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Hey Everyone! This is Sinflair (IGN: project10back) here and this is my first battle weekly challenge! I hope you enjoy it! I enjoyed using stone golem so much that I made a video on it! Watch it Below! Here is a link to replay the same battle so you can follow my process while reading this post!

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Stone Golems Stats

Before we start the battle, lets talk about stone golems stats. He is an alpha/beta rare earth monster. He deals melee damage. His health and armor is great for a tank. His attack and speed are the absolute worst but, its fine because he is meant to take damage not dish it out. He is mostly used as a mid level tank where he competes for usage against harvester. I used him at level one and that is adequate at silver three.

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Prebattle Analysis

If you didn't feel like watching the video its ok! I have written down a battle analysis breaking it down! So lets start with the ruleset! It was silenced summoners and earthquake. Silenced summoners means that summoners abilities will be negated so, it would be beneficial utilizing 2 mana summoners. Earthquake deals 2 damage to every monster that does not have the flying ability. So good abilities for this would be heal and flying. One important tip is that earthquake deals damage to the shield first so monsters with protect will help keep the team alive. The mana cap was huge at 42. I was also limited to only the fire, death, and earth splinters. I chose to go with the earth splinter because it had 2 huge flying tanks which I talk about more in team members.

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Team Members and Layout

My Summoner of Choice

The summoner here didn't matter since it was silenced summoners. I went with Lyanna Natura to use the earth splinter. Of course if you have a summoner who is alpha or gold that costs the same go that route to get that +10% dec bonus.

My Tank

Here I went with the rock solid stone golem. He is a prime example of an awesome tank. He has a bunch of health, some armor, and an awesome ability as shield. If you didn't know, the shield ability halves the amount of damage taken from melee and ranged attacks then rounds it up. Also shield halves the damage taken from thorns. With Mylor Crowling everywhere, I am sure this ability would have helped if my opponent decided to use him.

My Survivors

The reason I was drawn to earth in the first place were these two cards: Nectar Queen and Pelacor Mercenary. They are very similar to each other. They both have high health and the flying ability. The flying ability is super important in order to dismiss the damage from earthquake. Their large health allows them to soak up damage while the other team succumbs to the earthquake damage.

My Support

As support I went with Gelaninous Cube and Venari Seedsmith. These two monsters have the ability scavenge. Scavenge allows them to gain health when any monster dies. Seedsmith helped deal some damage while my opponents monsters bit the dust.

My Damage Dealer

The new neutral reward card Gargoya Devil was perfect for this ruleset. He has that valuable flying ability and deals 2 damage every turn.

Layout

In first position, I went with stone golem so that he can stall while my opponent takes earthquake damage. Second position and third position went to Nectar Queen and Pelacor Mercenary respectively. They have a large amount of health so they can tank while gargoya devil can deal the damage. I went with Nectar Queen first so that it can deal more damage while Pelacor Mercenary sits back. As you know, the best defense is a good offense! 4th position went to Gelantinous Cube so he could gain health through the scavenge ability everytime a monster falls. fifth position went to Gargoya Devil. Due to his importance as a damage dealer I placed him second to last as to mitigate sneak damage. Venari Seedsmith was last because I had leftover mana and his ability allowed him to protect and support the onslaught coming from Gargoya Devil.
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Summary

I was happy with Stone Golem and the rest of the earth splinter team. The monsters worked together beautifully to out last my opponents. In my opinion, I don't like stone golem but, the ruleset conditions allowed him to fit my requirements. The reason that I don't like him is because there are better replacement tanks especially in the earth splinter.
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That's all for my Battle Weekly Challenge with Stone Golem! If you enjoyed reading this article and/or watching my battle review, feel free to follow me and subscribe to my Youtube Channel! I focus on making tutorial videos on Splinterlands and the various tools supporting it. If you havenʻt joined the game, here is my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=project10back