Daarg regains full health as often as possible.
My Daarg eventually died from Blast damage, rendering my team without a single backline support. Slowly, the number of my remaining units got depleted. The enemy firepower was just too much for my team to handle. After a few rounds, only Baakjira survived on my team but eventually succumbed to death due to a barrage of magical and ranged damage coming from the enemy side.
Battle 1 link HERE
Featured Battle 2
The second and last battle I'd like to feature is a 57-Mana Match with What Doesn't Kill You, Noxious Fumes, and Fog of War as the rulesets. Water, Life, and Death are the only available Splinters.
My Strategy: With the Sneak, Snipe, and Opportunity abilities nonfunctional, all incoming damage will be dealt to units in the first position. I wanted a unit with high speed as my tank so that when it gets hit, Enrage will trigger, further increasing that unit's stats, including speed. I also wanted to have support units that can Cleanse and Heal my frontline.
I utilized Cryptic in this match. Being a Dual Element summoner, Cryptic let me select units from both the Water and Death Splinters. His kit also amplified the evasion of my Djinn Oshannus, my chosen dodge tank. Also, with Cryptic's Expose ability, I am able to neutralize enemy units with Immunity, making them vulnerable to the poison ruleset.
I also wanted to use Sanctus Vicar, a unit that can Cleanse my tank AND my backline. With his Cleanse Rearguard ability, he can remove an ailment from a friendly unit starting from the 6th position during every round. In this case, Delya, whom I chose to be the last unit in my team, got the backline Cleanse first. In the succeeding rounds, Sanctus Vicar cleansed himself and then Spirit Miner.
The magical Beta monsters, Ruler of the Seas and Spirit Miner, were both chosen to boost Oshannus' speed as he held the front. I also selected Corrupted Pegasus as a support card that could Heal Oshannus. Come to think of it, maybe Anasth Soothsayer might have been the better choice.
With the Poison + Expose abilities from Cryptic applied to both Oshannus and Delya, my team made quick work of the enemy tank, Iziar, removing her Void Armor first, making her vulnerable to magic attacks. The enemy team's health started to dwindle down with every round due to poison triggers while my team kept getting better due to the backline Cleanse.
One of the most satisfying parts of this match was seeing my opponent's attacks miss Oshannus more than they hit, and man, did this feel good!
Battle 2 link HERE
Summary
A handful of TeamPH Brawlers have gotten favorable results. Two of my teammates even had Flawless Victories! We finished 2nd overall, only 6 wins behind 1st place. Congratulations to all winners! Our eyes are set on the Grand Prize. We will strive to achieve 1st place again next time!
Final Thoughts
As always, Brawls are so much fun! I understand that I still have so much to learn. Some of my wins might have been because of luck. Some might be actual good plays that other players can learn from. Either way, I hope you guys enjoyed this article and if you have questions, comments, or feedback for me, please let me know! Let's all learn and grow together and set each other up for success! Vonak! Together We Thrive, Kapamilya!
