Hello! It's time for yet another battle challenge, as I now plan to participate in all of the challenges of Splinterlands! Additionally, every single time there is a new battle challenge and I do not own the card at a reasonable level for Silver, I will buy it - as long as it's not some sort of an extra expensive one. Luckily for me, Mycelic Morphoid peaks at level 3 when it comes to Silver, and I have exactly that and even in gold foil!

The way I'll do this post is first talk about the battle itself, its rulesets and mana caps. After that, I'll go over my whole team and then each individual card that I've included and why they make sense in this context. Finally, I'll talk about Mycelic Morphoid itself, what I think about it and what are its strengths and weaknesses in my opinion.

The Battle

This time I went for a ranked battle. Because I forgot to sign up for Bronze tournaments before I briefly advanced to Gold, I can't really play any tournaments this season, so I was stuck in ranked. That said, it is pretty easy to find a way to slot in a Mycelic Morphoid into a team - at 1 mana and with Thorns, it is so good!

As this was a Silver battle, the limits in that regard were inexistent for me - my highest Earth summoner, Obsidian, is just level 2. Additionally, there was a Fog of War ruleset active, which meant that Snipe and Sneak could be ignored in planning a team. Due to this, some of the thought processes behind positioning could be simplified, such as where to position the Mycelic Morphoid.

You can find the battle right HERE

Here's a screenshot in case you don't feel like watching the battle.

Card Choices

The cards that I could use were limited by three main factors:

• Ruleset: While this made defending easier, no Sneak or Snipe also means some powerful cards are out of consideration - think of Silent Sha'Vi or Goblin Thief.
• Splinters: Water, which is usually my favourite choice, was not available in this battle. Same goes for Fire, which can work very well in Fog of War, with Serpentine Spy having Opportunity instead.
• Mana: With only 16 mana cap, I was limited to low-mana teams - this is a reason for which I eliminated Life from the equation.

While I did eliminate Life for myself, it was also one of the main reasons I chose Earth. Truthspeaker teams can be pretty good when the mana cap is as low as it was here, so I figured going magic could be the right choice. It would also be powerful against Dragon teams with Djinn Chwala. As you can see, I was surprised by the opponent picking Dragon, but with Cursed Windeku as a tank instead.

Frontline

Picking Earth in low mana is synonymous with picking a great frontline. Hill Giant versus Xenith Monk was a decision that I was presented with as I was building the team, but I quickly set on Hill Giant - the extra point of damage, as well as health meant that the lack of self-healing could be offset fairly well. More importantly, however, it also meant saving one mana.

This one mana is where Mycelic Morphoid, the star of this challenge, comes in. I valued it higher than Monk's healing, because even in the worst case, it is an additional 2 points of health that can give my backline time to defeat the rest of the enemy team. In the best case though, the Thorns could even go so far as to finish a melee attacker that attacks this monster.

Damage

I was left with 8 mana for damage and decided to go with Regal Peryton and Djinn Biljka. I believe Peryton is fairly self-explanatory - it was a decent amount of health, while also being one of the fastest units I have access to. The Flying on top of that means that it can also be a nuisance while in the first spot, dodging some of the opponent's damage and buying extra time to win.

Djinn Biljka might seem more interesting, because at first glance Camouflage might be fairly underwhelming in Fog of War - so why not just use Khmer Princess instead? Well, the reason for me was that I wanted to ensure safety against potential Opportunity monsters. Biljka will always be immune to those, letting him deal damage all the way until he is dead in the first position.

Mycelic Morphoid

Mycelic Morphoid isn't exactly the most exciting monster out there, being only a 1-mana common, but it is actually deceptively powerful. Once you can get it to level 3, it gets Thorns, which makes it a fantastic slot-in in any low-to-mid mana cap battle. It also allows for players to show their ability to position their monsters well. It is like another Fiend, except also had Thorns, which can absolutely turn the tide of a game, by killing an Opportunity or a Sneak monster. It is also worth noting that it is a great card in Little League, because the monsters there have low health and are more vulnerable to Thorns.

Its weaknesses are not that many. The main one is that it is simply a 1-mana card so in higher mana caps, there is no use in putting it into the team. On top of that, Thorns only affect melee attacks, so Ranged and Magic units will simply tear through Mycelic Morphoid, making it a more expensive Fungus Fiend.

As I already mentioned regarding mana caps, you want to use it in low mana almost in all cases, while in mid-mana, it can be a pretty good consideration if you have some mana open.

Closing Words

There it is, weekly battle challenge with Mycelic Morphoid! Great inclusion for your lineups, but definitely not one to completely win you games. Just a solid all-around monster.

All images are screenshots from the game, while the thumbnail is copied from the official Share Your Battle Challenge post.

Since it's a gaming-related post, here is a bunch of referral links of mine - if you're not playing any of the games I've written about, give them a try! I wouldn't write about bad games.. well, not without saying they're bad anyway. So, here they are:

SPLINTERLANDS - Splinterlands is the poster child of the HIVE blockchain. Join now through my referral link to get a few cards from me!

RABONA - Join the football management game through my referral link to receive a small RBN bonus!

RISING STAR - Here's the referral link to Rising Star. Start your way to mega stardom now!