Cruel Sethropod Weekly Battle Challenge!

Here's a link for this week's battle

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_0f8ee5ea55c1cac15d62e4a95e25536d&ref=jingo-submo

Here's the ruleset

Lineup:

Summoner: Bortus

Bortus debuffs my opponent's magic attacks. With a mana cap this high, there's an outsized chance at seeing some magic.

Tank: Cruel Sethropod

Fair all around stats for just 3 mana

1st position: Djinn Oshannus

Oshannus is fast, has void and a strong life total. Basically everything you could want in a tank. I put Oshannus behind the Sethropod here because he can still attack from the back line.

2nd position: Nerissa Tridawn

A big magic attack on a big body.

3rd position: River Hellondale

I've heard a lot of people applaud the Inspire ability that River gets at level 2. My favorite aspect of River Hellondale is the Resurrect ability that comes at level 1. I particularly like this paired with Venari Wavesmith in the final position. It's hilarious when my opponent uses up 2 or 3 hits with sneak and/or opportunity to take out Venari Wavesmith only to see it resurrected to refresh the Protect ability for my whole team.

4th position: Axemaster

The Axemaster is fast and generally lands 4 damage with the double strike ranged attack.

5th position: Venari Wavesmith

The protect ability is so strong. The magic attack is a nice bonus too.

Did my strategy work?

No. My opponent fielded an excellent team and I got beat handily.

Do I like Cruel Sethropod?

Not much. I remember seeing the stats on Cruel Sethropod and thinking it looked pretty solid. Much like the Blinding Reflector in the light splinter. The Blinding Reflector has the advantage of picking up the Magic Reflect ability at level 5 and still doesn't seem to see that much play. Cruel Sethropod just gets a little bigger at higher levels and I haven't seen many great opportunities to use it.

What will I try differently next time?

I was beat badly in this match and there are many potential areas that I could improve my lineup. It felt like the Cruel Sethropod was outclassed by every other monster on the battlefield. That includes my opponent's monsters and the rest of my own. The simplest change that I could make would be to take out the Cruel Sethropod from this lineup. I could replace it with a Pelacor Bandit somewhere between Nerissa and the Wavesmith.

Thanks for reading and thanks for all the upvotes, reblogs, comments and follows. I'll see you in the game.