Life Splinter Showdown

Here's the ruleset for this week's battle

The fog of war ruleset strips away most of the varied targeting abilities that monsters come with. This includes sneak, snipe and opportunity.
The fog of war does not take away scattershot.
I think the most important part of this to take away is that you can expect the vast majority of damage to come straight at your tank. It's also important to remember that melee attackers on your back line that would normally come with sneak or opportunity will not be able to attack until every monster in front of them goes down.

Ranged attacks are great in the fog of war ruleset and my mind automatically goes to ranged attacks when I think of the life splinter. If I were playing in bronze league then I would expect my opponent to go straight for General Sloan which is a great option. This being gold league it's very possible that my opponent expects the same from me in which case Ilthain or Quix are also great options.

Here's the starting frame

Think about how this might play out before watching the battle

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_594426561513664334fab796501df384&ref=jingo-submo

You can see that my opponent did go with Quix, but they still included a couple of great ranged attackers.

I went in a slightly different direction. Let's talk about my lineup.

Summoner: Franz Ruffmane

Franz gives my team +1 armor and gives me the opportunity to include a gladiator in my lineup.

Tank: Chaos Knight

The shield ability reduces damage from melee attacks and the ranged attacks that I'm expecting to face in this battle. Chaos Knight was one of the first life splinter monsters that I started to level up because at level 3 it picks up that third melee damage.

1st position: Corsair Bosun

Corsair Bosun fits great in this position. The reflection shield is fantastic in case my opponent brings a monster with blast to the battle and this is especially true while my opponent will send virtually all of their damage at my tank because of the ruleset.

2nd position: Pelacor Conjurer

The speed and flying on Pelacor conjurer give me a chance to dodge a couple of attacks from my opponent and the health is pretty great for 2 mana. You'll notice experienced players use this monster routinely with less play in the bronze league.

3rd position: Adelade Brightwing

Adelade pairs nicely with Franz as all of the monsters in front of this monster will have at least 1 armor from Franz to repair each round. When I have some silver level summoners in the life splinter this is one of the first legendary monsters that I'd like to level up. At level 2 the resurrect ability takes Adelade from good to almost overpowered. This magic attack also fits well when I'm expecting my opponent to expect a lot of ranged attacks.

4th position: Captain Katie

Like many of the Gladius cards, Captain Katie is maybe a little overpowered. 3 magic damage for 7 mana at level 1 from a rare card is awesome and this is why I chose Franz over all the other summoners that I could have used. Being a Gladius card Katie also comes with the bloodlust ability which means that this card might take over the game.
It seems like when I use Captain Katie, I usually deal damage to something on the back line with the snipe ability and then that monster ends up in the tank position or Katie ends up in the Tank position before Katie has the chance to make a finishing blow. I intentionally wanted to use Katie in this fog of war ruleset to prevent that and it worked out beautifully.

5th position: Venari Crystalsmith

The Crystalsmith comes with the tank heal ability which is usually great and even better when you play in the fog of war ruleset.

Did we win?

Yes. I was very pleased with the way this played out. It was exciting to see Captain Katie go off.

What will I try differently next time?

Ilthain is a favorite in the life splinter mirror matches and it's always nice to have access to dragons. I was on the fence about Franz vs Helios Matriarch.

I went with Franz because I was planning to use Adelade and expecting that armor to spare a monster or 2 for an extra ranged attack hit.

Thanks for reading and thanks for all the upvotes, reblogs, comments and follows. I'll see you in the game. I hope the updated format that I'm using is helpful. Feel free to share any specific feedback in the comments.