Trio Triumphs - Using Neutrals in Battle!

This week's Share Your Battle challenge features Spirit Hoarder! And while this particular battle does not feature Spirit Hoarder, don't worry - I'll get to it later this week. Instead, for this battle I am going to shine the spotlight on not one, not two, but THREE other great neutral monsters.

Neutral monsters are always nice to have in your deck, because as long as there is no Taking Sides ruleset in effect then they are usable with any splinter. This gives them some extra utility that other monsters tied to a single splinter don't have, and allow them to be used in a wide variety of fights and strategies. For our first battle this week we will be featuring a very helpful neutral supporting monster in Disintegrator, along with two attacking neutrals - Uraeus and Battering Ram.

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. This is an interesting ruleset because we have a lot of rules relevant to melee monsters. Up Close and Personal limits our monster selections to melee attackers only, Melee Mayhem allows those melee monsters to attack from any position, and Armored Up means that every monster will have some additional armor to protect them from those inevitable melee attacks.

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Any time I get the Up Close and Personal ruleset, one of the first summoners I will consider using is Mylor Crowling. Mylor's Thorns ability is already decent in most battles, but in a fight where you know that every monster is a melee attacker he becomes extremely powerful. This battle happens to have both Up Close and Personal and the Earth splinter, so Mylor is a slam dunk selection here.

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As is common, we'll start off with a tank and secondary tank. Mycelic Infantry is a solid tank with plenty of bulk, and is even better in this battle since we know that the vast majority (if not all) of the damage will be melee - that means the Shield ability will be able to reduce all of the damage coming from the opposing team. Our secondary tank will help even more with this - Disintegrator's Demoralize will debuff the entire opposing team, making it that much tougher for them to damage Mycelic Infantry. And let's not forget that while they are attacking a Shielded Mycelic Infantry, they will by taking Thorns damage thanks to Mylor!

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My midline consisted of a pair of Neutral monsters who are great at hitting the enemy monsters where it hurts - Battering Ram and Uraeus are both solid attackers who use Opportunity and Sneak to potentially attack weaker monsters who are not on the front lines. My plan was for this duo to pick apart the opposing lineup while my tanks at the front bought them plenty of time.

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I finished off my team with some monsters to slow down any potential Sneak attacks. Fungus Fiend and Mycelic Morphoid are both budget picks who will be able to attack from the back thanks to the Melee Mayhem ruleset. Thanks to Mylor's Thorns and the Armored Up ruleset, they have more durability than you might expect, and will also be able to dish out some counter damage to any attackers going after the back of my lineup.

With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I feel pretty good about the battle - my opponent has also chosen the potent Mycelic Infantry and Disintegrator combo, but they didn't have Mylor. This will give my team a huge advantage in the battle, as Thorns damage will be accumulating every time the opposing monsters attack.

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In the first round of battle things get off to a slow start. While my opponent didn't use Mylor, they did bring a bit of Thorns damage of their own, and the enemy Venari Knifer is able to do quite a bit of armor damage to my team. Luckily it paid a price for it, taking heavy damage with just a few points of health remaining.

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One more round and there is a bit of progress. The Knifer goes down, and I still have most of my monsters in play. In the meantime, Battering Ran and Uraeus are slowly beginning to work on the backline monsters.

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It actually ended up taking a couple more rounds thanks to Mycelic Infantry and its Shield, but by the start of round 5 the writing was on the wall - the Thorns damage continued to pile up and Uraeus and Battering Ram finally took down my opponent's Disintegrator. One final round of attacks and it was all over. And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.

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My strategy for this battle worked perfectly. Mycelic Infantry and Disintegrator held the front line, while Uraeus, Battering Ram, and Thorns damage were able to wear down the opposing team. Disintegrator, Uraeus, and Battering Ram all played crucial roles in giving my lineup both the staying power and damage to close out the win. All three of the neutral cards are versatile and usable in many rulesets, and have vertainly earned their place in my deck!

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:

• Something Old, Something New, Something Sneak-y - Using Dragons in Battle! - Last week's battle challenge, featuring the Dragon splinter!

• 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.