Welcome to my first Share Your Battle submission!

Hello all! I'm Bananofarmer, I've been playing actively since October.

I've been playing in the Silver 1 - Gold 3 Leagues as of the last month or so.
I do own a handful of cards, and a few leveled up cards. Mostly level 1, though. So no thorns for me haha!

I've been a lover of the water deck for a while. Not because of alric, but because of the other crazy powerful cards that lie in there. Not to mention all the great ranged/melee counter cards, and Oshannus of course!

What's the Spineback Method?
The Spineback Method is using Spineback turtle in low-mid mana battles to effectively soak damage while your backline shreds the enemy team. It also works as an excellent backline in Stealth rulesets.

Onto the fights!

Here's the link to the battle below

Right before the start of the fight...

Fight 1: A toxic realm without magic

Here we have one of my least favorite rulesets, because let's be honest, poison is terrible.
Since we have poison, I know I'll need some units who can take at least a few turns of damage.
There's no magic, so that handy magic/cleanse unit is gone from water. I figured they may use Death.
Keyla was a fine choice for a no magic battle.

I put torrent fiend up front, to probably just take a hit in place of its team mates for 0 mana.

Next up, our favorite turtle, the Spineback Turtle
I chose this card because it has 6 HP, so I know it could potentially survive 3 rounds in poison.
Also, as a bonus, since there is no magic I can assume that the 2 armor will take at least 1 hit.

Behind these 2, we have Leviathan and Wave Brood.
I put Leviathan back here, so that he can survive a few turns, outheal the poison, and fight later.
Wave brood is simply to absorb hits from ranged units, and to take a turn or 2 of poison as well.

In the back, hoping they survive 2 or 3 turns, I have a couple damage units to deal more damage.

So how does it turn out?

Well, I win! I feel the secret here was having Spineback Turtle and Wave Brood soak enemy damage.
That stalled the enemy long enough for the poison to weaken their team, and Leviathian to jump in and finish them off.

Here's the link to the battle below.

Pelacor Bandit is too thirsty for blood and attacks before the screen capture

Fight 2: Little Mana, Big Tank

Here we have a silenced summoner and low mana ruleset. I choose dragon to increase my selection of cards.

Up front, once again we have Spineback Turtle taking most of the frontal damage.
With 6HP and 2 Armor, it can take quite the beating.

Right behind, we have another favorite card of mine, Twilight Basilisk.
Good speed, decent durability, cheap card, and 2 attack. A fine support for Spineback.

Next, I have another Torrent Fiend as a "divider" between the tanks and rear damage.

Finally, at the end, we have Serpentine Mystic, Feasting Seaweed and Pelecor Bandit.
A bit of Magic and Anti-heal, plus some additional Melee Damage.

So is Spineback the MVP?

I would say so! A good card before and a good card today, I still think Spineback is an excellent low mana damage sponge for water decks.

Do you like the SPINEBACK TURTLE? Why or why not?

Yes!
I still think Spineback Turtle is a great option.
For fights with no magic and low mana caps, I love this card.

I used to use it much more before Chaos Legion, however now I find myself using Xenith Monk a lot more often as a low cost tank. The additional speed almost makes up for the 2 Armor, and the Heal at level 3 is cheaper to obtain than Thorns at level 4 on Spineback.

Still, I like Water Decks, so I find myself with Spineback quite often anyways.
As a bonus, here's a great example of losing with Spineback.

Thanks for reading!

Best of luck on your Splinterlands journey, and thank you @Splinterlands for hosting this challenge!