Overview
Welcome back Splinterlands battlemages to another edition of "For Guild & Glory," my brawl report article series covering Tiers 2 and 3 for the most recent brawl #106. You can see my last report for #105 here.
This cycle, the total number of guilds in Tier 3 was greater than 10, so 
DuceCrypto & Shield of Glory
The lower number of guilds in our Tier 3 brawl meant I went from a full fray of nine opponents last cycle down to only four opponents out of six guilds this time around in Fray 16 - Modern Silver Gold Foil. Immortal Gods and Legendary Dragons, the only two guilds from this group to finish ahead of us last brawl, were the only opponents to best us again this brawl.
With a max of just 85 battles, we finished five games above .500 at 45-40. Surprisingly, our third-place finish out of six guilds earned us 71 crowns and 3944 merits, which was just a touch better than what we won for 5th place out of 10 guilds last time. Guildmates 
For this edition, I linked the battle photos, so just click on the pic for a replay. I got a bit outclassed against Prince.Kai even though we both used similar Kelya lineups and Spirits4you demolished me with an OP Captain Katie. That sure is one strong rare gladiator!
In the 1st battle, I was able to outclass my opponent a bit with legendary dragon cards and in the 3rd battle I outlasted my opponent's Chimney Wallstop. Ultimately, if we as a guild are going to make a move up the rankings in Tier 3, I really need to start turning in a win rate over 50%, so BRING ON THOSE POWER STONES!
TreyCrypto & The 420 Syndicate
Going into this brawl, none of the nine other guilds ranked in the Top 100, so I thought we had a decent shot to place in the Top 3. But it was not meant to be; instead we finished in the thick of the pack a win ahead of 6th and a win behind 4th. 28 crowns and 1225 merits is still a pretty nice haul compared to what we were winning down in Tier 1.
As a guild, we finished seven games under .500 at 48-55 and only had two big brawl performances, an impressive 8-1 from 
I'll just go on the record here and say that I would consider a prop to see if the community would want to dump GF legendaries from Bronze brawls since they do not receive a "gold bonus" at the that lower league Level 1. Maybe this would help with filling GF frays, especially in Tier 1! My only concern is the bottleneck this would put on the new Dragon summoner from Riftwatchers, although these new epic summoners do have some exotic quirks at the Bronze and Gold leagues that let them play some slightly better cards.
Look at me winning with life in the first battle, what a feeling. In Battle #2, I was able to beat the GF Whistling Damon and the silence effect from Thaddius that caught THREE! of my magic monsters, all because I kept my ranged attacker alive in the back with Disintegrator's nerf to melee and leveraged the armor bonus from Drake. For Battle #3, I was not able to overcome the GF Isgald Vorst, who is a stud common monster for water and one of the best common gladiators overall with the opportunity ability + bloodlust.
It's always a tough L in an earthquake battle against Bloom like I had Battle #4, when we both put out similar earth lineups in the opportunity rule set, especially when my Grund missed its second strike against the Goblin Mystic - you can imagine how that went. In the 5th, I managed to outlast my opponent with Forgotten One in a noxious fumes contest, and in the 6th, I got taught a swift lesson by a Tarsa team about how to handle an enrage battle. Even if an even 3-3 record was better than our guild's overall average, I ought to pull more weight here in this fray to make up those crucial places in the standings.
Shaelien & ZenSports
The competing guilds in this brawl looked to be quite formidable, so I would have been happy with a top half finish, but we finished quite a bit off the pace in 6th place with a brutal 30-69 overall record. Our guild leader led by example in this brawl, as 
I cannot say the same for myself. The quality of my opponents was quite high in Fray 15 - Wild Silver Gold Foil, with my last three opponents all Champ league players with key GF legendaries from older sets. I was only able to manage one win out of my five battles, and many battles felt like runaway losses.
Some very timely misses by my opponent's Chimney Wallstop allowed my Sloan team to squeeze by in Battle #1, but it all went sideways from there. Battle #2 was set at 99 mana and I was overpowered by much stronger monsters with beefy attack stats. I thought I fielded some decent lineups in Battles 3-5 with the cards at my disposal, but I was completely outclassed by my Champ league opposition. I've really got to work on my card availability to be more competitive in this particular fray going forward.
The Gladius Cases
Five more Gladius Cases to open this cycle, but still no Gold Foils. Please, somebody, anybody, I NEED THOSE POWER STONES!
DuceCrypto:
TreyCrypto:
Shaelien:
New Brawl Preview
So there you have it, Brawl #106 is in the books and we can all turn our attention to Brawl #107. In Tier 3, SHIELD OF GLORY will face off against eight guilds including Immortal Gods and Legendary Dragons, so hopefully we can keep hold of 3rd place.
In Tier 2, THE 420 SYNDICATE looks like it will be scrapping for a Top 5 finish with three guilds in the Top 50, including 4th-ranked Team Possible. Comparatively, ZENSPORTS has the 2nd-lowest ranking of the nine guilds in its brawl, so we'll prepare for another challenging brawl, with the brilliantly named guild Hydra Kids, Hydra Wife the top-ranked opponents at rank 24.
Thanks as always for supporting me and reading through my brawl report. I'm always eager for feedback and looking for ways to improve my coverage, so if you have any suggestions please sound off in the comment section. And for those new to the game, I'll be including my Splinterlands referral link with the image below.
Best of luck in your brawls this cycle. See you in The Splinterlands.
