This is my entry #1 for this week's Battle Challenge but with a different card as a focus as I just love to rent a Scarred Llama Mage from time to time for a day and just test him out with different new cards to see what happens and dream about owning one as it costs about 500$ on level 1:
And now to see what the battle is about and how it goes...
I have selected another special battle for today with a different set-up than before from the first round of the Hash Kings Tournament to keep the action interesting. If you have not yet tried these tournaments you should do so as these guys also run the Best of 1 tourney where you can get lucky even against opponents with a lot more money in their cards.
Bronze league level caps
So no need for highly expensive uplevel cards
All cards can be played
You need to watch out for legendaries but only cards from Untamed and Chaos Legion are allowed
Today we are fighting a combined ruleset battle at 48 Mana Cap of:
Spreading Fury
(All monsters have the enrage ability)
So playing high health monsters that receive even higher boosts after they have taken damage is a good idea
Lost Legendaries
(No legendary monsters may be played in battle)
So no worries about running into Kron the Undying or all the other hardcore monsters out there from players with fortunas fortune to get them from packs or buy them up.
You can watch the battle here if you are anxious to see how it turned out and you want to skip my Write-Up. Although it is highly encouraged to read, you can learn something from this.
Tabelle mit Übersicht meiner Karten
Scarred Llama Mage (Summoner)
This little biggie grants +2 Health to my monsters, clears any negative status effect, and provides every card with the Last Stand ability. And my strategy relies heavily on this ability applying to my last card after the rest has been defeated.
Unicorn Mustang (Tank)
My tank is more or less the staple starting monster for most Earth Battles as it profits from the Spreading Fury ruleset because of the high health numbers and has also magic-reducing abilities with Void. Expecting my opponent to go with a Magic Heavy line-Up this card was a no-brainer.
Mycelic Slipspwan (Off-Tank)
The choice for this monster was also heavily influenced by the Spreading Fury ruleset in the expectation that the high health numbers would provide an additional benefit on top of the Taunt ability to protect my backline monster's health for its time to shine with Last Stand.
Goblin Psychic (Healer)
To keep my Tank or my Off-Tank alive longer I decided to play a healer in the hope that it would enable them to keep dishing out damage for longer. I expected this to work quite well in combination with Llamas +2 Health effect.
Goblin Thief (Sniper)
I expected my enemy to play with an unprotected back-line based on his play history and decided that this one was a good choice to try sniping a couple of monsters before he gets destroyed.
Child of the Forest (Sniper)
I expected my enemy to play with an unprotected back-line based on his play history and decided that this one was a good choice to try sniping a couple of monsters before he gets destroyed.
Grund (The main focus of strategy Last Stand)
A baseline melee damage of 3 combined with a boost from the last stand and the Spreading Fury ruleset and Grunds ability to attack 2x per round made for me the focus of this whole strategy. Keep him alive until the end without previous damage and I expected the battle to be mine.
Raw Stat Comparison
| Category | TimoreMoti | Porquito |
|---|---|---|
| Mana | 47 | 47 |
| Health | 52 | 42 |
| Armor | 0 | 0 |
| Damage | 10 | 18 |
| Speed | 14 | 18 |
| Effects | +2 Health / Cleansed / Last Stand | +1 Magic Damage |
Excluding Grund (except Health) as he does not contribute in this round
I already lost my Mycelic Slipspwan in the first round while my Unicon has already taken damage. The strategy to keep Grund from being damaged holds, but the early death of Mycelic Slipspawn is a great danger. His monsters are all still alive even though his Mycelic Slipspwan and Unicorn are already damaged.
Raw Stat Comparison
| Category | TimoreMoti | Porquito |
|---|---|---|
| Health | 39 | 33 |
| Armor | 0 | 0 |
| Damage | 10 | 20 |
| Speed | 14 | 21 |
| Effects | +2 Health / Cleansed / Last Stand | +1 Magic Damage |
Excluding Grund (except Health) as he does not contribute in this round
My optimism is weakening. Round 2 brought the end for my Unicorn and my Healer. Luckily Grund is still undamaged and a last shred of hope remains. The opposing side still has not lost even a single monster but only a bit of health on the Mycelic Slipspawn and the Unicorn.
Raw Stat Comparison
| Category | TimoreMoti | Porquito |
|---|---|---|
| Health | 21 | 27 |
| Armor | 0 | 0 |
| Damage | 9 | 20 |
| Speed | 10 | 20 |
| Effects | +2 Health / Cleansed / Last Stand | +1 Magic Damage |
Including Grund as he does start to contribute in the next round
Round 3 brought a bit of a last hope but also the fear of despair. It signaled the end for the rest of my monsters except Grund and activated Last Stand. The opposing side only lost the Unicorn and Mitica Headhunter until now. But looking at the picture. Who would you honestly expect to win?
Raw Stat Comparison
| Category | TimoreMoti | Porquito |
|---|---|---|
| Health | 7 | 17 |
| Armor | 0 | 0 |
| Damage | 16 | 9 |
| Speed | 8 | 10 |
| Effects | +2 Health / Cleansed / Last Stand | +1 Magic Damage |
Well...I was surprised. Grund did deliver😅
My strategy worked or I would not have won otherwise. But the honest answer should be that I won by the strength of Scarred Llama Mage and Grund with the skin of my teeth but not by my initial strategy. I should have used another Magic reflector card like Failed Summoner instead of Child of the Forest.
This is not a card I use often as I do not own it and consider it quite expensive to rent.
Nonetheless I sometimes just want to know what the impact of Last Stand on a particular new card would be or I want to try to frustrate some players with more skill and/or money in a tournament. In this case, I wanted to see how often I get to play him while playing 3 tournaments in parallel where Legendary summoners were only prohibited in one.
With about 4 plays in ~30 rounds, it was a lot less than expected because of the relatively high mana costs and Rarity restrictions in the random rulesets.
Thanks for reading. If you do not yet play this fascinating game, feel free to use my affiliate link and send me a message afterward. I will send you my reward for your sign-up in DEC (~5% of 10$) to get you started with some rental cards after you have purchased the Summoners Book.