Featuring Bronze League Summoner and Monsters in Action!
I'm back at it highlighting and showcasing another monster in bronze League levels. Dry bone raider has some excellent use cases and can really dominate a match if it gets going. It's nice to see some of these monsters play a big role all the way down to Brian's and silver leagues and allow me to compete with some higher cards from time to time.
Weekly Challenge -DRYBONE RAIDER
Edition: REWARD
Rarity: LEGENDARY
Element: NEUTRAL
Attack: MELEE & ARROWS
Abilities: DOUBLE STRIKE
Abilities"
Health: 7
Speed: 3
Attack: 2 Melee 1 Arrow
Armor: 3
Reasons Why I like it
There's a lot to like with dry bone radar. First and foremost it's a heavy hitting double strike monster. With both arrows and melee in the right situation it can deal out six base damage. Well some other monsters might be higher, the fact that it has double strike with two attack types means it's more likely to get rid of the last bit of armor and then start to take away health all within one turn. Some of those very high damage monsters get stuck behind a wall of armor and never actually get to touch health. Getting four attacks with one turn means it's more likely to impact health.
The Matchup - Where Rules Sets, Splinters and Mana Collide
The Rule Sets
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Watch the Match Here
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_a5010fe95894aa96bb1efaf760299142&ref=senstless
MANA: 43
Ruleset: Aim True: Melee and ranged attacks will always hit their target.
Ruleset: Odd Ones Out: Only monsters with odd mana costs may be used.
Ruleset: Reverse Speed: Monsters with lower speeds will attack before monsters with higher speeds. Miss calculations based on speed will also be reversed.
SPLINTERS: Water, Earth, Life, Dragon
Initial Rule Set and Mana Gameplay Thoughts
- Rulesets
This is an interesting combination of rule sets. Typically the reverse speed means slower monsters are more likely to be missed, but given the aim true now all attacks will hit. What this means is that we need to focus on slow monsters to ensure our attacks are first. - Mana
43 mana is plenty of men to get into trouble with and find some good monsters. While I'm sure I won't be able to pick every monster that I want I think it'll be well-balanced with some high mana cost mixed in - Splinters
I don't see any significant holes in ability to set a lineup. Given that all cards are available just the attack order is different losing fire and death is really not very impactful in my mind. I figure you can make a fairly good team with any of the base three splinters, but I feel that Dragon might be too fast in general to use very much.
Summoner POSSIBILUS THE WISE
Who doesn't love giving every monster reach plus trample. Just makes sense to me and it's time to see what we can doFirst Position TORHILO THE FROZEN
The slowest tank I could find plus it has void to counter against those pesky magic attacks. Hoping that it stays out long enough to provide cover for my second row as well as some opportunity cardsSecond Position DRYBONE RAIDER
Typically not a great card but given the summoner giving it reach trample it now has the ability to attack from the second position and it will do four tax and hopefully trigger some tramplesThird Position HARDY STONEFISH
Just putting it here in the middle as Emily attack card if I lose torgelio the Frozen it'll do a little bit of work.Fourth Position MERDAALI GUARDIAN
I decided that it wouldn't be bad to have a healing monster, especially considering that all the attacks are going to hit hit might be beneficial to see if I could keep them around longerFifth Position DEEPLURKER
I don't think I can set up any water lineups without deep liquor. It's well balanced attack and opportunity make it an obvious choice, especially with the trample ability in the middle of the lineup.Sixth Position DEMENTED SHARK
Non-traditional choice but I wanted the extra melee attack for dry bone radar. It will clearly help deep worker and to Helio but it's really for dry bone radar attacking from the second position now doing eight total damage every round.
Opponent Lineup & Match Play
- Summoner POSSIBILUS THE WISE
Looks like my opponent has a similar idea with the summoner and probably the team layout. - DJINN OSHANNUS
A decent choice, but given its high speed means it will actually attack last given these rounds. He's probably more in there for the void than anything else. - COASTAL SENTRY
Double strike from second position doing the same damage at my melee attacks will do. It's an easy choice to put in here and I'm sure they're hoping to trigger some tramples - MERDAALI GUARDIAN
Just like me they're hoping to heal up their first couple of monsters and keep mine at bay. - VENARI WAVESMITH
The additional armor is always difficult to get through. It wastes a lot of attacks for me. Luckily try going raider has four tax return and will hopefully cut through most of their armor in the first round - SWAMP SPLITTER
A decent choice, having that repairability with a decent speed is always great. It can be really frustrating to try to get through a monster under armor only to have a continuously repaired allowing them to get healed and stick around - KULU SWIMHUNTER
Not exactly sure why, it's an okay choice to damage with three-speed 5 health but I would have figured that would have gone more melee heavy given to summoner.
Round 1
Is around starts it's hard for me to consider the likely outcome given the reverse speed. I'm so used to looking at this from the normal speed that I might not be factor into them correctly. Luckily for me I have most of the slow monsters and I start right out dealing some fairly significant damage to Djinn Oshannus. All three attacks hit and after my first two monsters go it's down to only for health. It's quickly taken out by deep worker, triggering a trample where I remove the armor from Coastal century. By the end of the round it is healed and armor repaired back to its original starting point
Round 2
No two is going to start off and I will have a similar attack method. torhilo Google first knocking with the armor and followed up by dry bone later attacking and doing eight damage. Luckily for me that triggers my second trample for the match and puts things squarely in my side for victory.
Round 3
Is round three starts things look pretty Grandma for my opponent, I didn't going to do way too much damage and they won't be able to do much. Before my first two turns are over I get my third trample triggered and I'm really annihilating their team. Deep lurker gets the fourth knockout and trample putting things squarely in my court.
Round 4
The match is over, at this point it's just formalities to work my way through the monsters. I won't take more than round four to do it dry bone raiders get yet another knockout and trample followed by deep lurker for my fifth trample.
Thoughts - and Chances to Win Again
It was nice when I took a look at my odds of repeating to see a nice fat 100%. Really I think it has to do with the massive amount of damage I was doing plus the fact that they chose two magic monsters and I played a monster with void. They never got to get on a roll by knocking out Torhilo intriguing some tramples. If they had it might have been different.
I don't think it would change anything up, and having that extra melee boost from demented shark was really key in my opinion. It boosted it to eight damage per turn and for all melee monsters it was 17 melee and arrow damage per round. That's a lot of damage for my opponent to be able to take.
I apologize for any misspellings, as I'm using voice to text tonight. I have a killer cold with a massive fever but just don't want to miss sharing this one. Hopefully it's not too terrible but if it is I apologize.
