Splinterlands Battle Challenge - Wave Runner

We have another Battle Challenge for this week. The featured card is a shark that wears a crocodile's half face on it's head: Wave Runner. Today I'm going to showcase my battle using this card.

Challenge Rules

THEME: WAVE RUNNER

Edition: REWARD
Rarity: COMMON
Element: WATER
ATTACK: MELEE
ABILITIES: Reach at level 1

Battle Ruleset

Mana Limit: 30

Lost Legendaries: Legendary Monsters can't be used. Legendary Summoners are still available though.

Lineup Strategy

Summoner: Bortus

My opponent used Alric Stormbringer on his last 5 battles boosting Magic attack on his monsters. Since I'm expecting him to use Alric again, I decided to use Bortus on this battle to counter the magic buff.

Tank: Serpent of Eld

My main tank in a Water Splinter lineup. Its Dodge ability is awesome against Melee and Ranged attacks. Although I'm expecting enemy monsters using Magic attack, I still chose this card since I don't have the Diamond Cow, which receives reduced damage from Magic attacks, in my inventory when I started this battle.

Wave Runner

Our featured card of the week. I'm placing this card on the 2nd slot since its Reach ability allows it to do Melee attacks on this position. It also has a decent health of 4 so we can also use it as a backup tank on this lineup.

Sabre Shark

I'm using this card on this lineup because of its Sneak ability that targets the last Monster on the enemy Team instead of the first Monster. I'm expecting low health enemy monsters with Magic attack that's why I'm planning to attack from the back line first. There will probably be a high health tank in front of them.

Elven Cutthroat

Another monster with Sneak attack. Its high speed of 3 also allows it to be one of the monsters that attacks first at the beginning of each round.

Demented Shark

Since our team are all using Melee attack, this card's Inspire ability that gives all friendly Monsters +1 Melee attack will surely be a big advantage in this battle. Although this card has a huge chunk of health, I decided to place him on the 2nd to the last slot because I would like him to last till the last round and buff up our team's attack power.

Pelacor Bandit

Last but not the least on our lineup is this card. I've added him on our lineup because of its Sneak ability. I placed him on the last slot to protect Demented Shark from Sneak attacks. Its Flying ability gives it an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Monsters who do not have the Flying ability.

Battle Highlights

You can watch the Battle Replay on this link:
https://m.splinterlands.io/#/battle/game/process/sl_0326788e51de04c0bf2ecc8338e9eb5f

Unfortunately, our opponent also used Bortus as his summoner. However, his team did not have that many high damage attack monsters. Our team was able to kill the enemy monster on the last slot position but our tank also died at the end of Round 1.

We were able to defeat 2 enemy monsters that were using Magic attack on Round 2. Leaving the opponent with 2 damage dealers while our team still has 3 Sneak attack monsters that can deal a fair amount of damage. Wave Runner was able to do some damage on the enemy tank monster but it had a huge chunk of health.

Sneak attack became a disadvantage on the following rounds because the enemy monster that was positioned at the last slot had the Triage ability healing itself. Good thing this ability was no longer working when it was alone on the battlefield. It took several rounds before our remaining monster was able to finally defeat it and win the game.

Conclusion

Our team had the advantage on the early rounds. Our damage dealers that had the Sneak ability was able to kill the opponent's damage dealers in a few hits. However, the opponent had a huge tank at the front which gave Wave Runner a hard time along with the enemy monster that was able to heal friendly back-line monsters. We were lucky enough that its Triage ability no longer worked when it was on the 1st slot position that allowed us to win the game after several rounds.

Wave Runner had decent damage and its Reach ability was perfect for a Melee attack monster that can attack immediately at the start of each round because of its high speed of 4. I usually use him when using Bortus as the summoner. He's a good addition on an all Melee attack team buffed by Demented Shark's +1 Melee attack to all friendly monsters.

This battle was fun, there were lots of twist and turns on each round but we were able to conquer victory at the end. Till the next Battle Challenge fellow adventurers. Time to grind early in the ranks and get those loot chests!!!

What is Splinterlands?

Splinterlands is a digital, collectible card game built on blockchain technology. It is similar in concept to games like Magic the Gathering and Heartstone where you build up a collection of cards, which all have various different stats and abilities, and use them to battle other players in skill-based matches. By using a blockchain technology, players can buy, sell and trade their digital assets freely just as if they were physical cards, and all transactions are recorded publicly and immutably.

Splinterlands FAQ:
https://splinterlands.com/?p=faq