Splinterlands Social Media Challenge!

Another week, another Social Media Challenge, this time around, I will feature a battle where I'm using a Frontier card in Champion 1 Modern.

There are 3 modifiers (rulesets) in this battle - Up Close and Personal (You can only summon units with melee attacks.), Rise of the Commons (You can only summon rare and common units.), Explosive Weaponry (All units have Blast (deals an additional 50% damage to units adjacent to the target, rounded up)). The mana budget is 54 which is a pretty good amount of mana, so I can use a full team, however, the selection will be quite limited due to two of the modifiers which are very restrictive, namely Up Close and Personal and Rise of the Commons. The available Elements are Fire, Water, Death and Dragon. I am going to go with the Water element for this one.

The "main tank" in this battle is one of the Neutral Melee cards we got with Conclave Arcana - Anyu Huntswoman. She is a 7-mana Human with 1 Melee Attack, 4 Speed, 4 Armor and 5 HP at level 1. She starts off with her signature ability - Flank (At the beginning of the battle, if this unit is in the first position, the unit in the second position gains Reach). Her Melee Attack, ARmor and HP values grow as she gets leveled up to finally reach full potential at level 8 (since she is a rare - max level) where she has 5 Melee Attack, 6 Armor, 4 Speed and 8 HP. She also gets her second and final ability - Void Armor (Magic damage hits armor before health). Her main objective when played in most battles is to protect the off-tank, which normally is a heavy melee hitter, from Magic Attacks while also enabling it to attack from the 2nd position through her Flank ability.

In the off-tank spot I have placed the main offensive weapon in my line-up - Commander Slade. Commander Slade is hands down the best Rebellion reward card, and a tremendously good rare card - might as well be a Legendary and no one would mind. Commander Slade is a 10-mana Melee unit of the Materran bloodline and a member of the Water element. At level 1 he has 3 Melee Attack, 4 Speed, 5 Armor and 5 Health. He also starts with 2 abilities right off the bat - Enfeeble (-1 to target's melee power after each successful attack) and Dodge (+25% chance to evade physical attacks). At level 4 he gains his 3rd ability - Deflect (0 damage from Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Thorns, Return Fire, and Blast splash damage). Finally at level 8 he has 5 Melee Attack, 6 Speed, 7 Armor and 10 HP. He also gains his 4th and final ability - Backfire (When an enemy unit misses, deals 2 physical damage to them). As you can see Slade is very fast, hits hard and is very elusive. His only weakness is Magic Attack but that can be remedied if needed.

The 3rd spot is for another Conclave Arcana card - Tidal Tsunamist. She is a 5-mana Melee attacker of the Tideborn bloodline. At level 1 she has 2 Melee Attack, 2 Speed, 0 Armor and 6 HP. She starts off with the Sneak (Targets the enemy unit in the last position) ability. At level 5 she gains her second ability - Repair (Restores 2 armor (up to max) to the allied unit with the most damage to its armor). At level 8 she gains her 3rd and final ability - Fury (Deals double damage if the target has Taunt). Finally at level 10 (max for commons) she has 4 Melee Attack, 4 Speed, 0 Armor and 7 HP. She is a nice Sneak unit with support functions through Repair but can also cause a headache to enemy Taunt units with her Fury ability.

In the 4th spot I've got an RB Neutral card - Mad Ogre Anarchist - he is a Bruteborn Melee Attacker costing 6 mana, with the following stats at level 1 - 2 Melee Attack, 2 Speed, 2 Armor and 4 HP. He starts off with the Opportunity (Targets the enemy unit with the least health) ability. At level 5 he gains an extra point in the Melee attack section for a total of 3. At level 7 he gains his second and final ability Immunity (Provides immunity to magic debuffs and Cripple). Finally at level 8 he has 3 Melee Attack, 4 Speed, 2 Armor and 8 HP. The Mad Ogre Anarchist is a decent Melee Opportunity unit which can be successfully employed in certain conditions, such as these we have in the current battle. Not the most often played unit out there but definitely playable.

5th in the line-up is a CA Common melee unit - the Stampeding Calf. He is a 3-mana Ulund from the Water element. At level 1 he has 1 Melee Attack, 1 Speed, 0 Armor and 3 HP. He also starts his SPL journey with the Charge (Can use melee attacks from any position) ability. At level 5 he gains his 2nd ability - Weaken (-1 max health to all enemy units). At level 8 he gains his third and final ability - Deflect (0 damage from Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Thorns, Return Fire, and Blast splash damage). Finally at level 10 he has 3 Melee Attack, 3 Speed, 0 Amor and 6 HP. The Stampeding Calf is actually a pretty good unit for his mana cost of 3. He has a useful kit, specifically for battles such as this one.

Last in the line-up I have added the surprise card for this Champion 1 battle - a Frontier card - a GF at that for that extra SPS gain :D -> New Beluroc Aegis. The New Beluroc Aegis is an 8-mana Minotaur from the Neutral element. At level 1 he has 1 Melee Attack, 2 Speed, 3 Armor and 5 HP. He also has his first and final ability (normal for Frontier) - Taunt. At level 5 (max for this card), he has 1 Melee Attack, 2 Speed, 5 Armor and 7 HP. As you can see this card is very expensive (in mana terms) for what it offers and only goes to Silver level, however, he can be very useful for his Taunt ability specifically in battles such as this one, where the card pool is very limited and a lot of the go-to meta cards are missing.

The Archon I am going with for the battle is Elias Max Pruitt. The idea is clear. I will use his Tactics to give Piercing (Damage in excess of the target's armor is applied to health) + Armored Strike (If armored, gains a physical attack that deals damage equal to remaining armor) to Commader Slade and then sit back, relax and watch him squash the enemy teams like bugs (or at least that's what I imagine every time I play this combo. Of course it does not always turn out the way I imagine it). I'm using the Beluroc Aegis to pull away as many attacks from my Main/Off tanks as possible so I can give more time for Slade to do his thing.

I think this is a fun example that goes to show that even the underpowered Frontier cards can find their place in battles at Champion level. It might happen once every 500 battles but it is still definitely possible.