Battle Challenge

Hi guys and welcome to another battle challenge! This time I have the closest game possible, which really could have gone both ways. But see for yourself!

Watch the full battle here!

The Card

The card I want to highlight is Centauri Mage an earth magic attacker. It has a quite unique ability for lower levels: Return Fire, which reflects a portion of any ranged attack it gets hit by back to the opponent. Not many cards have this ability at level one, which makes it quite special. At the same time it has decent speed and a lot of health, making it perfect for the off-tank spot in the second position of your line up, because it will draw snipe attacks and reflect them and can take the first spot, because of its magic attack. Paired with Obsidian it also deals decent damage. If you level it up it also gets Repair, which is really strong with Queen Mycelia, but since this is an older card, leveling it up might be too expensive for most people.

In terms of price it is, like I said, not really cheap if you want to level it up. A single copy however is very affordable and all you need in lower levels.

The Ruleset

The rules for this battle were Reverse Speed and Holy Protection, with 58 mana and all splinters available.

The Line Up & Strategy

Number one rule: Speed is king. Same goes for Reverse Speed, just with as little as possible. So I tried to use as many monsters with 1 speed as possible. Mycelic Infantry as my tank, because it also has a powerful 4 attack and good health and armor. In the second spot I put the Centauri Mage, because of its high health. Usually I play Regal Peryton here, but he's too fast. Goblin Psychic, Spirit Hoarder and Queen Mycelia are all one speed support cards, that help keep my tanks alive and also deal decent damage with the Obsidian buff. Finally Mycelic Slipspawn at the back as my taunt tank, which is a staple in Obsidian line ups.

With every splinter available and a high mana cap I couldn't really predict what my opponent would play, so I just went for a strong team. Magic usually does very well against everything and since my opponent wouldn't know what I was playing either, there was little chance they would play a magic heavy counter.

Round 1

My opponent went with a General Sloan ranged attack team. They brought a very standard, but strong line up with Uriel as the main tank, supported by Adelade Brightwing (Repair and Resurrect) and Djinn Renova (Strengthen gives Uriel 12 Health, so that he heals himself for 4 instead of 3). Then Prismologist and Pelacor Arbalest for huge damage output and a Portal Spinner for some random hits, which can bypass my taunt.

First round is mainly hitting holy shield and and armor on both sides. I get their Uriel down to 4 health and they get my Slipspawn down to 6. The blast damage from Prismologist takes aways my Queen Mycelia's armor, however which is quite annoying.

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Round 2

Round 2 is a little more action packed. First we take down the Uriel, but it gets revived by Adelade, bringing back its holy shield. Their Portal Spinner lands a very good hit on my Queen Mycelia, who has no armor due to the blast from Prismologist previous round and dies instantly. There goes my armor...
Next their damage dealers take out my Slipspawn and the blast damage, again, hits the adjacent Spirit Hoarder, taking off it's holy shield.

At the very least Centauri Mage takes out the revived Uriel, before it can heal back up.

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Round 3

Round 3 and let's take a quick look: I have a tank with full health, but not too much damage left. They have no real tank but tons of damage left...

First we get Adelade down to 1 HP, her hit against Infantry doesn't concern me much. Portal Spinner however hits another perfect shot on Spirit Hoarder - the only target that can't survive the hit and instantly dies. Prismologist takes off my Infantry's armor, but the blast damage hitting the Centauri Mage gets reflected this time and in return takes away Prismologist's holy shield. We get a nice dodge from Infantry against one of the Arbalest's attacks and Centauri Mage finishes off the wounded Adelade.

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Round 4

The situation is kind of the same as last round - I have a tank and little damage, they have no tank and a lot of damage.

Mycelic Infantry takes away the holy shield of Djinn Renova and Goblin Psychic deals 3 damage and heals the Infantry. It's not enough however. Prismologist and Arbalest take out the Infantry regardless. The Centauri Mage reflects the blast damage back to Prismologist, taking away it's armor and also reflects the second attack from the Arbalest, taking away it's holy shield.

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Round 5

How are we winning this you might think? Let's see!

Goblin Psychic heals Centauri Mage for 3 and takes out Djinn Renova, pulling Prismologist in the first position, where it can't attack and getting rid of the +1 health buff from the strengthen ability. Portal Spinner has a 50/50 chance of hitting Centauri Mage and ending the game right then and there, but for the first time this game it doesn't land the perfect shot and hits the Goblin, which still has holy shield. Pelacor Arbalest, with now only 4 health, does take out the Centauri Mage, but the return fire reflects 4 damage total, taking the Arbalest with down with it!

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Round 6 & 7

From here it's won! Goblin Psychic survives the Portal Spinners hit with exactly 1 HP, taking out the Prismologist and pulling Portal Spinner in the first spot, where it can't attack. We made it!

Conclusion

What a battle! This has to be one of the closest and most fun battles I have ever played. A nice back and forth and thrilling to the very end. Centauri Mage was the absolute MVP this game, taking out the Pelacor Arbalest through reflection damage in round 5. There was a lot of luck involved on both sides. The Portal Spinner hit 2 perfect shots in the first rounds and then missed the game ending one later.

For $1.7 i think the Centauri Mage is a fantastic addition to any earth deck, especially in lower leagues like bronze and silver and I'm very glad I bought a copy.

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Disclaimer

None of this is financial advice. This content is for educational purposes only and might fall out of date as both Splinterlands and the Crypto Market in general are subject to constant change.

Referrals

Start playing Splinterlands today!

Thanks to Carrie Allen for the amazing Markdown Tutorial
and to Chris Roberts for this Thumbnail Tutorial
Background Thumbnail image is from Pexels
Free image editing software used Canva

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Older Posts

Check out my 5 tips for new players series: Part I, Part II, Part III

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Check out my Bronze league strategy guides: Part I, Part II

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Hope you enjoyed the read. Have a great day and until next time!

Pinkman45