Splinterlands | Beginner strategies | Earth strategy with Obsidian

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When to use Obsidian

The cool thing about Obsidian is that you can almost always use her. She is very strong in almost any situation, especially when you are playing at the beginner levels.
That being said, once you reach silver it's pretty hard to consistently win games in high mana fights.

The basic idea

The basic idea is simple, Obsidian gives all monsters +1 magic damage, so what is our plan?

...

Exactly, use a lot of magic monsters.

Getting the most out of your summoner ability is a good way to get a lot of wins at the lower leagues. That being said, you will still need some strategy on top of this basic principles. Let me walk you through it.

The free 2 play strategy

Let's start with discussing the completely free 2 play strategy using only the cards that are free 2 play.

Let's start by looking at our go-to guys.

Mycelic slipspawn

This guy is the tank of the linup. He has 10 hp, 2 damage and the taunt ability. The taunt ability means that the enemy has to target this creature as long as he is alive. In other words, he will protect the other monsters with his life.

We mainly hope that this guy can stay alive long enough (relying on the heals that the goblin psychic provides) so that our team can do enough damage to win the game.

Regal peryton

The regal peryton is basically our backup tank. Not as tanky as our main tank, but still a pretty solid monster with 6 hp. Important to note is that this guy has 5 attack speed and the flying ability. Which means that he is pretty hard to hit by melee and ranged attacks.

Elven mystic

The elven mystic is a decent card to use in a free 2 play magic deck. However, once you start getting more cards this one will not remain in the default lineup.

It's an okay card in this lineup, but there will be beter alternatives once you collect some cards.

Khmer princess

A very strong beginner card in the lineup is the Khmer princess. She is so strong because she only costs 2 mana and with the damage buff from Obsidian still does 2 magic damage. Maybe not the best pick for high mana battles, but really good in low mana battles!

Goblin psychic

Last but not least, the Goblin psychic is the healer of the group. He will try to keep your tanks alive as long as possible. Keep in mind that the higher health the tank has the more this guy will heal. That's why he is so good in combination with Mycelic slipspawn.

Okay these are our core members and a default lineup would look like this:

Ps: if you have room for it you could also include venari spellsmith.

Ofcourse, splinterlands would be a pretty boring game if we could just copy and paste a lineup everytime and that would be it. You will need to adapt to the ruleset of the battle.

For example, when it's an earthquake battle, you might want to focus on high health creatures and flying creatures, cards like Khmer princess aren't that strong anymore because she will die in 1 turn.

Also, when you have a low mana game you will not be able to include all these monsters. Usually low mana magic monsters are pretty good in this situation.

When you are in a high mana battle, you might want to leave the low mana monsters like Khmer princess and elven mystic at home and replace them with higher mana creatures.

Positioning is also very important. I think my lineup is pretty decent, but if you notice that your enemies use a lot of sneak attacks you might want to put elven mystic behind the goblin psychic with the intention of delaying his execution. Note that sneak attacks will only attack the last in line once the taunt monster is dead. You will have to play around with the positions a bit and see what works best for you in your league. In fact, trying out new things and constantly trying to improve is a good general idea in splinterlands.

When you want to include a melee tank in the lineup, both unicorn mustang and mycelic infantery are good options (depending on weather you except magic damage or melee/ranged) but keep in mind that healers only heal the monster in first position. If your taunt monster is not in first position than the heals might not be used at maxed capacity. This doesn't mean that the taunt monster should always be in first position, but it's something to keep in mind. Once again, see what works best for you.

What cards to buy

Okay, so now that you know how to play this strategy with only the free 2 play cards it's time to look at how you can improve by buying some good cards for this strategy.
There are plenty of really good cards out there, but most of them are really expensive. Since this is a beginner guide, I will stick to the cheaper options out there.

Sand worm

Sand worm is not specifically great in this setup, but he is one of my main recommendations for brand new players because he is very useful in high mana games and you can use this guy with any splinter.

Magi of chaos

A chaos legion card and therefore cheaper than most alternatives. It's a pretty decent card and it's also a neutral one, which means that you can use this guy with any splinter. Definitely not a bad card to get for a new player who wants to get better with this strategy.

Centauri mage

High health, magic damage and the return fire ability. Great for high mana battles, but also might get a spot at lower mana fights because it's simply a good card that makes a very solid second tank. Still pretty good value for money, I actually expected this card to be more expensive.

Wood nymph

Wait, we already had a healer right?

Sometimes having 2 healers can be a good strategy and sometimes you just need a lower mana cost healer.

Enter Wood nymph.

Prismatic energy

Another card that I expected would be more expensive.

It's similar to cetauri mage, but this one counters magic instead of ranged.

Goblin sourcerer & Enchanted pixie & Djin Biljka

Ok, these 3 guys are somewhat similar, 3 mana magic creatures that will be a huge help in low mana battles.

