Splinterlands Weekly Battle Challenge – Pirate Captain

avatar

Share Your Battle

image.png

Thanks to @splinterlands for hosting another weekly challenge. This time: Pirate Captain - Arrrgh!

I like playing the water splinter - although my summoners are not really good for half of my battles. The other half are those, that focus on magic and I can use Alrich right now. Hope, that there will be a good alternative in the future or I have to rent him.

Here is the link to the battle:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_0b1a1d5c614aea1be77dbcbbb3e5753f&ref=andy-plays

image.png

Theme: Pirate Captain

The Pirate Captain is another Alpha/Beta card. Is @splinterlands trying to tell us something or show us, how important those cards, that soon won't be in the starter deck, are? Because yes, Pirate Captain, as well as last weeks Goblin Shaman, the weeks before Elven Cutthroat and my first Challenge the Haunted Spider, all were Alpha / Beta cards. No Untamed, no Rewards in the last few weeks.

image.png

Lore

The Pirates of ΛZMΛRÉ are not to be trusted. Their Captains are among the most cunning (and dangerous) creatures in the Splinterlands. Armed with muskets of secret ΛZMΛRÉan make and prepared for any situation, the Pirate Captains sail the seas looking for treasure.

image.png

Rule Set:

image.png

30 Mana, Explosive Weaponry, Lost Legends, no Earth. So no legendary monsters are allowed and everyone has the blast ability.
It is perfect for Snipe monsters and monsters with Double Strike. Also fast monsters and monsters with great HP or Heal have an advantage.

Lineup & Strategy

My strategy was based on blast and heal. I used a big tank up front, a tank healer behind and a self-healer in last position. Other than that I tried to use faster monsters.

Summoner: Bortus

image.png

The water summoners are not really somehow outstanding. If you are not using magic, you can either go with Bortus or Vera Salacia in normal set ups, or use Xia Seachan and leave out any benefits. There are Valnamor and Lir Deepswimmer, but since they are very expensive - to buy and rent as well as to use - I leave them out of the analysis; but those are the only once, that would really make sense. Especially in this rule set!

Bortus is not bad in general, but if you want to use water and there is a low chance of the opponent putting in flying monsters, it is either him or Xia Seachan, and if there is enough mana, than I usually go with Bortus. So at least if my opponent plays magic, it will be a benefit.

In this setup, it was the better choice, since my opponent had no flying, but one magic card. The best summoner - if I had known what my opponent would have played, would have been Lir!

First Position: Torhilo the Frozen

image.png

This epic reward card is a beast! The artwork is amazing and its stats are as well! I hated it, when my opponents played him, so I bought him myself. Unfortunately it is known, that this card is amazing, so the price of it, is very expensive (~$35 per copy or ~$25-30 for higher BCX ones). If I would win the lottery, this would be definitely one of the cards I want buy.

Four Melee Attack, four speed and eight HP at level one, only being "held back" by its one speed, is definitely one of the better cards. Combined with Void, this is an absolute magic killer! Together with Bortus it is an absolute counter to low attack magic users, since they do not do any damage thereafter. And even if there is one magic attack left, it doesn't hurt to much, since it has so much bulk.
At level 3 (10 BCX) it gets another melee attack, at leve 4 (20 BCX) Last Stand is added and a maxed out, level 6 copy has (46 BCX) has Shatter as well. A maxed out Torhilo is at around $1,150 right now, so not a bargain at all.
It is an old reward card, and I am not sure, if it is going to be playable in modern format. But I will still keep my copy at least until then.

Second position: Furious Chicken

image.png

The 0 Mana card! It is a beast as well. Its main use is to take an attack. And this was what I used it for, to keep some damage of my healer for another round. It gains 1 melee attack at level 3 (5 BCX) and another melee attack at level 8 (115 BCX), as well as enrage at level 5 (21 BCX), but in lower levels a level one really is more than enough. But it is quite a good investment, since it can be used so often and an be very annoying.
It is an old reward card aswell and most likely will not be playable in modern format, but I am not sure about it.

