Another week, another battle challenge! Check out the original post from @splinterlands !

This time it is all about the Shadow Snitch. This is as far as I remember the fist or at least one of the first Chaos Legion Battle Challenges.

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_ae829433efa1a2322f629068f8ae9bd5&ref=andy-plays

Shadow Snitch

Shadow Snitch is a common Chaos Legion card of the Death Splinter. It is a reach monster and therefore one of the cards, I haven't been using a lot so far. I would also consider it, as one of the weaker cards in the Chaos Legion expansion.

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Lore

Shadow Snitches are created by the conjurers of the Chaos Legion. Weaving Death magic, they breathe life into beings made completely of darkness. The purpose of the Shadow Snitches is to be deployed into lands prior to the Chaos Legion's invasion. Moving from shadow to shadow, they are listeners and watchers, feeding information back to the Chaos Legion.

But once the invasion is complete, the Shadow Snitches still serve a purpose. They can locate and follow high-value targets, reporting back on movements to Chaos Legion leadership. If needed, Shadow Snitches can also capture prisoners and bring them back for interrogation.
Devon ran down the narrow alleyway, panting and his heart thundering in his chest. Panic ran like electricity through his body, spurring him on as he splashed through mucky puddles and jumped over piles of trash.

It was just behind him. He knew. The creature. The creature of shadow. It wanted him because of what he knew. Valuable information for this person that Devon knew of only in whispers. The Voice.

He stumbled around a corner and came face-to-face with a dead end.

“No!” he gasped.

Devon spun around, eyes as round as two full moons. Had he lost his pursuer?

Suddenly two shadowy arms shot out from the dark corner behind him. One spindly hand grasped his torso, the other closed around his face to cut off his scream.

Devon was dragged back into the darkness.

It was time for an interrogation.

The Rule Set

It was a 29 mana Equalizer and Reversed Speed game, with all Splinters available. So it was a really "open" battle. I wasn't quite sure what to expect and so I thought that magic spam would be a good guess - and I was soo wrong.

My Team

As I expected magic spam, I went for counter to it, with THADDIUS BROOD as a summoner.

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Summoner: THADDIUS BROOD

My Summoner was Thaddius. One of the best Summoners against magic. He is a rare Chaos Legion 4 mana summoner, with -1 magic, -1 life. So yes, he did impact all of my opponent's cards. It is one of the more versatile summoners, since you often face magic attackers.

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Right now he starts at $3.5 for a single BCX copy, while the cheapest per BCX is a level 6 for $3.23.
The gold foil version starts at around $30 per BCX.

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First Position: CURSED WINDEKU

Cursed Windeku is another rare Chaos Legion card. Since it is a little Mylor, it is probably one of the more used cards, especially early on. It has a resonable HP, attack and speed for a mana cost of 6 mana. Only the art work is a bit scary.

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As you can see above, it starts with 2 melee attack, 3 speed, 9 HP and Thorns at level 1. It get's another Melee attack at level 3 and 7, and heal at level 5 (starting with Gold) as well as Slow at max level.

The card starts at $0.6 per BCX, which is a single BCX copy right now. Gold Foil is at $8.1 per BCX.

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Second Position: Shadow Snitch - The Challenge Monster

Most Reach cards are really not that good. Or at least, I don't know how to use them. And this Snitch is no exception. I did use it to hav a challenge battle, but I wouldn't without it. To bad are the other stats especially early on. And I prefer to level up other cards right now.

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It starts at $0,07 per single BCX copy, the cheapest right now is a level 9 for $0,042.
It has reach at level 1, with 1 melee, 1 speed and 5 HP. It gets its second melee attack at level 4 and another at level 8. Also at level 6 it gets affliction and at level 10 dodge. So it can be more useful later on.

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Third Position: CURSED SLIMEBALL

A common Untamed card. The Cursed Slimeball is a 1 Mana card, and therefore can be used very flexible. It was always a card, that could be added if there was still some mana left or in low mana equalizer battles.

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It starts at $0,25 per BCX for a level 10 version. The cheapest single BCX is at $0,37.
At level 1 it has 1 Melee Attack, 1 Speed and 1 HP. It gets another Melee Attack at level 10 and one more speed each at level 4 and level 8. At level 6 it gets the redemption ability. It also gets one more HP at level 3, level 7 and level 9.

