Splinterlands Battle Review: Dragon Slugfest

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I like watching fights from the ‘Top Battles’ page. It lets you see advanced strategies and cards that fall outside your current level. A great way to learn! This post is a breakdown of a battle that I thought was particularly interesting.

A Dragon Slugfest: Water vs Earth

This encounter was in a Silver League Tournament fight, with all ⭐ gold foil ⭐ cards. Players @ula.ocean and @byzantinist both chose Drake of Arnak as their Summoner, but the strategies couldn’t have been more different.


⚔️ Watch the Battle on Splinterlands ⚔️


Battle A Dragons r1t1 start.PNG

Battle rules

  • Mana cap: 44
  • Stampede (the Trample ability can trigger multiple times)
    • ...but no Trample cards were selected for this battle
  • Rise of the Commons (only Common & Rares allowed)
  • Splinters: 🐲 Dragon, 🌍 Earth, 🌊 Water

Gold card lineup

Position@ula.ocean • Dragon-Water 🐲🌊@byzantinist • Dragon-Earth 🐲🌍
1Serpent of Eld L4Unicorn Mustang L4
2Elven defender L5Naga Brute L5
3Naga Brute L5Goblin Chariot L4
4Giant Squid L4Khmer Princess L4
5Mantoid L5Mantoid L5
6Sniping Narwhal L5Child of the Forest L4

Strategy

This was a Dragon-Earth vs Dragon-Water battle.

Earth went for a Tank-Healer, looking to pick away with 8 (total) ranged and 1 magic while 28 combined health and shield HP holds the line (with support from the Healer). ✨ Earth’s planning to outlast Water.

Water went for an Agility-Blindfold approach, putting the slippery Serpent of Eld up front (high speed + Dodge). Their back line had 1 less damage than the opponent, and the tanking cards added up to 23 with no healer support. ✨ Water’s counting on lots of misses.

Both teams have Snipers and a Thorny tank in the lineup. Earth team has some Void shielding but there’s no magic on the other side. Water, however, does have one tanking card with Shield. It’s worth noting that ula.ocean’s Water team has a few more Level 5 cards than their opponent—is that enough to make a difference?

Watch the fight now, before I get into the spoilers! Who do you think will win this evenly-matched duel?


⚔️ Watch the Battle on Splinterlands ⚔️


Battle Summary (spoilers below!)

Early game (round 1 to 4)

Battle A Dragons r4t1 mid.PNG

  • 😎 R1 and 2: everyone’s still alive, but by R3 Water’s Dodgy Tank is in trouble. There were misses, but probably not as many as they had hoped for! The insane Unicorn Mustang and Khmer Princess combo has kept that crazy horse kickin’.
  • 🤔 R4: Water’s second tank moves in. The Elven Defender may do a bit better with his shield against Earth’s still raging tank. Earth is not without casualties: sniper fire has managed to pick off their Naga Brute… although Water’s Brute is also on the ropes.

Mid game (rounds 5 to 6)

Battle A Dragons r6t5 mid.PNG

  • 😬 Losses start to pile up on both sides. Earth’s tank still holds the line thanks to the +4 heal from the Princess.
  • 😮 But a few key misses have allowed Water to get an edge on the back line. Sniper fire has knocked out Earth’s Goblin Chariot…
  • 😲 And then a key moment. Water manages to take out the Tank Healer. While Earth’s tank is still healthy, they now must overpower Water quickly… and the Blindfold (being held together by the Giant Squid with 2HP) is still on!

End game (rounds 7 to 11)

Battle A Dragons r8t1 late.PNG

  • 🦑 The Giant Squid falls to sniper fire, removing Water’s key advantage.
  • 🔫 Now it all comes down to raw firepower.
  • 🧮 Round 8 opens with combined attack/HP at:
    • Earth: 8 attack, 9 HP
    • Water: 8 attack, 14 HP (plus the tank has a shield)
    • Earth does has higher speed overall now
  • 🤩 However, the speed and power of the Unicorn Mustang shines through. At the start of Round 8, it kills Water’s last melee card, and a ranged card hits the front line, nullifying it. There’s nothing more Water can do, the battle ends on Round 11 with a cleanup of the last of Water’s ranged cards.

Post-mortem

The first time I watched this, I honestly had no idea who’d come out on top. Even the ending caught me off guard (once the Khmer Princess went down, I felt like Water had the edge!)

In the end, the Unicorn Mustang was a huge MVP, outtanking the Serpent and its backup by miles. Earth’s speed stats were also half decent, resulting in some painful misses by Water, which must have been frustrating as Water’s whole game was built on the opponent missing them.

And it was a decent approach! Giant Squid is pretty tanky on its own—add a shield and put it midfield and you should be very slippery. Water must have been happy to only see 1 magic on the opponent’s line when this started up… but alas there were not enough misses to counter the huge and speedy attack of Earth’s tank.


Thanks for reading and watching! Get in on the Splinterlands action here.



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Thanks for featuring one of my battles, and especially one where I win and not where I lose! Hahahaha!

Keep in mind that battle links seem to be viewable only for 30 days (so as time passes, people might no longer be able to view this particular battle).

As for monster level, in Silver league Common monsters max out at Level 5 while Rare monsters max out at Level 4. All of the monsters in the battle were at their highest available level, so it didn't really matter that my opponent had more Level 5 monsters (Commons) because my rare monsters were also at their highest level.

There were an awful lot of misses.

Unicorn Mustang and Goblin Chariot both had 50% miss chance against Serpent of Eld.
Child of the Forest and Mantoid had 15% miss chance against Naga Brute or Giant Squid.

In Round 1, Mustang and Chariot both missed.
In Round 2, they both hit.
In Round 3, they both missed.

I also had a lot of unlucky misses against Naga Brute and Giant Squid.

Glad my Mustang managed to pull through with the win though!

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No problem! It was a nail biter!

Keep in mind that battle links seem to be viewable only for 30 days

Ah really? I suppose that makes resource wise. I'll put in a reminder to check and edit the post accordingly (assuming you can edit posts after 30 days... still learning the ropes here). Thanks for the heads up.

All of the monsters in the battle were at their highest available level

There's a fine detail that I've overlooked 😊 Appreciate the deeper analysis. That ol' Mustang is a beast.

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