_{Thumbnail for the weekly challenge provided by @splinterlands}

For the previous week's I couldn't properly join the weekly battle challenge hosted by @splinterlands because I was either too late to write a post or because I didn't really battle with the featured monster. Which is on me, I should make a habit out of making a post earlier! I hope this post is still in time, I believe it is when I looked up the deadline time for me. But if it isn't in time I understand and I should definitely post earlier going forward.

This week the battle challenge features the Crypt Beetle, a Common Death Monster from the Chaos Legion set. I currently have this card at Level 5, where it looks like this.

At a higher level its Attack, Armor and Health will increase to 3 Attack, 4 Armor and 5 Health at level 10. It has the Shield ability at all levels.

The battle I'm sharing this week is from a recent tournament earlier in the week, I saved the link in case I didn't have a better fight using the Crypt Beetle since then. I did have a fight where I used it yesterday, but despite winning that fight I wasn't too satisfied with it.

In the battle I'm sharing this week, we are both using Thaddius Brood as Summoners. Here is a screenshot of our lineups.

This is the link to the battle: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_QRjmKR5c9wEgDOpuSAEi&ref=athunderstruck

In this battle, only the Death and Dragon elements could be used. It was a Chaos Legion only Tournament, and legendary Summoners were not allowed. Since the only Summoner for Dragon is the Legendary Quix the Devious, it meant that Thaddius Brood was our only option. The battle had a 25 Mana Cap and one rule:

• Lost Magic: Monsters with Magic attack may not be used in battles.

Team Setup

I could only pick Thaddius Brood because it was Chaos Legion only Tournament and legendary Summoners could not be used.

As my tank I chose for Cursed Windeku, with its high health and Thorns it can survive some hits and deal extra damage to the enemies frontline. Especially as Monsters with Magic attack couldn't be used and there were only a few Ranged options.

After my tank I placed Silent Sha-vi with Sneak to attack the enemy back line, and if Cursed Windeku would fall it could take a few hits to hopefully allow my Lira the Dark to at least attack more. I decided to play Lira the Dark in this lineup because she could start dealing damage and picking off low health Monsters on the enemy team.

Last but not least, I placed the Crypt Beetle. As we could only use Death, I was pretty certain my opponent would also bring a Silent Sha-vi and with the Crypt Beetle's Shielding ability it could keep the enemies Silent Sha-vi busy for a few turns.

Strategy Successful?

Well yes and no. The no part is because my opponent placed a Crypt Beetle in the front, and due of Thaddius Brood's -1 health it forced my Lira the Dark to attack it because it now had 1 health just like their Corpse Fiend. On top of that they had a Scavo Hireling which kept Repairing the Armor on the Crypt Beetle. My Cursed Windeku could only damage the Crypt Beetle through its Thorns because my opponent brought a Disintegrator so my Cursed Windeku only had 1 Attack.

My Crypt Beetle's placement was excellent, it took damage from my opponents Silent Sha-vi and survived while my Silent Sha-vi picked off the opponents because they had it all the way in the back.

Instead of my Lira the Dark picking off low health enemies in the backline, it became my Silent Sha-vi doing all the work. Eventually it took out the Scavo Hireling and with that Repair ability gone I could now take out their Crypt Beetle in the front. My Cursed Windeku ended up dying in the end so my Silent Sha-vi took the tank position next. Where the Silent Sha-vi did the final hit to my enemies team without taking any damage itself.

Do I like the Crypt Beetle?

Yeah it's pretty fun! I don't use it that often as I don't play the Death element as much as others. But I've already had quite some battles since Chaos Legion came out where it has proven to be a great protector for the backline when my enemies brought in Monsters with the Sneak ability. Especially in the ruleset where all Melee attack Monsters get the Sneak ability.

Conclusion

My opponent countered my Lira the Dark by having Crypt Beetle in the front and a Scavo Hireling to Repair its Armor. Which was a great play by them. But because of having the Crypt Beetle in the front unlike me having it in the back, it means their backline was not protected. Which led to my Silent Sha-vi being able to pick off the enemies in my opponent's backline 💪 Once it took out the Scavo Hireling I could finally get rid of that Crypt Beetle in the front.

It was definitely an interesting battle that had me worried at the start when I saw all of my Lira's and Thorns damage being repaired!!

Thanks for reading my weekly battle challenge.

If you haven't signed up for Splinterlands yet and want to check it out, you can do so with my referral link at: https://splinterlands.com?ref=athunderstruck