This week's battle challenge is featuring the Exploding Rats! This is a cool, silly cards that honestly doesn't get very many uses, but it's a blast (see what I did there?) to use!

Exploding Rats Highlights

The Exploding Rats is an extremely interesting card due to it's Blast ability at Level 1. It only has 1 health regardless of level so it can be an super risky play, but with the high speed, it can be a great play under the right circumstances.

	Blast: Does additional damage to Monsters adjacent to the target Monster (divided by 2 and rounded up)
	Redemption: When this Monster dies, it does 1 damage to all enemy monsters
	True Strike: This monster's attacks cannot miss

Since I play in Silver I, my max level for the Exploding Rats is Level 4. At Level 5 it gains Redemption which can be huge in helping you wipe out your opponent's backline.

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So when do I use the Exploding Rats?

• I like to use this card in lower mana battles that give backline attackers the ability to attack (Super Sneak, Melee Mayhem, Equal Opportunity)
• I also like to use it when the Equalizer rule is in place. Giving it a health boost makes it a very deadly monster.

This Week's Featured Battle

In this featured battle, my opponent and I both played Tarsa in this Fire vs Fire battle! Who will claim the victory?

Battle Ruleset

	Aim True	Melee and Ranged attacks always hit their target
	Equalizer	The initial Health of all Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base Health
	18 Mana	This is considered a low mana battle
	Active Splinters	Only the Fire splinter is available

Strategy Highlights

• Aim True
  • Since everything hits, flying, dodge, and blind have no affect
  • Speed is still important since you want to take out your opponents first
  • Generally, Magic still has an advantage over Melee and Ranged since it is not hindered by Armor

• Equalizer
  • Bring out the cheap squishy monsters!
  • Strong attackers with low health are game changers in this ruleset
  • Try to fill your lineup with a lot of monsters vs 1 big one
  • Tank heal and Triage can be great abilities to use here

With equalizer, I tend to use as many monsters as I can and concentrate my attacks to either the back or the front.

Since Fire is the only splinter available, it's highly likely that my opponent will be using Tarsa (so will I). Fire has a lot of low mana monsters that greatly benefit from the equalizer ruleset. However, they are mostly Melee monsters that can't attack from the backline so we'll have to be careful on what we choose.

The Lineup

Position	Card Image	Card Name	Notes
Summoner		Tarsa	Fire Summoner that gives all friendly monsters +1 to their Melee attacks as well as +1 Health. This is an extremely powerful summoner and is commonly used in Bronze and Silver
Pos 1 (tank)		Exploding Rats	The card of the hour! I love playing the Exploding Rats in Equalizer battles since it's so fast and packs a heavy punch with Tarsa. The Blast ability also helps damage the backline. Aim True makes this card a little less effective but still great, nonetheless
Pos 2 (secondary tank/support)		Creeping Ooze	I wanted to be sure that I could be the first to attack so have the Slow ability was key
Pos 3 (attacker)		Uraeus	This is a low mana Melee attacker that benefits from Tarsa's buff. I wish I could put something with Reach in instead in order to concentrate my attacks but Sneak is better than nothing
Pos 4 (attacker/support)		Spirit Hoarder	This is another low mana Melee attacker that can attack from the backline with Magic. It also has Triage which will help keep my backline survive against Sneak attacks which are very likely since it's a Fire battle
Pos 5 (attacker)		Serpentine Spy	This is another low mana Melee attacker that can attack from the backline with it's Opportunity ability. Generally in equalizer battles, it will end up attacking the frontline since everything has the same health
Pos 6 (Meat Shield)		Furious Chicken	This is a 0 mana card that is a must have in nearly every lineup. It essentially absorbs an attack for free and in this case, multiple attacks! It's placed back here to protect from Sneak

Let's Battle!

• My opponent went with Living Lava as their tank which could have paid off if my monsters didn't have enough attack power to do any damage.
• They had a similar idea to me, which was to protect the backline attackers by using the Creeping Ooze and Furious Chicken as meat shields
• Triage was huge for me as it basically rendered their Sneak attack useless
• I simply had more attacks than my opponent and was able to do more damage

Did it work?

Yes! The Exploding Rats tank was a great play because it was able to get 7 health which allowed it to take 2 hits from Living Lava while damaging both Living Lava and the 2nd position monster, Radiated Scorcher.

I analyzed the battle with Splintertools and I had a 100% chance of winning. That's always a good sign!

Final Thoughts

I really like the Exploding Rats card. The artwork is fun, the ability and stats make it a very niche card which I always love to have. When you finally get to use it, it can be very satisfying.

It isn't a must have card by any means but at only $0.04/BCX, it doesn't cost much to pick up a max level card.

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!