Introduction
Good day, Splinterlands! How's your recent ranked battles? Good? Bad? Meh? Let me share with you one of my most recent battles with Gargoya Lion. One of the most affordable cards available at the moment is the Gargoya Lion. The market's lowest price is 0.010 USD. Because I believe this card is not very useful at Level 1, I rarely use it. How did I use Gargoya Lion to win? Let's look at it.
Here is a quick rundown of Gargoya Lion stats.
Gargoya Lion
Edition: CHAOS LEGION
Rarity: COMMON
Element: NEUTRAL
Attack: MELEE
Abilities: FLYING AT LVL 1, VOID AT LVL 5, ENRAGE AT LVL 9
LORE
The new gargoya creatures have all developed distinct personalities and gone separate ways. Many of them cannot be controlled by any authority, but others among them are natural leaders. The one with the most commanding presence is the Gargoya Lion that used to perch just above the tower’s drawbridge as a guardian. Not only is the lion the largest of the gargoya race, but he appears to be the strongest as well. The fight against the Chaos Legion has called him to Praetoria, where he now waits with a small band of gargoya followers.
| Level | Regular BCX | Gold BCX | Attack | Speed | Armor | Health | Abilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | - | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | Flying |
| 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | Flying |
| 3 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | Flying |
| 4 | 30 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | Flying |
| 5 | 60 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | Flying, Void |
| 6 | 100 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | Flying, Void |
| 7 | 150 | 16 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 6 | Flying, Void |
| 8 | 220 | 22 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | Flying, Void |
| 9 | 300 | 22 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | Flying, Void, Enrage |
| 10 | 400 | 22 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 | Flying, Void, Enrage |
Battle Configuration
The Modern Format rulesets for this fight are Fog of War and Even Stevens and the maximum amount of mana allowed is 30. The available elements are Earth, Death and Dragon. Based from the opponent's history of last battles, the opponent may use Death Magic lineup. If I use my Earth Magic, it might not work because Thaddius Brood will just de-buff the +1 Magic Attack from Obsidian. So I decided to use Death element. As for my tank, I do not have Bone Golem with Void ability in my deck. And then I realized that I have another card with Void ability - Gargoya Lion. Yes, Gargoya Lion may seem not worthy at Level 1, but at Level 5 it will have the Void ability. Void ability reduces damage from magic attacks. And if the opponent uses Death Magic, Gargoya Lion will be proved very useful.
- FOG OF WAR RULESET: Monsters lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities. A good tank and a balanced line up of Magic and Ranged monsters is the trick to win in this ruleset. Use monsters with Opportunity. Keep your monsters in an ascending order of their HP. Splintercards Fog Of War Ruleset
- EVEN STEVENS RULESET: Only Monsters with even Mana costs may be used in battles. There are no special tricks for this ruleset, but having an idea of mana points of a few monsters helps in predicting what your opponent can and cannot use. Splintercards Even Stevens Ruleset
Here is my lineup for this battle. I used Level 4 Thaddius Brood for my summoner to lessen the magic attack of the opponent's monsters. I did this in anticipation that the opponent will use Death Magic. For my tank in Position 1, I used a Level 5 Gargoya Lion. It may not have enough armor to protect my other monsters from physical attacks, but it has Flying ability to increase its evasiveness. Also, it has Void ability to reduce the magic attack of opponent monsters. My monster in second position and will also act as tank is a Level 5 Riftwing. Aside from its Speed, it also has Flying ability to dodge to opponent monster's physical attacks. It also has Backfire ability to inflict damage to opponent if their physical attack missed.
My monster in third position is Revealer. It's Stun ability is very helpful in battles. My monster in fourth position is Magi Necrosi. Even though it has the Camouflage ability, I did not place it to the last position because I want my Venari Wavesmith to accumulate HP as much as possible using its Life Leech ability. Also, it has Poison ability to add damage to the opponent. My monster in the last position is Xenith Archer. I put this monster here because it has the lowest HP and has ranged attack.
My strategy worked perfectly. The opponent monster's magic attack were lessen by 1 and all the opponent magic attackers have 1 Magic Only. And that will not inflict any damage to my Gargoya Lion. The only remaining problem is the Cursed Windeku which has Thorn ability and can inflict damage to my Gargoya Lion.
By the end of Round 1, my Gargoya Lion did not receive any damage because the attack of Cursed Windeku and enemy Xenith Archer missed. Also, the attack of my Gargoya Lion to Cursed Windeku missed, causing no harm from Thorn to my Gargoya Lion.
In Round 2, enemy magic attacks still has no effect on my Gargoya Lion. 😄
While Gargoya Lion is tanking the attacks upfront, Venari Bonesmith was able to inflict poison to Cursed Windeku and my other monsters were able to inflict damage as well.
By the end of Round 2, Cursed Windeku fell.
With Cursed Windeku gone in the battle field. There is no other way to inflict damage to my Gargoya Lion.
And thanks to that, I won the battle without losing any monster in my lineup.
My rating increased by 21 and I earned 6,231 Reward Points and 0.207 SPS in this battle.
Here is the full replay in Splinterlands.
Did my strategy work?
My strategy worked perfectly. Using Gargoya Lion as my tank is a perfect choice in this battle. This demonstrated how beneficial it is to have a higher level Gargoya Lion in your deck. Gargoya Lion has a high combat survival percentage versus Magic Lineups when paired with a summoner or monster that reduces opponents' Magic Attacks. Additionally, as this card is a neutral monster, you are free to use it with any element as long as the ruleset allows it. Looking at the current market, you can have a Level 5 Regular Foil Gargoya Lion for 0.6 USD only or a Level 5 Gold Foil Gargoya Lion for 1.2 USD only or less!
That's it, and thanks for reading. If you're interested in playing Splinterlands, here is my game link - splintercell-01.
Visit @Splinterlands to view more amazing posts! And always keep on battling!!!
*Images used are from Splinterlands and Peakmonsters and edited in Canva.