The Splinterlands Challenge of the Week is Stonesplitter Orc.

It is available in Alpha/Beta Edition, Rare card, Earth Monster and is a Melee Monster.
Of the Earth Monsters , it has the highest melee damage of the Alpha / Beta edition, starting with 3 damage in LVL 1 and 5 damage in LVL 8 only surpassed by Rexxie, and the only one in all editions so far to have the Retaliate ability.

Lore:
True to the name of their kind, the Stonesplitter Orcs can cleave any stone into pieces, revealing the ores and gems that may dwell within. They are also fierce foes, whose pickaxes can crack the skull of an enemy monster like a nut.

Stats

Abilities:

Retaliate & Enrage

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	Retaliate	When hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker.
	Enrage	Has increased Melee attack and Speed when damaged.

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RULESET

In this battle the rule of combat is Broken Arrows, so Ranged attack Monsters can't be used this time.
Mana Cap:18
This battle I can only use characters from the Fire, Earth or Dragon splinters.

Summoner

So I decided to use Mylor Crowling as he has the Ability: All friendly Monsters receive the Thorns ability at the start of the battle.

THORNS

When hit with a Melee attack, does damage back to the attacker.
A very powerful ability against melee.

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Lineup

With only 18 mana:

In First Position: Stonesplitter Orc, costs 6 mana, Ability: Retaliate

In Second Position: Furious Chicken, costs 0 mana so why not and can be attacked by monsters with Snipe in that position.

In Third Position: Brownie, costs 1 mana, Ability: Swiftness

	Swiftness	All friendly Monsters have increased Speed.

In Four Position: Mushroom Seer, costs 5 mana, Ability: Silence

	Silence	Reduces the Magic Attack of all enemy Monsters.

In Five Position: Dwarven Wizard, costs 3 mana, Ability: Snipe

		Snipe		Target enemy Monsters with Ranged, Magic, or no attack that are not in the first position.

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Here is the battle:

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Round 1

My Stone Splitter Orc attacks (first thanks to Brownie) Flesh Golem doing 3 damage.
Dwarven Wizard attacks Flesh Golem as he did not use any Monster with magic or no attack.
Elven Cutthroat attacks my Dwarven Wizard and is destroyed due to Thorns.
My Mushroom Seer didn't help with his ability this time, but it did 2 damage.
Brownie didn't attack but helped with Swiftness: +1 Speed.
And my Furious Chicken is just watching the fight without any danger. All good.

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Round 2

My Stonesplitter Orc attacks and destroys his Flesh Golem which only had 2 HP left.
My magic monsters deal 3 damage to his Stonesplitter Orc.
His Stonesplitter Orc attacks mine and his armor is destroyed due to Thorns.

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Round 3

My Stonesplitter Orc attacks and ends the battle.

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My lineup worked very well I had Thorns for Melee attacks and Silence if he used magic monsters.
My opponent probably put Stonesplitter Orc in last position, in case I chose a monster with Sneak like his elven , but I didn't, so it worked better for me.
Neither of my monsters were destroyed even the Furious Chicken survived, often ends up dying in the first round, but always respawn on the farm 😄.
Stonesplitter Orc Retaliate did not trigger this battle, but it did a lot of damage.

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My Splinterlands referral link:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=aubryd

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