Splinterlands Share Your Battle Weekly Challenge - Defender of Truth

over 2 years ago

Introduction
Hello everyone, it's me again sharing one of my Splinterlands battles as I participate in the Splinterlands SHARE YOUR BATTLE Weekly Challenge. This time, the feature card is the Defender of Truth. I believe not many people will have this card on their battles, even on their inventory given its rarity. But then, let's see how it goes when we deploy it in one of my battles.

The Card

Defender of Truth is an Epic Life Splinter card from the Alpha and Beta Edition. It is a Magic attack monster with a health of 3 and 1 shield (Level 1).

Pros and Cons

Personally, I rarely use Defender of Truth in my battles, especially that Life splinter generally is more about defense and healing. Also, when using Life splinter, I usually go to the Melee and Range attack monsters instead. The most common combo in the Life Splinter is the Shieldbearer (because of its TAUNT ability) and the Divine Healer (with the TANK HEAL ability) to restore Shieldbearer's health as it will be the target of all opponent's attacks.

However, there are still ways that this card can be useful. First, its mana cost is just four, which makes it a good addition to a battle in a LITTLE LEAGUE ruleset. With further boosts from other cards like Truthspeaker, it can be a formidable part of your lineup. It can also benefit from the EQUALIZER ruleset, especially if you are going to use another card with a greater health than this card.

On the other hand, because of its low health, it can easily be a target for SNIPE monsters and if combined with monsters with WEAKEN ability, it can die before it even makes its first attack.

General Strategy

Defender of Truth is a card you'll not see frequently in battles, let's admit it. For me, it is more of the collectible one, being an EPIC card and part of the first two Editions of Splinterlands. Battle-wise, I think it is more of a support monster, especially in battles with not so many mana allocations. But for battles with 99 mana allowed, this card can easily be forgotten alongside with those other not-so-frequently used cards.

But let's see how it will perform in an actual battle.

The Line Up

Summoner - Mother Khala

Slot 1 - Gelatinous Cube
Slot 2 - Defender of Truth
Slot 3 - Djinn Renova
Slot 4 - Bila the Radiant
Slot 5 - Temple Priest
Slot 6 - N/A

Explanation of the lineup
The last five teams used by my opponent were varied so I really don't know what to expect what he/she will be choosing to battle against my team. This time, my strategy is just to use a Shieldbearer-led team but without the Divine Healer card (for the popular combo). Instead, I packed it on with Magic-attack monsters and if there's one common thing that my enemy used before, based on the last five battles, it didn't use any Magic countering monsters so I think my attacking monsters will be fine.

For my Summoner, I used Mother Khala for the additional health for my monsters. With the NOXIOUS FUMES ruleset, that additional health will be a great buff to all my cards. The Shieldbearer is my tank monster, more or less, a sacrificial monster since it will be the subject of all opponent's attack, in addition to the fumes damage at the end of each round.

If you have Gelatinous Cube or any creature with SCAVENGE ability, it is a must-use in a NOXIOUS FUMES ruleset. That ruleset is more savage than the EARTHQUAKE as the former will damage the monster's health even if it still has shield. I put it in the second position so I can place the attacking monsters after that which will enable them to deal all their damage into a single target --- the opponent's tank monster.

As I intended this lineup to be magic-intensive offense-wise, the Defender of Truth is a great addition, especially that Life Splinter magic team is not that popular, like the Water Splinter. For a low mana of 3, you can summon Defender of Truth to include it in the magic-wielding band, though at the same time I am very much aware that it won't last in the game because of the NOXIOUS FUMES ruleset.

Next in my lineup is Djinn Renova, aside from its great magic attack of two, the main reason for having it in my deck is its STRENGTHEN ability which increase the health of all my monsters by 1. It's like duplicating what Mother Khala does.

Bila the Radiant is also a must-have, especially if the mana limit allows you to summon her. Its LIFE LEECH ability to some extent can counter the damage the FUMES inflict at the end of each round, as it also gains a bit of health every time it dealt damage to an opponent's monster.

Every time I use a magic-based Life Splinter deck, Temple Priest is also a part of the team. It's 2 damage I think is well worth of its summoning cost. It is slow though, but I can assure that it will be able to attack first before it dies as the attacks first two rounds probably, will be all targeted to my tank monster (because of the TAUNT ability).

The Match Up

When the opposing team lineup appeared, at first glance, I know I will have a bit of advantage since the buff (THORN ability) from Mylor Crowling will be not be that useful since all, except my tank monster, my attacking creatures use magic and range attacks.

Check the battle below and see how it panned out and see how Mylor Crowling is not helpful after all.