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Fourth Position: SAND WORM

Being a common reward card, Sandworm is a card not everyone has. Its stats are quite good for a reversed speed rule set. Unfortunately it misses very often. Therefore snare is quite useful, since every flying card will be hit, without the chance to be missed.

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At level 1 it has 5 melee attack, 1 speed, 5 HP and the Sneak Ability for 9 mana. It gets another Melee attack at level 4 and level 9, as well as another speed at levels 2, 5 and 8. Also its HP increases for one each at levels 3 and 7. At level 6 it gets the Snare ability and at level 10 the Piercing ability. With Piercing it can be quite deadly, but Forcefield can be a good defense.
It starts at $1,14 per BCX for a two BCX or a level 6 100 BCX copy or $1,2 for a single BCX copy.

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Fifth Position: MAGGOTS

Maggots is another Untamed Common card. And another card I was not using to often so far, but wanted to try this out. It failed completely. It did some damage in maybe two or three of all the rounds and it was not really worth it. Opportunity is a waste of abilities in an equalizer rule set. This was definitely a mistake.

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The cheapest version per BCX is a level 8 for $0,22 per BCX, while the cheapest single BCX version is at around $0,5. So it is more than a 50% discount.
Is it worth it to buy a higher BCX version? Not quite sure. The opportunity ability is quite nice, which it has from level 1 on. It also has 1 Melee, 1 Speed and 1 HP at level 1. It gets another Melee attack at level 4 and level 10, another speed at level 2 and level 7, another HP at level 3, level 5, but looses one at level 6 and regains it at level 8, plus an additional one at level 9. It also gets Scavenger at level 6. Even with 3 Melee Attack, 3 Speed, 4 HP and Opportunity and Scavenger it is not really a must have. And it would cost 400 BCX to get there. If you want it, get it.

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Sixth and Last Position: BATTERING RAM

A Dice Common neutral card, the Battering Ram, is a card, that can be used in many different scenarios. With two mana cost it is also quite cheap.

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At level 1 it has 1 melee attack, 1 speed, 1 HP and opportunity. It gets another melee attack at level 10, another speed at levels 2, 3, 5 and 9, another HP at level 4 and 8 and the Shatter ability at level 6, destroying all shileds of the enemy
The cheapest per BCX is a level 10 for $0.5 per BCX, while the cheapest single copy is at $0.89.

Opponent Team:

My opponent went with a more ranged and shielded approach. Especially its Chaos Knight was a big trouble for me.
It came as a surprise to me, that he wasn't going for ranged spam with the General Sloan summoner. So him playing with only two ranged sttackers, wasn't expected. but it worked for him. I would definitely say, that his Chaos Knight was the MVP of this game.

The Battle

The first round started and to be honest, my opponent already had a big advantage. Neither my thorns, now my -1 magic was causing a lot of troubles to him. Although his +1 ranged was also not as effective, as possible.

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After the first round, the fiasko was clear: None of his monsters where killed, while my tank was down and my front and backline damaged. But this was just the beginning.

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It looked even worse after the second round. I still couldn't do a lot of damage to him, and the only monster with big damage taken of him, was his last one. It was already a clear victory for my opponent.

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My first monster taken down. And it was clear, that it would probably be the last one. Opportunity would now strike against a shield, so no further damage, while only my Sandworm could do some damage. My damage potential was almost not existent anymore.

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As expected, not a lot of good happend for me - but the end was near.

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And then finally it was close to an end. My last damage dealer was taken down, while his frontline tank still lived. A clear and ugly loss for me.

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But at least it was over now.

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Analysis

My strategy failed completely. I did expect a normal magic spam and got mixed team. Most of my attackers couldn't really do anything most of the time and just hit against shields. One Melee Damage is often not enough to do anything. So I would recommend to use at least cards with two damage of each kind. That could still be not enough - e.g. if you work against Contessa with Headwinds or Bortus with Void, but those are rarer occasions nowadays.

It was a good game of my opponent, and a not so good game on my side. But I try to learn something out of this. Loosing against a bot is always painful.

Cheers
@andy-plays