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Using Abilities to Get More Wins

I have been playing Splinterlands for just over two months. I cannot say I have a complete grasp of each ability, or how to best synergize them with complimentary abilities, but it is not as overwhelming as it once was.

My best piece of advice is to study all the abilities. I like to use this wiki. It is an alphabetized, easy to read list of all the abilities. I often study the battles I lose and reference this list to see what my opponent was doing that I do not yet understand.

As you move up in leagues, you will begin to see new combos and abilities that aren't used at lower levels and need to study more. There is always something new to learn to help improve your ability to win.

Below is a battle that highlights many different abilities and how they can work together. (I will admit I wanted to share this battle not only to highlight the magic of abilities, but also to show off a battle in which I beat a Llama-Kron combo 😀) I was worried when the battle screen popped up and I saw my opponents cards, but this battle shows off a lot of cool abilities and how they can synergize and compound their effectiveness.

The complete battle can be found HERE

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Pre-Fight

Before any summoner buffs, or abilities, have been applied, my opponent has a sizable health, and a slight melee, advantage.

	ME	OPPONENT
	34	45
	3	5
	8	8
	0	2

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Round 1

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Now that the summoner buffs and abilities have been applied my opponent has added an additional 12 health from Llama's summoner buff and 12 armor from Queen Mycelia's protect ability. I gained an additional five magic attack from Obsidian and subtracted three magic attack from my opponent with Mushroom Seer's Silence ability. Another sneaky bit that may not be immediately obvious is that I gained and additional possible three melee damage each round from Grund's Double Strike ability.

This is where abilities start to shine. My opponent gaining 12 additional armor means little as I've gone nearly all in on magic attacks and can bypass all armor. Oaken Behemoth on my opponents side does take advantage of the Void Armor ability to negate this, but the other monsters do not gain this advantage.

I would normally be worried about Grund taking a beating upfront and not being around long enough to gain a great benefit from Double Strike, however I have two back up plans. The first is to use Mycellic Slipspawn's Taunt ability to draw away as much fire from Grund as possible. The second plan of defense is both Goblin Psychic's and Wood Nymph's Tank Heal ability to keep Grund going.

My opponent used a similar strategy using Mycelic in the back to draw my fire and a tank that can use it's own Heal ability. Whose plan will succeed?

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	ME	OPPONENT
	34	57
	6	5
	13	5
	0	14

Results and Reflection

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Whenever I see a Llama-Kron combo show up in the battle field this is the scenario I worry about. The Last Stand ability has increased Kron's stats and he now boasts 18 health, the ability to deal 3 magic damage and of course he still has the Heal ability.

My early worry turned out to not be necessary. Due to my team's advantage in damage dealing I was able to remove his Mycelic in the first round while my opponent was forced to focus on my Mycelic through three rounds. That bought me time to take out half of the opposing team.

By the time Last Stand was put into play I still had two monsters able to Tank Heal, had Kron under Silence and could deal 17 damage each round. Grund finished the match at nearly full health and the only monster I lost was Mycelic.

Reflecting further on this match, the depth of this seemingly simple game comes out. My opponent had a solid team, but my choice of abilities and monsters was able to shred through the lineup. Had my opponent used any cards with Silence, Magic Reflect or Void the match could easily have swung the other direction.

I still battle with mostly level one cards, but seeing how monsters begin to gain more abilities with higher levels will add an entire new dimension and complexity to my matches. I look forward to progressing through the game and learning even more about the magic of abilities and how they best synergize.

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Thanks for reading!

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