Hello my fellow Splinterlandians, I'm back with another weekly battle challenge to share. This week the theme is spineback turtle and he is one of my favourite tanks in the game. I have always enjoyed running this unit and can find he adds quite a bit of value for only 4 mana.

This was a fun match it was the equalizer ruleset so cards like chicken and creeping ooze can be quite valuable in these scenarios.

Battle Link

This is what the formations and battle looked like. My opponent went heavy damage with Djinn Chawla a great card that can be tough to deal with. However, my setup with the healer ends up proving a big difference in this battle.

Positioning

Spot 1 Tank (Spineback Turtle)

Going with the theme of the week obviously, this guy has to be your tank. At 4 cost and adding in thorns at level 3, he can really hurt your opponent's fist monster and any other melee unit that chooses to attack him. He is a bit slow but that is great for reverse speed ruleset and even being slow but not in that ruleset he can still do a lot as your primary tank. Pair him with the new water summoner Keyla like I did and he gets extra armour and speed. If you run him with a repair unit like Scavo hireling he can just keep absorbing a ton of melee damage and dish out those previous wounds to likely attackers.

I have used this guy many times in low mana rulesets and of course reverse speed as I mentioned. He can do wonders in so many different scenarios and has become one of my favourite tanks in the game. You just can't really go wrong with the cost to value that he adds. Magic/Ranged will of course smash him but if you know they are gonna run melee this turtle is your guy.

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Spot 2 0 Cost Utility (Furious Chicken)

Of course, what would an equalizer match be without the trusty chicken? This guy time and time again has proved to be the difference in countless battles and even with the new fiends I still always have a spot for the chicken. I don't own the torrent fiend as my opponent did however this guy was just there to absorb anyone that would possibly have snipe or act as an off-tank in the case turtle got taken out.

Thriving in the equalizer ruleset this guy is a must-own and even with all the cards dropping in value for the most part this guy has held steady and maintained his value and price.

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Spot 3 Slow Utility (Creeping Ooze)

Ah yes, another amazing low-cost mana unit that also thrives in equalizer ruleset. That ever valuable slow ability coming in clutch and with a massive health pool in this battle he was gonna stick around for a long time turning my opponents into a bunch of sloths.

The difference between a lot of battles can always come down to speed and misses, and let me tell you something. There is nothing worse than a crucial miss or having all your opponent's monsters attack first before you get a single attack off. So as I say Speed kills and you need to be focussing on slowing down or speeding up your monsters each and every battle.

Source

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Spot 4 Tank Heal (Crustcean King)

Good ole crusty I love this card over and over again. He is healed countless tanks for me and has a special spot in my heart. When he was one of the cards that were gonna be taken out of the starters I knew I needed to at the very least pick up a level one. Preferably level 3 for the ranged attack he gets but an absolute must-have for me.

This guy has done it all from the seamonster+crusty combo to the combo we see here paired with spineback he is such a G. Again going into the equalizer ruleset makes him shine even more and sustain your tank for that much longer.

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Spot 5 Ranged Blaster (Pirate Archer)

Finishing off the lineup with another goody I went with pirate archer. Low cost and low health so another ideal pick for equalizer but also adding in that almighty blast ability. He was perfect for this setup as well as my opponent went with Djinn Chawala so both he and Crusty took no damage while they pierced and blasted the poor dragon away.

I love this guy paired with my favourite summoner Selenia Sky but in this situation instead of choosing her I went with the new water summoner for the speed burst.

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Battle Breakdown

This was a relatively easy battle I played it well and choose perfectly to counter my opponent. Even though Chawala can be tough to chew through the combination of the blast from Pirate Archer the heal from Crusty, the thorns from Spineback and the slow from Ooze all paired in unison to make this battle a nightmare for my opponent. Even if Spineback did get taken out we still had chicken in there as a backup and the ranged damage would have added up to take out the purple dragon.

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Thanks to @flauwy for providing the dividers

Thumbnail made using Canva