Splinterlands Highlights - Featuring AVES STURIGS dominating a low mana match

Featuring Bronze League Summoner and Monsters in Action!

I was pretty excited when I pulled this from rewards the other week. Getting a new legendary card is always fun and figuring out how to use it in the best use cases and I'll be very rewarding. I think I finally found my preferred use for this card although I'm sure there's more. I can think of a few where adding some high mana non-attacking cards from the untamed set could also be very beneficial but for today we're going to highlight low man a match.

Weekly Highlight -AVES STURGIS

Edition: SOULBOUND REWARD
Rarity: LEGENDARY
Element: LIFE
Attack: MAGIC
Abilities: WEAPONS TRAINING
Abilities"
Health: 3
Speed: 2
Attack: 2
Armor: 1







Reasons Why I like it

Weapons training is relatively new, but it is one of my favorite abilities. Having the ability to give one half of the cards base attack to the neighboring otherwise non attacking cards can be one of the most powerful abilities there is. A couple of the use cases I have found is weapons training a Gladius card that has bloodlust that otherwise can't attack, adding an attack to low One Man cards and giving them a two arrow attack, or in this case giving cards that usually don't have an attack or they already have another ability like repair a one magic attack in a low manner match

The Matchup - Where Rules Sets, Splinters and Mana Collide

The Rule Sets

Watch the Match Here

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_abc86bbec46b70f86197badd35ef0c47&ref=senstless

MANA: 12

Ruleset: Standard: No modification to the standard gameplay rules and mechanics.

SPLINTERS: Life, Dragon

Initial Rule Set and Mana Gameplay Thoughts

** Rulesets
Luckily it's a standard rule set match so there's no special considerations to factor when picking your line up. This is useful since it's only 12 mana and two splinters to choose from. Adding an additional rule set would make it even harder.

• Mana
  I will be the first to admit that long mana matches are my Achilles heel. I typically have very poor lineups and I don't do a good job of balancing or focusing on attack. I either focus too much on a singular card hoping it can do everything, or at best I end up being unbalanced and run over very quickly.
  ** Splinters

Having only the two splinters made it pretty easy in my mind. I wanted to go with life and I want to add the extra health given the low mana I figured an extra health might go a long way for some of the cards I'm going to pick.

• Summoner MOTHER KALA
  Like I mentioned before I clearly wanted to plus one health as well as only wanting to spend three mana on a summoner versus for, I feel like spending that extra man I can be the difference in this game.

• First Position SOUL FIEND
  Traditionally I wouldn't put it first but given the rest of my lineup it clearly had to go first and get taken out right away

• Second Position PELACOR CONJURER
  Normally a very solid choice for first position, only costs two mana has a high speed of four with flying and it might generate some misses. But now if I get to add one magic attack to it it becomes much more powerful as it lasts a couple of rounds before getting taken out.

• Third Position AVES STRUGIS

Had to put it in second position so I can surround it with other one mana non-attacking cards. I would have liked to hide it a little bit but it does have for health after the boost from the summoner so it will have to do.

• Fourth Position CHAOS AGENT
  I put it at the back in case they chose to play so melee cards. The off I'd hope that the Dodge can come through for me and the additional magic attack should help out quite a bit. It now means I'm delivering four magic damage every round.

Opponent Lineup & Match Play

• Summoner QUIX THE DEVIOUS
  The reduction of speed will be detrimental to my team and make it easier for me to be hit, but luckily the minus one arrows doesn't do anything for me. It does give them access to dragons which is why they probably picked it
• DJINN CHWALA
  My old go to every single time low man of match card. It's just such a well-balanced card dealing three damage on melee, two on Thorn for a
  melee attacking cards, and has some hefty armor and health to boot
• SOUL FIEND
  Clearly just put it back to take up some attacks or maybe pull through if it moves to the front line

Round 1

Before the match starts I'm actually feeling pretty good for once. I feel like I have picked the perfect counter to traditional powerhouse lineup. While I'm going to lose some cards, dealing for magic each round is going to be their Achilles heel.

Round one is mostly uneventful. I lose sulfiend as expected, but the good news is I took away for health from Djinn Chwala

Round 2

Round two is really looking in my favor. While Pelacour conjurer did take three damage from Chwala, the four magic damage I dealt was far more significant. This is the power of weapons training as I turned one monster dealing to damage into three monsters dealing for healthy drowned.

Round 3

Wow my speed is reduced, I still attack first and I knock out Djinn Chwala, quickly followed by soul fiend. This was a fairly quick victory only lasting three rounds but I guess that is to be expected with a 12-minute match

Thoughts

This is going to be my new low mana lineup. I think it gives a excellent blend of health, attack, and defense against a variety of teams. I'm sure that there are teams that can beat this but it feels like a pretty solid choice in most scenarios.

~~@senstless

#sbi-skip