Splinterlands BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Featuring Taking Sides in a Bronze Victory.

Featuring Bronze League Summoner and Monsters in Action!

I'm back with another battle mage secrets post featuring taking sides in another bronze victory. This match was much closer than I thought it might be and things ended up going my way but I wasn't sure for a while.

CHALLENGE RULES

RULESET: TAKING SIDES

Description: No neutral monsters may be used.

Reasons Why I like it
Losing all of those neutral cards can sometimes really throw off your typical lineups. There are quite a few neutral cards that are go to in the majority of my lineups and if they are not allowed then I struggle to find a replacement card with a similar ability or another card is useful for the same manner. It really helps to change up the typical lineups you see over and over.

The Matchup - Where Rules Sets, Splinters and Mana Collide

The Rule Sets

Watch the Match Here

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_a6e92d643684452eb4dbd69cc328aad4&ref=senstless

MANA: 25

Ruleset: Taking Sides: No neutral monsters may be used.

SPLINTERS: Fire, Water, Earth, Life, Death, Dragon

Initial Rule Set and Mana Gameplay Thoughts

• Rulesets
  Given that all of these splinters are available, I don't think the rule set will have a significant impact on people's choice of splinters or approaches for the match.
• Mana
  With only 25 mana, it will be much harder to play very many legendary, or possibly even Gladius cards since the mana and someone are costs would be too high for the most powerful combos. 25 minute is a little bit on the light side and will either leave empty spots or several 0 to 2 minute cards that are small and health
• Splinters
  Every single splinter is available and it's probably likely that if at all possible my opponent will choose their focus to play into their match selection on either the splinter or the cards.

• Summoner IMMORALIS
  Since I decided to play earth, I wanted to get as much benefit from my summoner as possible. I think the combination of shatter and void is extremely powerful. Shatter helps me get through heavily armored monsters while the void ability helps to protect against heavy magic lineups and splash magic.

• First Position MYCELI INFANTRY
  A card that was once forgotten gets New Life with the addition of void. Void, plus armor, plus Shield makes it a formidable tank again. When all attacks are reduced by half it's armor and health
  Make it a prime target to be healed.

• Second Position FUNGUS FLINGER
  Hoping that my opponent has a snipe card and takes it out to boost both infantry and goblin psychic. If not it will still boost psychic when it's taken out

• Third Position GOBLIN PSYCHIC
  I really need to heal my tank given that it can do some damage but it's really built to absorb all the damage.

• Fourth Position GOBLIN DARTLING
  When you add the shatter ability is higher speed makes it a great choice as it will be one of the first cards to attack from my team and can get rid of any armor before the rest attack

• Fifth Position FUNGUS FIEND
  Purely put on the back to soak up a sneak attack or two.

Opponent Lineup & Match Play

• Summoner FRANZ RUFFMANE
  Solid choice if you're choosing to go the gladiator card direction.
• PELACOR CONJURER
  I feel like I'm seeing this in first position quite frequently in lower mana matches. 25 minute is a little bit high to have it here, but if it does get missed once or twice then it's really pretty solid
• GARGOYA SCRAPPER
  This appears to me to just be a buffer card to waste attacks while the true power hopefully builds through bloodlust.
• VULGUINE
  Another basic buffer card, although it will gain a couple more health as cards die. But really it's here to delay Captain Katie as long as possible to let it build its stats
• CAPTAIN KATIE
  This is going to be the make a break, it has good magic attack with health and snipe and bloodlust. The key will be when it gets knockouts and how much it can grow it's that via bloodlust
• VENARI CRYTSTAL SMITH
  Assuming that Katie can get to the front followed by a tank heeler behind it can become a deadly combination
• STITCH LEECH
  Adding in rear protection as well as a sneak attack card is a great way to balance it all out

Round 1

Before the round starts I'm not quite sure how it will play out. Their biggest attacking card is magic which I have a perfect counter to. It has round one plays out we both secure a knockout. I only lost fungus fiend for rear protection, so my team is looking fairly strong overall

Round 2

As round two starts I'm lucky that Captain Katie knocks out fungus flinger. While it does trigger a bloodlust for Captain katie, I get a boost to mycilic infantry and goblin psychic.

I finished around Strong by securing another knockout.

Round 3

Round three kicks off and halfway through I secure a knockout via a goblin second attack. This is only important because it moves Captain Katie to first position which is the beginning of the end. It will only do two damage to Mycelia Infantry and that damage will be revealed each round. The race is now to see if I can defeat Captain Kitty before stitch Leach takes out goblin psychic.

Round 4

I may be down to just two cards, but those two cards can take a lot of damage and deal a lot of damage. The round starts with goblin psychic attacking captain katie. This bill is reduces her health to three and shatters the armor. I quickly follow this up with a knockout blow from Mycelic infantry. Does guarantees my victory, and I just need to play out the rest of the rounds.

Round 5

Around five starts with a knockout, and a couple of other blows traded. At this point it's really just waiting for the start of round 6 for my guaranteed victory

Round 6

Nothing like winning in an easy fashion once we got here. While things could have turned the other way with terrible RNG it's always nice to have things fit the narrative that you see building.

Thoughts -

That combination of shatter and void with shield and armor can really be deadly. I also got lucky that their main attack was a snipe attack. This allowed me to get the bloodlust boost as fungus flinger died, giving me speed and attack boosts both of which were instrumental to getting through their lineup before they got through mine. If things had gone differently and I didn't get that boost, and lost goblin psychic earlier due to stitch leech sneak attacks then I could have lost this round.

~~@senstless

#sbi-skip