Third Position: Crustacan King

The Healer. It is the only tank heal water monster, that is available early on. Albatross is getting heal at level 6, so it won't be available in Bronze and Silver. And the King is a starter card right now. But is also a Alpha / Beta card, so it won't be available in modern format.
It's main task is to heal, but it gains 1 ranged attack at level 3 (5 BCX) and another at level 9 (305 BCX), as well as protect at level6 (52 BCX). At $12 per 1-BCX copy it is n the mid-range for cards. A level 3 copy starts at around $70 and a maxed out level 10 is more than §2000.

Position Four: Axemaster

image.png

Another amazing water card! At level one the Axemaster has 2 ranged attack, four speed, five HP and Double strike! This makes him very valuable in many rule sets! He gains another ranged attack at level 3 (10 BCX), and Close Range at leve 4 (20 BCX), as well as Cripple at max level 6 (46 BCX). A level 3 Axemaster is playable in Silver, so that extra attack can come to good use, which is actually two extra attacks.
It is an old reward card as well, so I am not sure about its usability in modern format, but right now a single copy is at $18-19 and a maxed out one is at $828. Not a bargain, but also not crazy expensive.

Fifth Position: Pirate Captain - The Challenge monster

image.png

At level one it has 1 ranged attack, two speed and three hit points as well as the snipe ability targeting the eny monster with ranged or magic attack, that are not in the first position, which can come handy with big tanks up front. He gets another ranged attack at leve 2 (3 BCX) and level 8 (172 BCX) as well as Inspire at level 6 (52 BCX). So a budget version for Silver players would probably be a level 2 version. A level one copy is at ~$4,5 a maxed out one at ~$900 and a level 6 one at around ~$170-190. Since it is a Beta Card, it won't be usable in modern format. A gold foil 1 BCX-level 4 copy would be at around $90-100.

Last Position: Water Elemental

image.png

Water Elemental is a monster I often use on my sixth position, since it has heal at level one and therefore is able to absorb low attack sneak monsters. Having two ranged, four speed and four health at level on it is quite a good backline tank. It gains another ranged attack at level 3 (5 BCX) and level 7 (61 BCX) and also gets Dogde at level 5 (21 BCX).
Being a rare Alpha / Beta monster it isn't usable in modern format.

Opponent Lineup:

image.png

My opponent went for Death Splinter with Zintar as Summoner, affecting my Torhilo only. At first he used a level 4 Haunted Spirit, with the self heal, followed by Shadowy Presence, as a meat shield. His third position was a level 3 gold foil Boogeyman, which was the only one affected by my bortus and Torhilo combo. On fourth position he used a level 3 gold foil Twisted Jester, followed by a level 3 Octopider and a level 4 gold foil Haunted Spider. So he clearly had a level advantage, which gave him more fire power and abilities.

The battle

image.png

At Round two my healer and both our flesh shields were gone and my tank was at one health. I already could see my disadvantage, but was going for a last stand on this battle (not the ability though).

image.png

I could finish of some of his monsters in Round 2, but at the beginning of round 3 it was very clear, that this was a loss. My pirate captain was killed by the Haunted Spiders poison and my Water Elemental wasn't able to attack anymore.

A short but clear victory for my opponent.

Analysis

Both our summoners were almost useless in this battle, since both only reduced one opponents monsters attack. He had a clear level advantage, which was decisive in this battle. Because with this huge attack power combined with the poision, he could easily destroy my front line. Water Elemental was usualess in the back. It would have been a better choice to change his position with the one of Axemaster, to have my big damage dealer in the back - but you never know, what the opponent is playing. Torhilo was also not too useful and could've been replaced by Frozen Soldier or Serpent of Eld.
I wasn't paying to much attention to his last battles - which would've shown me, that he used a lot of ranged. I don't have a return fire monster yet, but if I had known in advance, Lir Deepswimmer would have been the best choice!

Since water is my favorite Splinter right now, I was really looking forward to finally do a water challenge - and it is one of my longer ones as well! If you enjoy it or think it is helpful and you can learn out of my mistakes, please leave an upvote and feel free to reblog this post.

Cheers, @andy-plays

image.png



0
0
0.000
4 comments
avatar

Thanks for the play by play! It's like you were narrating the exact things I think of during battles!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Congratulations @andy-plays! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):

You received more than 1000 upvotes.
Your next target is to reach 1250 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:

HiveFest⁶ Meetings Contest

0
0
0.000