Splinterlands is a complex game and it allows for various different cards and strategies. Each fight is different as there are various different rulesets applied and this can give specific cards an advantage depending on how you use them. In this post, I talk about a card named Dumacke Orc when there is an Up Close & Personal and Equalizer ruleset.
Featured Card: Dumacke Orc
Dumacke Orc is a neutral soulbound reward card that costs 6 mana. This card starts off with shield. It learns retaliate at level 5 and thorns at level 9. Currently, I have this card at level 7 and it's a good card to use depending on the situation. Personally, I have used it a few times as a card in the last spot for those pesky sneak monsters because it takes reduced damage and it can counterattack.
Rule set, Battle and Plan
The ruleset this time is Up Close & Personal and Equalizer. This means that only melee monsters can be used and everyone starts off with the same health. There is 34 mana available and I am left with the choice of life or dragon splinter.
My summoner is Drake of Arnak because +1 armor is always nice in these melee only matches. Dragon also allows me access to a few extra cards so it can be useful in my lineup also.
| Splinter | Mana Cost | Position | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drake of Arnak | 4 | Summoner | +1 armor |
| Djinn Chwala | 8 | 1st | Thorns |
| Disintegrator | 7 | 2nd | Demoralize |
| Uraeus | 3 | 3rd | Sneak |
| Vruz | 2 | 4th | Sneak and Martyr |
| Dhampir Infiltrator | 4 | 5th | Sneak and Double Strike |
| Dumacke Orc | 6 | 6th | Shield and Retaliate |
| Total Mana: | 34 |
My plan is to use a thorns tank up front. I also have a card with demoralize to reduce my enemies damage and my damage dealers will all be sneak monsters. I have Vruz there with marytr to help boost up the damage of cards if they die. Depending on what happens, it might boost my double strike sneak monster and that would be quite useful At my last spot is Dumacke Orc because of its ability to deal counter damage while also reducing the damage it takes. Its low health is no longer an issue because of the Equalizer ruleset.
Round 1
At first glance of my opponent's lineup, I think I have the advantage. Lorna is an annoying card but it doesn't really annoy me as much in a fight like this because there is so much health on each card anyways. At the same time, my opponent won't be able to deal much damage to me and my opponent fell for my trap with those three sneak monsters. This will be a long match so I will fast forward until some cards die because of the high health and demoralize on both sides.
Round 5
It took 4 full rounds for a card to finally die and my thorns tank is in danger of dying. The good thing is that retaliate triggered quite a few times so my opponent has taken more damage than me so far.
Round 6
I lost my tank and my opponent lost a sneak monster. Overall, I still have the advantage but I can't deal much damage until I take out that Disintegrator on my opponent's side. So it's all up to my sneak monsters to do the job.
Round 11
It took some time but I finally got rid of the disintegrator. So at this point, there is no way for me to lose this match. I doubt it would be possible to miss that many times.
As I expected I won because I didn't miss.
Conclusion
The battle this time around went exactly as I expected. I was lucky to have my opponent use three sneak monsters and the demoralized cut down the damage that I would take by quite a bit. This allowed my Dumacke Orc to survive and also deal extra damage using retaliate against my opponent. My thorns tank did its job by dealing damage but the fight was delayed quite a bit because I couldn't reach my opponent's disintegrator. Either way, I won without too much trouble because of my lineup but I could have been in danger due to my high focus on sneak monsters if my opponent had a thorns or retaliate monster in the last spot. Overall, everything worked out even if it was a match of endurance.
You can see my entire match here.
What did you think of my match? Was there anything you would have done differently? I think it is quite interesting to see how different players use the same card.