This week's battle challenge involves the Angelic Mandarin! The Angelic Mandarin is a Water splinter Range monster that has some exceptional uses. This card is a niche card but can work well in certain situations.

Angelic Mandarin Highlights

The Angelic Mandarin at first glance isn't great. It isn't particularly strong or fast but it does have a decent amount of health for a 3 mana card. For a ranged card, it's not a bad one to stick at the very back to help protect against Sneak attacks.

Icon	Ability Name	Description
	Triage	Heals the friendly back-line Monster that has taken the most damage (Heal is max health divided by 3, rounded down. Minimum is 2)
	Silence	Reduces the Magic Attack of all enemy Monsters by 1

In Bronze League, it's likely you'll use this card a filler or an odd tank. In Silver, however, it gains Triage which actually makes it an excellent Sneak protector. At max level, it gains Silence which is an incredibly useful ability to help fight against Magic attackers.

So when do I use the Angelic Mandarin?

• Honestly, below Silver, it's likely only going to be used when you're extremely limited on what you can play
• Some use cases are as a low mana tank/meat shield or a filler to help take out some frontline Armor while protecting the back
• In Silver, Triage can save you from Sneak damage or even Poison! Pair this with the Wave Brood and you've got yourself a hard monster to kill
• At max level, it gains Silence which can be a very useful ability
• Close Range is a good ruleset for this card

This Week's Featured Battle

In this week's featured battle, we have Kelya Frendul versus Mylor Crowling in Back to Basic battle with no magic!

Battle Ruleset

	Back to Basics	Monsters lose all abilities
	Lost Magic	Monsters with Magic attack may not be used in battles
	17 Mana	This is considered a low mana battle
	Active Splinters	All splinters except Fire and Death are available

• Back to Basics
  • Bring out the Magic attackers!
  • Magic attackers have a huge advantage since they ignore Armor and can attack from any position
  • Obsidian is a very popular choice
• Lost Magic
  • Uh oh. No Magic and Back to Basics? Armor is VERY important here
  • Try to balance health, armor, and good Ranged attackers
  • This may require you to play more than one tank
• 17 Mana
  • This is a low Mana battle so don't expect to many strong monsters

In this set of rules, it's obvious that you will need some Ranged damage since it'll be the only thing that can attack from the backline. I went with Kelya as my Summoner because without Magic, Armor is key. Additionally, the speed boost will help with some evasion

Also, I noticed that my opponent plays Mylor Crowling a lot. This is a super sneaky play in Back to Basics without Magic because it can really tear up any Melee tanks. Because of this, I tried to avoid using Melee monsters if possible.

This led me to use the Angelic Mandarin as a third tank! It's got a good amount of health and will not be subject to thorns. The range damage doesn't hurt either!

The Lineup

Position	Card Image	Card Name	Notes
Summoner		Crypt Mancer	Legendary Death summoner that grants a -1 Melee, -1 Speed, and -1 Health debuff to the enemy monsters
Pos 1 (tank)		Furious Chicken	This is a "tank" since it can take 2 hits before dying. No melee attack is a plus since I was expecting thorns. It also costs 0 mana
Pos 2 (tank)		Torrent Fiend	Similar to the Furious Chicken, this can take 2 attacks and costs 0 mana
Pos 3 (tank/attacker)		Angelic Mandarin	Great tank for only 3 mana
Pos 4 (attacker)		Igor Darkspear	Only 2 mana and can attack from the backline
Pos 5 (attacker)		Merdhampir	Strong, low mana ranged attacker
Pos 6 (attacker)		Kulu Swimhunter	Similar to the Merdhampir, it's a strong, low mana attacker

Let's Battle!

• My opponent played Mylor Crowling as expected.
• This played perfectly into my plan since their backline monsters were all slow and weak
• Kelya with Ranged attackers was the perfect play
• Ultimately, I did too much damage for them to handle and won the battle

Did it work?

Yes! My backline was able to completely demolish the enemy and Angelic Mandarin ended up being a good tank.

I analyzed the battle with Splintertools and was given a 100% chance of winning the battle. That is always great to see!

Final Thoughts

The Angelic Mandarin isn't great at low levels but gets much better once it gains Triage! Because of that, it costs a bit more than you would expect at $0.21/BCX.

Thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed it!

Referral link : https://splinterlands.com?ref=at.bui89

If you decide to use my referral link, I'll happily send you a few cards to help you get started!