Spirit shaman

The stronger alternative to elven mystic?

Sporcerer

A solid magic card, especially when you expect the enemy to have lots of armor.

What cards to level

Before you can level monsters you have to level your summoner. This can be pretty expensive and that's why I recommend buying some good level 1 cards before starting to level up your cards.

However, eventually you are going to want to get your monsters levelled up and it's important to think about what monster upgrades will benefit you the most.

Always take a look at what stats are gained at the next level before putting your DEC/Credits into levelling.

I will not go into too much detail here, but you should consider the value/cost ratio. So usually this means, upgrade the cheaper cards first. Also, I value health more than attack speed in a magic damage lineup. Personally, I would like to start with levelling Goblin Psychic and Mycelic Slipspawn to level 2.

Remember, if your summoner is level 2 you can upgrade common monsters to level 3, rares and epics to level 2.

Gameplay examples

I might use monsters that I have not covered in this article. This is because these monsters are either pretty expensive or only good in this strategy in specific situations. However, u can definitely get some inspiration as to how you can improve your cards even more.

Little league mirror

In this game I focus on keeping my 3 damage dealers alive as good as possible. Creeping ooze helps to slow the enemy down, epona helps by buffing all my monsters health and failed summoner is an awesome meat shield here. Epona is probably to expensive, but creeping ooze and failed summoners are also pretty good cards in general.

Equalizer & Earthquake

In this game I also care about staying alive as I even use 2 healers. I guess I was hoping that the health would be buffed higher than 5 because in this situation double heal wasn't really worth it. Still a decent battle.

Equalizer

An interesting fight because I simply counter the enemy so hard. Enjoyable to watch.

General tips and concepts

Before wrapping up the article let me present some other resources to improve your splinterlands strategies. Note that hese are not splinter/summoner specific.

Complete overview

The absolute splinterlands basics
This post is about the basics of the game, it goes over all the stats on a card, how the league system works etc. However, this does not really cover startegy.

Complete beginner strategy tutorial
This post is the complete beginner strategy tutorial. Should be very useful for beginners.

Strategy concepts

Focus Fire
Focus your damage on a single enemy instead of creating damage spread.

Positioning
Good positioning has offensive and defensive benefits.

Scouting
Get information from your enemy before you actually submit your teams

Battle conditions

Earthquake
How to handle battles with the earthquake condition.

Noxious fumes
How to handle battles with the noxious fumes condition.

Lore

For those of you who like to read the lore behind this powerfull summoner:

The fearsome woman now known as Obsidian grew up in the remote village of Stonebluff as the last remaining Earth mage. Each year, Earth elementalists went off to compete in the contest, leaving Obsidian to train the next generation of warriors. She wished to join the contest of champions, but the village elders advised her against it, saying she needed to stay behind and focus on training others to use Earth magic.

She grew resentful of the way she was treated, knowing she was better than previous mages before her. So, she planned her revenge. In a mine near the village, she taught classes on Earth magic and gained the trust of her students. Her teachings were strenuous and those who could not follow techniques were punished, forced to magically hold obsidian above their heads until it fell on them. She eventually learned to use obsidian to enhance the powers of others. And there was one apprentice she took under her wing. Someone who carried equal anger in his heart. She amplified his abilities in combat practice against other students, making him stronger and more ferocious than his opponents.

The village sat at the bottom of a cliff in the Tower Mountains where frequent rock slides occurred. Not a problem for mages gifted in Earth magic, but Obsidian and her apprentice no longer cared for the village. She saw it as an opportunity to leave behind her old life and find a challenge worthy of her power.

She sent her apprentice to cause a massive rock avalanche. Standing at a distance, she used her power to amplify his own. Her other students rushed to stop it, but they were not up to the task. Not against such raw power. The rocks and debris fell, covering her home, leaving it a ruined field of boulders and dust. She and her apprentice were the only survivors. Word spread of the disaster in the mountains and only whispers remained of Stonebluff.

Obsidian walked away with her head held high knowing she had proven them all wrong. She and her apprentice vanished across the sea and made their way from town to town. They heard of the terror of the Chaos Legion and followed their wake of destruction until they caught the attention of Silas of the Rift. To show off their power, she amplified her apprentice's magic to control and torture Silas' enemies. Silas made Obsidian a close advisor, a tool used to gain information through cruelty.
Obsidian stood calmly several yards back, watching her young apprentice. His robes rustled in the wind as he held his hands up high, struggling to bring down the rocks on the village below.

Obsidian's hands weaved through the air, and she stretched out with her mind. As her energy and her apprentice's connected, she amplified his powers.

He shouted out at the surge of energy coursing through him. The mountains shook, the very ground rumbling beneath their feet. And then the rocks began to fall.

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