Lyanna vs. Llama Featuring Centauri's battle challenge!

After having a look at my enemy's lineup, it seems like this will be a tricky match. My assumptions were mostly wrong, this can go either way.

Here are the things that I got wrong:

• I was expecting a Flesh Golem in the first position, I got a Harvester instead.
• No monster with Snipe ability. I forgot that there are few ranged monsters with Snipe ability in Earth!
• Flesh golem at the last position, I was expecting a random non-healing monster (why was I too optimistic?). I'm doomed if both my Rexxie and Centauri dies when Flesh Golem is already in Last Stand.

ROUND 1

Okay, here it goes. Round 1, fight!

During round 1, it looks like we got the advantage as we managed to push down Harvester to low health. The tough part in this match will be once Failed Summoner is already up front, and another one will be towards the end of the match; once Flesh Golem already activates Last Stand. We have to watch out for that insane healing capabilities!

ROUND 2

Despite its less tanky nature compared to other tanks, it looks like Rexxie is surviving the frontline position well! All thanks to low damage output of the enemy's team towards our frontline. By putting Flesh Golem at the last most part, Failed Summoner and Brownie in the team, direct damage output to Rexxie has been reduced significantly. This will be much less once we manage to take out Harvester!

At the end of Round 2, failed Summoner has already moved up front. It looks like it is already certain that Rexxie will be able to survive until Flesh Golem activates Last Stand!

ROUND 3

Now we are nearing the moment of truth. Failed Summoner managed to deal 1 damage both to Centauri Mage and Wood Nymph with its Reflect ability.

Good thing that it is all the damage that Failed Summoner was able to inflict. By the end of Round 2, Rexxie already killed Failed Summoner, which activated the Trample ability and was able to inflict another damage to the enemy's goblin! Now, this is getting more fun. That sneaky Goblin will start next round without an armor.

ROUND 4

Round 4! We are now getting closer and closer to Flesh Golem.

At the start of Round 4, Centauri Mage made the first hit to the Sneaky Goblin, followed by Wood Nymph, and Barking Spider. These attacks gave Rexxie the last hit, giving our trampling monster another chance to attack the enemy's next monster. By the end of Round 4, Rexxie already managed to destroy the armor of our enemy's Brownie.

ROUND 5

I see you now Flesh Golem. Brownie and Wood Nymph can't protect you.

By the fifth turn in Round 5, my Wood Nymph already managed to kill the enemy's Brownie. This moves Llama's Wood Nymph up front. My Barking Spider attacked next, removing Wood Nymph's armor - making it vulnerable to Rexxie's 5 melee damage. Rexxie managed to deal the final blow on Wood Nymph, activating another Trample for this match! That puts our total Trample for this match to three. Finally, Flesh Golem moves up front and activates Last Stand!

It's judgment time!

ROUND 6

After activating Last Stand, Flesh Golem now has the following stats: 3 attack, 5 speed, 18 health. That is a real tank!

Those two consecutive hits (end of Round 5, start of Roudn 6) from Flesh Golem was quite scary. It put our Rexxie down to 3 health. Good thing that Wood Nymph got Rexxie's back. It seems like this match is already a win for us. Flesh Golem's damage output is only 3, which is equal to Wood Nymph's heal. Unless there is some miracle that Rexxie and Barking Spider miss almost every turn, and we get to fatigue rounds, there is no way that our Rexxie will die.

ROUND 7

To reconfirm our calculation, Wood Nymph heals Rexxie by 3, Flesh Golem deals 3 damage, it just cancels out. Flesh Golem heals by 6, we have a total of 12 damage -- this is a win.

Flesh Golem ended the round with 2 health, it seems like this will already end by next round!

ROUND 8

At the start of the eighth round, Flesh Golem healed itself up to 8 health. As long as Rexxie don't miss, this match will end this round.

There you go! Great job Rexxie for not missing. The match ended with the final blow from Rexxie.

Match Conclusion

That was a fulfilling match. Prior to this match, I had a losing streak in playing Lyanna Natura because of two reasons: 1) I am not used to playing Earth Splinters and 2) Most of the time, I play Lyanna Natura because I just want to flex the skin that I recently bought. Not because she is the best Splinter for the previous matches. This match gave me the confidence that I can play an Earth team properly.

CENTAURI MAGE VERDICT

Even though I rarely used Centauri Mage before, I will usually see my opponents playing a Centauri Mage in a similar setup as I did in this match. The usual modifications are a Mylor Crowling summoner and Unicorn Mustang as its tank. Those battles were the ones that gave me the idea on how to properly utilize Centauri Mage's abilities. With this experience, I can say that Centauri Mage is a must-have in high mana battles, especially in snipe ruleset or when you are expecting a ranged snipe monster. Although this ability was not utilized in this match, Centauri Mage has annoyed me several times before because of Return Fire.

When I decide to run an Earth deck (and flex my Lyanna skin) again in the future, I will definitely use Centauri Mage for my team. That 2 magic damage, high health, and Return Fire is an advantage that you shouldn't skip out on. Looking forward to playing those matches again in the future!

There you have it! I hope you enjoyed this match. In case you missed the previous replay link, click HERE to watch the match between Lyanna and Llama.

CREDITS

• Splinterlands for the game-related images, game screenshots, and lore.
• chrisroberts for the well-written and fun to read lore across Splinterlands
• flauwy for the nice-looking dividers
• Cover photo made in Canva

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