Win, lose or draw, don't mess with my Manticore!

Once again, the fine people over at Hive account@steemmonsters have asked us to SHARE YOUR BATTLE! This is a weekly contest, run by them, to allow us "less creative " folks to share a favourite battle using a specific monster or ability, and be in contention to receive an upvote.

For this weeks contest, they want to see how we use "thorns":

"Thorns" can be very useful, and when used in the correct situation, it can actually be used to take out an opponents monsters by just being attacked!

With that in mind, I'd like to share a recent match I had and how "thorns" turned the battle in my favour and eventually won me the fight.

So the game rules were very simple, "target practice" & "melee mayhem"......

Now melee mayhem usually means sending in the "BIG BOYS", as melee attacks can strike from anywhere, and do damage to the opponents tank(1st position). Target practice shouldn't be overlooked, but for this match, I decided to go in all guns blazing, taking NO names and kicking some major ass!!

Baring in mind that melee attacks will probably be my main route of attack, I decided to go down the Dragon summoner path to maximise the +1 attack with Daria Dragonscale, and combine it with the EARTH splinter, as that has some big hitters too.

Well funny enough, both myself and Hive account@zu-jyuva had exactly the same thought:

Watch how this battle plays out HERE

When an opponents card are first revealed, long before I hit the RUMBLE button, I like to play out how I think the match will go. This helps me to understand my oppositions thought processes and has helped me improve my own style of play.

It looks like Hive account@zu-jyuva has gone all out attack, setting up a very daunting and formidable front-end melee attack. He's also included his lvl 4 Brownie which gives an extra +1 melee attack and extra SPEED. With the addition of his creeping ooze, he obviously thinks striking first and striking hard will win him the match.

Although I had included some "heavy hitters" amongst my ranks, I believe it was my stratagy and deck layout that eventually won me the battle. You see I placed my Flesh Golem in the tank position as it has a relatively high health level, plus with the "heal" ability I was hoping it would make it through at least 1 round to give my other monster time to do maximum damage. UNFORTUNATELY my FG was taken out early on, Hive account@xu-jyuva's speed was just too much for me.

Once my FG was taken out early, I assumed the battle was over and the match was lost!! I think my saving grace came when his GOBLIN MECH attacked first, before his REXXIE because if the REXXIE had gone first it would have taken out my FG and had trample, but because the GM went first it didn't kill my FG outright and needed the REXXIE to clean up..... You get what I mean??

His speed, turned out to be his downfall! Once all his monsters had attacked it was time for my guys to go to work.

My Manticore now sat in the tank position and with its THORNS ability was able to take out both his Brownie and Creeping Ooze just through thorns. Once his speed was taken out of the match, it was left to my tail gunners to mop up what was left of his squad. With my REXXIE still in the battle, it was only then ever going to go one way.

I had withstood his early onslaught, thanks to the high health of my Flesh Golem, and the thorns on my Manticore had taken out his superior speed advantage.

A very close battle, but with my advantage of THORNS his monsters didn't stand a chance!!