Lava Spider ~ Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge

Have you ever had those moments in Splinterlands battles, right before the clash starts, that you just know you're not going to win? The opponent has outclassed your team, so all you want to do is to skip to results to avoid seeing your monsters get massacred. Only to find out that you won the match, so you quickly click replay to understand what kind of miracle happened.

I recently had one of those unexpected matches. And, with an extra stroke of luck, I got this week's Share Your Battle featured card -- Lava Spider -- on my lineup then. This Fire Splinter surprise win was what I had been aching for in the past few days. Lately, I often get battle conditions where Fire Splinter is inactive. And on the few occasions that it was allowed, my team got severely wrecked, so had I a hard time picking a battle for this post that won't make me look too dumb lol.

Lava Spider: Fire Splinter Chaos Sniper

This week marks the second time a Chaos Legion monster is featured in the Battle Challenges. A few weeks ago, the first Battle Challenge Chaos monster showcased was Shadow Snitch. I wasn't a fan of Shadow Snitch for I felt the Beta card Snipeback Wolf was a better alternative for a Reach type Death splinter monster. This week's Lava Spider is nothing grand; its rarity is appropriately common. But on initial impression, this card seems to be a step-up among its peers from the older editions.

Lava Spider is a common Fire Splinter monster with a primary skill, Snipe. It has a low mana cost at three. Its attack is quite weak at level 1 but increases to two on level 4. And on higher leagues, you can unlock two more skills: Snare at level 6 and Poison at level 10.

😒	🙂	😎	🤑

Back to Basics: Dispiritedly Preparing for Battle

I find Back to Basics ruleset a bit discouraging. I had the most fun in Splinterlands when synergizing abilities, but Back to Basics removes all those exciting monsters skills. But I do understand that this ruleset, even if not my favorite, is there to keep the game more challenging and unpredictable.

For this ruleset, my go-to strategy is to go all out with magic attacks and use a summoner with a +1 magic buff. Magic attacks are extremely effective in Back to Basics since you can bypass armor and not be troubled by monster skills like Magic Reflect and Void. There are anti-magic summoner counters like Mimosa Nightshade's Void and Owseter Rotwell's Magic Reflect, but both are from the Death Splinter which isn't allowed for this battle so I can go full magic worry-free.

I wanted to go with Earth's Obsidian summoner from the Chaos Edition for its +1 magic buff skill. I would have picked Green but I saw my opponent's recent battle history, and there I found they used a level 3 Obsidian before. And I'm not pitting my level 1 Obsidian against that XD If two similar types of forces clash, then the weaker ones will undoubtedly lose.

And thus I arbitrarily went with Fire Splinter with zero expectations of winning.


I picked Peaceful Giant as my main tank for its high health points. I know I'm going against magic so I wanted a monster with high health even if it can't attack. The ruleset, Only Odd Ones Out has severely restricted my options so I'm making the best out of my selection. Creeping Ooze was added as a filler.

My primary attack force is composed of monsters with a two-point magic attack: Djinn Apprentice, Elemental Phoenix and Flame Imp. I had the Imp the farthest of the three since it had the lowest health.

And of course, as this week's featured card, I had Lava Spider joining the team in the last spot. I specifically rented a level 4 Lava Spider, priced at a very cheap 0.65 DEC daily, since I needed its upgraded two attack points. It's a great thing the cheapest one was a shiny gold type so I get a bonus DEC reward if I win! ... IF I win ... which is something I don't expect for this match.

The Battle Turned Out Differently than I Imagined

Check out the live battle here!

Looks like the all-out magic strategy I previously described is a popular play in the Back To Basics ruleset. The opponent had the same idea and took out their level 3 Obsidian for battle. I somewhat expected it since they got the card in their battle history, but seeing it in actual battle validates my previous small moment of despair.


I didn't want to see my team get overwhelming squashed so I skipped to results.


But then, I won? It was incredibly confusing to me as I thought my loss was a guarantee. I had a split second of celebration before I hurriedly clicked Replay to figure out what has gone wrong for my opponent who had a virtually huge advantage.

I didn't notice it at first but I found my opponent's one grave mistake after observing the fight on replay. They had a monster with a low HP in the first position. My opponent will have probably won if they swap the positions of Regal Peryton and Mycelic Slipspawn. With my opponent's current lineup, I was able to wipe out their five-health tank in the first round. It was a significant loss in my opponent's fighting force since Peryton had a three-magic attack. Lava Spider deserves some special recognition for dealing the killing blow.

This battle has also renewed my appreciation for the Speed stat. High attacks are great to have, but only if you're able to get your turn to attack. By round 3, I got my first two monsters eliminated but my opponent's Mycelic Slipspawn is down to its last health. With a five-speed stat, my Phoenix destroys Slipspawn before it gets to attack. My Flame Imp and Lava Spider with four and three points in speed, respectively, also didn't give my opponent's Enchanted Pixie and Goblin Sorcerer any chance to do any damage.

The battle finished in round 4 with my victory. The match's MVP award goes to Elemental Phoenix for outgunning the enemy monsters but both Flame Imp and Lava Spider were valuable secondary attackers too.

To End

Is Lava Spider a good card to play? Yes, it's a pretty swell card for three mana costs. You won't expect grand moves from Lava Spider but it's decently reliable especially on higher levels. I'm only in Silver Leagues, so I can only unlock its Snipe skill but if you are in higher leagues, you'll get the unlockable Snare and Poison. Which are awesome skills considering the cheap mana price.

Lava Spider comes from the same mold as its Red splinter family's Fire Beetle. They both have a three-mana requirement and have closely similar stats. But Lava Spider outshines the other with a higher speed and more skills. I'll be sure to use this new Chaos card a lot more often.

🤩	🙂