An Even-tful Fight - Tournament Battling in Splinterlands!

This week's Social Media challenge features what is always an enjoyable task - share your most remarkable Splinterlands moment! And while pinpointing the MOST remarkable moment is rather difficult, one of my favorite activities in Splinterlands is competing with large groups of fellow players in tournaments. So today, I will be sharing an epic Splinterlands battle from a tournament with valuable tournament points on the line! Our battle for today features some classic monsters, with the added spice of an additional impact on the tournament rankings!

Before we begin, a few quick words about tournaments. Tournaments are a whole lot of fun because they allow you to compete with groups of players with a (relatively) even playing field, since you can pick and choose the league and format of the tournaments you want to enter. Another plue? Use of bots in tournaments is a no-no, in all of these battles you know you are facing off against another human (unless someone is up to some sneaky business, anyway). Anytime tournaments have the added benefit of being able to enter in your battles at any point within a 24 hour window. If you haven't given tournaments a try yet, what you you waiting for? Go on and give it a try!

If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup? Read on further!

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First up - the ruleset. We have Close Range, which allows ranged monsters to attack from the front position. We also have Even Stevens, which limits our monster options for our team to monsters with even mana costs. And finally, we have Up to Eleven, which increases the effect of counterdamage skills - Thorns, Reflect Magic, and Return Fire. To go along with that we have a middle of the road mana cap of 34, and every splinter except Fire or Dragon to choose from.

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For my summoner I decided to go with Kelya Frendul. Kelya is a solid all-around summoner, since her buffs to armor and speed are helpful in the vast majority of battles. Kelya is particularly good for this fight since my Water deck happens to have plenty of strong even mana costed monsters.

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For my front line I went with Diemonshark and Pallus. Both of these have plenty of bulk, and with the Close Range ruleset in play there is a slightly higher chance of ranged attackers - that means that Diemonshark's high armor is excellent here. Pallus combines some evasion (Flying) with a relatively hard hitting 3 melee attack, and can deal damage out of the second position thanks to the Reach ability.

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For my midline (and as you will see, this is basically my back line too!) I choose Djinn Oshannus and Deeplurker. Djinn Oshannus is another bulky monster, with a whooping 10 health. His Void ability and 5 speed means that he is a tough monster to get off of the battlefield! Deeplurker was my sole source of indirect damage for this battle - with Opportunity, my hope was that Deeplurker would be able to find some particularly juicy targets on the enemy's team and show them a quick exit.

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I was all out of mana at this point, so I threw in a Torrent Fiend as a meat shield. It shouldn't do any attacking out of the back, but it might be able to soak up a hit or two if my opponent brought along any Sneak attackers - every bit helps!

With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I have some mixed feelings. On one hand, my opponent's summoner selection is favorable to me, since an anti-ranged summoner is of limited usefulness against my lineup of melee and magic attackers. On the other hand, I was also expecting to see ranged monsters, and my opponent has similarly chosen to bring along minimal ranged damage.

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There are some heavy hitters on both sides, and the action if fast and furious from the start of the battle. By round 3 my Diemonshark has taken heavy damage, but my team appears to be getting the better end of the battle - all I have lost so far is my free Torrent Fiend, while my Diemonshark has managed to make some good progress on the enemy midline thanks to its Opportuntiy ability.

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Over the next few rounds my team continues to make steady progress against the enemy lineup. By the beginning of round 5 the battlefield has begun to clear considerably, with my team holding a small but significant advantage in both damage output and bulk.

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By the start of round 7 the battle was all but over. The opposing Anachron Bolter was stuck facing off against my full health Djinn Oshannus, and with one more quick attack the battle was done - victory! And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.

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While my read on my opponent's plans was not quite accurate for this battle, my strategy of bringing bulky monsters backed up with some indirect damage was more than enough to pull off the win. Knowing my deck and which cards would work best in the Even Stevens ruleset was key to this battle. The result was a victory, and some valuable tournament points that contributed to my overall tournament standings. I'll take that any day!

Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:

• Tournament Time - Epic Experiences in Splinterlands! - A Splinterlands battle analysis, featuring the some tournament play!

• Splinterlands Economics: Causation - A look at causation, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!

• Splinterlands Economics: Ceteris Paribus - An introduction to the concept of Ceteris Paribus, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!

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Thinking about giving Splinterlands a try but haven't signed up yet? Feel free to use my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=bteim, and be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions!

All images used in this article are open source and obtained from Pixabay or Unsplash. Thumbnails borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Canva.