Riding the waves with Wave Runner (Mozzie's battle share)
ABOUT THE WAVE RUNNER
LORE
Source: Splinterlands Lore
CARD STATS
Wave Runner is an excellent second position melee monster given its reach ability and 2 melee attack damage at Level 1, which when combined is enough to wound the enemy's tank. It also has a decent speed of 3. At level 5, Wave Runner gains the knock out ability, making it a perfect partner for monsters with stun. While at level 9, Wave Runner gains the Snare ability, turning its flying enemies into flightless creatures.
With its abilities and stats progression, we can see that Wave Runner is an excellent damage inflicting machine, but not suitable as a main tank. As we will see in most battles, Wave Runner is seldom placed in the first position as its characteristics are better utilized in the second position or right behind the team's main tank.
STRATEGY TIME
MATCH DETAILS
This match was fought with an Equal Opportunity and Earthquake rulesets. The mana cap to build our team is 22, and there are four Splinters (Water, Earth, Death, and Dragon) that can be used during this match.
Both opportunity and earthquake are a bit tricky!
MY LINEUP AND TEAM PLACEMENT
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Summoner: Vera Salacia
In an Earthquake match, it is quite common for players with Brighton Bloom to be overconfident given that all of their monsters will have the Flying ability. I chose Vera Salacia because she is the anti-Brighton summoner. Her Snare ability removes the Flying ability of my enemies' monsters, when they are hit by an attack. This is especially useful in an Earthquake match where a non-flying monster receives 2 additional damage each round.
Position 1: Spineback Turtle
Spineback Turtle's thorns ability, 3 shield, and 7 health makes it a good low mana-cost tank. It is a perfect tank for my plan to simply outlast the enemy without having to rely on monsters with the Flying ability. With Spineback Turtle in the first position, my Sea Monster can last longer in an Earthquake match by having full health from its heal, while it is not yet damaged by my enemy's monsters.
Position 2: Wave Runner
The star of this week's challenge, Wave Runner. As I mentioned previously, Wave Runner is perfect for the second position given its decent speed and damage, along with the reach ability. Having a melee monster in the second position over a ranged one, gives a significant advantage of being able to instill damage even after my main tank dies.
Position 3: Albatross
Since my main plan is for Sea Monster to be the last creature standing in this match, I put Albatross in the third position for it to be able to absorb some enemy attacks before Sea Monster needs to move to the frontline. Its Flying ability is also a bonus because it means that it will only be getting damage from the enemy's attacks.
Position 4: Sea Monster
It might look odd that I put Sea Monster, a common strong attacking tank, in the middle of my lineup. The reason for that is because of the Opportunity ruleset, and I wanted Sea Monster to be the last Monster in my team to move up in the frontline. Given that I did not rely on Flying monsters (except Albatross) for this match, it means that I have to rely on Heal to win this match. With Sea Monster only needing to heal the damage from Earthquake, this greatly increases my chance of winning the match.
Position 5 and 6: Creeping Ooze & Chicken
These are my sacrificial monsters. I put them in the backline to mainly protect Sea Monster from potential sneak attacks. The Slow ability of Ooze provided a good boost to further tilt the game in my favor.
MATCH RESULTS AND VERDICT
Now that we have my battle lineup ready, let us watch this match and see what my enemy has in store for me!
With the initial impression of my enemy's lineup, it seems like I have a significant advantage over my enemy because of the following factors:
- My
enemy used all Level 1 monstersfor this match. It is likely that a low level Brighton Bloom was prioritized over higher level Summoners that were available. - Wood Nymph will be an easy kill because of the opportunity rule, making Unicorn Mustang a much less effective tank.
- Low speed monsters (except Unicorn Mustang) from my enemy's side, paired with my Snare ability means that almost all of my attacks will land. This also means that except for Unicorn Mustang, my Wave Runner and Sea Monster gets the chance to deal damage first before my enemy.
Start of Round 2 and match conclusion
By the start of Round 2, the match verdict is already pretty in. Unicorn Mustang now only has 5 health, and Earth Elemental can only deal 1 damage from the backline. Even if Sea Monster & Spineback Turtle misses its attacks this round, Unicorn Mustang will just die from Wave Runner & Thorns, rendering Earth Elemental useless in the first position.
The match ended at the second round, with Spineback Turtle dealing the match-winning blow against Earth Elemental.
This was a fun match and a good reminder that we don't have to always bend-over the match rules and force a lineup to win the game. More often than not, we have to find the balance in using the ruleset in our favor, and drafting a strong team.
WAVE RUNNER VERDICT
This match has shown the advantage of Wave Runner's decent speed and melee damage. Although its reach ability was not properly utilized because of the Opportunity ruleset, this four-eyed creature was still able to show how dangerous it can be in a proper environment. At the early part of Round 1, Wave Runner already killed Wood Nymph before she was able to heal my enemy's Unicorn Mustang. This is all because of the speed difference between the Nymph, and our beloved Wave Runner.
For my future matches, I will definitely use Wave Runner again, especially when I am running a heavy-melee lineup for my water team. Aside from this lineup, it also seems like Wave Runner will make a good team with Demented Shark and Feasting Seaweed.
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 Brighton and Vera.
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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Thanks for sharing! - @ashikstd
Well done with riding the waves.
Nice post, btw.
Hey, thank you @ashikstd! Glad you liked it :)
You're welcome.