A peculiar new bud appeared at the tips of the highest branches of the Elder Tree. The animals living in the tree watched as the strange buds grew, and in a matter of days, burst open. From each bud zoomed forth a tiny sprite. These Wood Nymphs quickly scattered around Anumün in a frenzy of mischief.

Excerpt from in-game lore page

Wood Nymph: Obsolete or Overpowered?

With Chaos Legion out for a while, I've been seeing less of everyone's favorite Sprite.

With new cards like Goblin Psychic, can we still see a good use for our little healer?

Well, I would say absolutely!

In fact, while writing this blog; I actually lost to a Wood Nymph setup trying to do something new! 🤣

The Crystalsmith to the Earth deck, here's why I like Wood Nymph:

• Great choice over Goblin Psychic when mana restrictions are tight.

• If your main damage source isn't Magic, this is a good choice to save mana over Goblin Psychic. Save some mana for more offensive damage or better tank.

• Good card in higher leagues too - Gains Strengthen at level 6

• Allows for the ridiculous niche double tank heal build with the Earth splinter.

• In low leagues, this is simply a cheap, effective heal option with some sweet magic damage. Wood Nymph + Khmer Princess is the same damage, heal and cost as Goblin Psychic but 2 monsters and more overall HP.

Enough talk, let's get to the fight breakdown!

(Click here to check out the battle replay!)

Welcome to the usual scenario for a budget Gold 3 player such as myself

Battle Rules: 32 Mana Cap - Reverse Speed - Even Stevens

Allowed Splinters: Water - Earth - Death

Home Team CP: 100.5K - Away Team CP: 168.6K

Breakdown:

I'll be honest, at this point I knew my odds were low if I didn't step up my strategy
I do have a level 2 Obsidian rented out, but not many level 2+ cards that would help in this ruleset specifically. Plus, I knew I was up against a quite literally decked out opponent.

After a brief thought, and a look at the other players cards/history, I figured they would use Death or Earth. Considering my recent history of a lot of Magic damage, I had a strong suspicion they would attempt a counter with a Unicorn Mustang. Which has become the bane of my Earth Splinter quests as well.

Seeing the CP, I figured my only shot was to build my usual reliable strategy but with a anti-mustang twist to it. So how do I tackle a Mustang user with 60% more collection power?
The Grund + Wood Nymph special!

With reverse speed, I knew that my Wood Nymph would get a nice early heal. I also knew that with reverse speed, this meant I would probably get a couple hits on Grund before he was able to attack. Also, since Grund has 3 speed, I knew he would attack before the mustang.

Here's the explanation to my lineup:

• Obsidian as a Summoner: Since Sporcerer can remove armor, and Grund attacks twice, I felt it better to bolster the backline damage.
• Grund first: A mid-round 3-speed attacker, 6 melee damage per turn, and a comfy 10HP frontliner. Can't really complain about that.
• Behind Grund, I have Spirit Shaman, as additional damage and a sort of "backup tank."
• Next, Sporcerer for a whopping 3 Magic and to de-armor Grund's target if needed.
• Behind that, we have Swamp Thing, to reduce their HP and make them quicker to kill for 2 mana.
• Wood Nymph to help keep Grund alive and add more Magic damage.
• Finally Khmer Princess for some cheap backline Magic damage and to protect Nymph from a 1-round sneak kill.

I'll be honest, when I saw it was my level 1 team vs. a full gold card team, I was a bit scared.

I thought well, this isn't what I expected. It's something I deal with regularly, since most games I have only 2 or 3 cards that are leveled and the rest are level 1.

Will my anti-mustang strategy work this time?

Another win in the books

Victory!

I emerge the winner!
Like my favorite Splinterlands youtuber @luke-wtp says: "Big Brains beat Big Deck."
Technically I should lose if our accounts faced off in a bot vs. bot scenario, however by predicting the opponents card choices, and understanding my own weaknesses given the ruleset, I was able to score the win!

I will admit that in later leagues, Goblin Psychic vs. Wood Nymph becomes less clear of a choice, as the former gains some very powerful abilities in later levels.

More often than not, I find that my losses come from experimental strategies, or ones I think will be "cool" vs. what I know will work well. (That's one reason I have a second account, to experiment!)
With Play2Earn games, it quite literally pays to take a step back and put in a good team every fight!

I hope you enjoyed my second submission into the SHARE YOUR BATTLE challenge!

Thanks to the @Splinterlands team for running the challenge and creating this game.

Check out the original post here.

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Have a great week, happy battling!