Splinterlands | The Waka Enigma

Most of last week was about how the special edition Waka Spiritblade card was sold out in less than thirty seconds. It shows a vibrant gaming community that is ready to invest a pretty good sum in Splinterlands. Then again, a good part of the investment in the game (at least for most) was something the players earned in the game itself. So, what goes around comes around! 😊

One of the most important aspects of the Spiritblade is that it is a legendary summoner and comes fully leveled up. Not only that, it would be the first and only summoner so far to have the poison ability. That's a crazy prospect and a card to die for! That's why buyers were ready to shell out USD 1500 or thereabout to get the card. As we speak, the card sells in the market at USD 2177.

And we are not even talking about the Gold Foil Spiritblade over here. At least, I couldn't find a listing. That must be quite a pricey one, I am sure. It would be fun to see the Spiritblade in battle. Oh wait, I've already seen it in action. You wanna check it out?

Let's go. But before that, how about getting to know Splinterlands first? After all, that is the place where you will find the Waka Spiritblade.

What Game is Splinterlands?

Splinterlands is a digital card game that allows you to collect, trade, battle, rent, and even earn from the cards. The game gives Play to Earn a whole different meaning. It is one of the most generous games that I have seen where cards, potions, Dark Energy Crystals (DEC. Cryptocurrency) are given out every day to thousands of players for just playing and winning daily quests. And there are tournaments that you can play or guilds that you can join.

Just to give you an idea of how lucky you can get in Splinterlands - read my story of getting cards worth $500 from buying a few packs worth $20 only.

Got Cards Worth $500 from $20 Packs

And this is just a tiny number. I have witnessed people getting uber-expensive cards in their pack and selling it for as high as $6500. This means the game has interested buyers for your cards too. In fact, there is a whole Splinterlands marketplace.

If this is not enough, then Splinterlands has just launched the governance token SPS, which is being airdropped to all Splinterlands players over the year. So, you are not late. Get on with the game and earn SPS today. SPS is listed on exchanges, too.

To join, scroll down quickly. 😊

Waka Spiritblade | The Dangerous One!

Fighting even one monster with the poison ability is already damning and now imagine all of them having poison. That's why the Spiritblade will remain a difficult summoner to beat. Besides, the Spiritblade will come leveled up for its respective league making its friendly monsters and their attack even deadlier.

Now, in the wake of such strong opposition, can someone win. Hmm.. I may have just done that, and I guess I know why. One of the main reasons was that most of the monsters under Waka missed attacking my monsters. The second was that the lineup did not have enough "sneak, snipe, or opportunity" monsters, limiting the attacks to my tank alone. So, the poison was never applied to any other monster. That saved me. 😊

Now, to the actual battle.

Waka Spiritblade in Battle

The battle in discussion was a 34 mana one with the "melee monsters can attack from any position" rule in play. The opponent had a strong deck with higher-level cards. Let's look at the lineup, starting with the opponent.

Opponent's Summoner: Waka Spiritblade | Death Splinter | Gives poison ability to all friendly monsters

Opponent's Monster Lineup:

Position 1: Crypt Beetle | Melee attack monster | Takes reduced damage from melee and ranged attackers

Position 2: Pelacor Deceiver | Melee attack monster | Has the flying ability

Position 3: Weirding Warrior | Ranged attack monster | Has the shatter ability and destroys opponent's monster's armor

Position 4: Riftwing | Nonattack monster | Has the scavenger ability

Position 5: Harklaw | Melee attack monster | Takes reduced damage from melee and ranged attackers

Position 6: Sandworm | Melee attack monster | Has the sneak ability

Personally, I would have put the Harklaw in position six and Sandworm in position 5. Anyway, now on to my monsters.

My Summoner: Kelya Frendul | Water Splinter | Gives additional speed and armor to all friendly monsters

My Monsters:

Position 1: Torhilo the Frozen | Melee attack monster | Takes reduced damage from magic monsters

Position 2: Venari Wavesmith | Magic monster | Gives all friendly monsters two additional armor

Position 3: Phantom of the Abyss | Magic monster | Has the flying ability

Position 4: Coral Wraith | Magic monster | Has the sneak ability

Position 5: Halfling Alchemist | Ranged attacker | Reduces the opponent's monster's attack value by half

Position 6: Furious Chicken | Nonattack monster

So, that's the lineup. Now, to see what happened when the rumbling began. 😊

The Rumbling Begins

The Phantom of the Abyss was the first monster to attack and took out the Crypt Beetle in one strike. That reduced the opponent's lineup at the very beginning.

All my monsters were faster than the opponent's – meaning I would be attacking first almost exclusively. That helped me. The other thing was that the opponent's monsters were attacking my tank or the monster at the very back, which kept the monsters in between safe. So, the poison was never applied to the monsters in the middle.

Also, my Coral Wraith was attacking the Sandworm while the Abyss took out the tanks. It was soon turning out to be easy. Can you imagine that happening with the Spiritblade around! Phew!

Racing to Conclusion

And this is how the opponent's lineup looked by Round 3.

With most of my attacking monsters still there and the opponent's Harklow focusing only on the Coral Wraith, I had a good chance of winning. And that's what happened.

It took another five rounds before the battle concluded with the Harklaw bowing out. And that was my victory! 😊

That's It | I Won

So, I got lucky with my monster selection and beat the Spiritblade. Will it be the same the next time? I am not sure. The Spiritblade is indeed a problematic summoner to face, and only the cleanse ability could do anything at all. But then, how do you anticipate the opponent's Spiritblade to get a monster with cleansing? I will have to think it over. If you have a solution, do let me know.

I hope you enjoyed. Have fun Splintering! 😊

Want to Join Splinterlands?

You can click below and follow the link. All the best!

JOIN SPLINTERLANDS

 

Image Courtesy: Splinterlands