Splinterlands Share Your Battle Weekly Challenge - The Pirate Captain In Silver 3!

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I am still slowly building my deck back and impatiently waiting for CL to be released so I can forget Beta and move forward!! I need new cards and new lineups to play with. I think CL will give me a chance to reinvest in the cards that I will have to play for a long time. Right now My CP is just over 20k, and I playing in the rating range for 1700-1900. While in Silver 3 for a while, I do enjoy playing these challenges at they force me to play cards I sometimes ignore.

Weekly Challenge is the Pirate Captain YARRRR!!

Edition: BETA
Rarity: COMMON
Element: WATER
Attack: RANGED
Abilities: SNIPE

The Matchup

Battle Link
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_180fe8b3afe606a367a62e7a7c302c18&ref=senstless
Lost Magic No Magic Cards can be played
Unprotected Monster do not have any amour, and can not get armor from card abilities and summoner buffs.
Mana 24
Splinters Water, Earth, Death, Dragon

Overall Approach

Not sure I would have normally taken water. I feel like my default choice for no magic would be Death to either take away a Melee or Ranged attack with the summoner. I decided to go against the grain and try water for the challenge. Knowing without the fear of magic, I could expect some major damage cards hitting from the front line, and not sure what after that.

• First position Onyx Sentinel
  This is a great tank card when you have no fear of a full on magic attack. Given its decent health at 6 and shield, it will take 12 damage to knock it out. Thinking this will give me a couple rounds of protection no matter their lineup.

• Second Position Pirate Captain
  Honestly, not where I like it, but I went back and for on the best lineup. I wanted it before the healer to take a hit and have it last another round if I got luckily. It sniping will help take out their healer or ranged attacker given they are also not sniping.

• Third Position Crustacean King
  Having a healer in Silver or below is huge, I only have two splinters that can heal the front line card, Water and Life. I find my self playing the healing cards often as they can really push your tank into deeper levels and help you win. I picked this spot so it would not be snipped first, and it would also give another card to be taken out prior to my primary weapon.

• Fourth Position Axemaster
  This is my main damage monster, 2 damage range ranged attack with double strike. That is up to 4 damage from arrows each round. If they are also using shield, it will be problematic, but it was worth the gamble I think.

• Firth Position Pelacor Bandit
  Nice little rear tank. I know many are not a fan of the card in low levels, but a 4 speed melee, with flying has a lot of utility. Fast, harder to hit, and key in earth quake matches. It is also a nice little GF card giving me a small DEC boost to my potential winnings.

Opponent Lineup & Match Play

It looks like they assumed I would be heavy on the Melee. I guess that would be my normal approach given the removal of magic. By playing Djinn Chwala and a healer they have a good chance to take out any melee tank. Add a fast double strike to remove the initial armor and this is a great line up most of time. Add another speedy ranged attack and the classic creeping ooze to slow me down its a well rounded team.

Looking before any game play, I was not actually feeling that good in my team lineup.

Round 1

Given all their speed, plus the creeping ooze debuff, they will get alot of turns before I do. They attack with Naga Assassin first, but with the shield it does no damage. The double strike of Axemaster takes away only 2 health due to my shield reduction. My first turn is my own Axe master delivering 4 damage to Djinn, before Bandit takes a health away from Naga Assassin. The last two attacks are their Djinn doing 1 more damage to my Onyx brining be down to 3 health.

Finally the pirate has a chance to wield his flint lock and take aim at the creeping ooze taking it out and removing that pesky speed reduction. AFter we both heal out respective tanks (+3 Djinn, +2 Onyx) we are round for round 2.

Round 2 Repeat mostly of round 1

They do no damage again with Naga, then it is my turn to go first with Axe, doing 4 damage to Djinn before their turn. Their turn again with Axe again takes away 2 damage Onyx. As in the first round, I take out another card. This time Banit is able to hit and take out Naga Assassin. Not really a damage factor, but it now allows me to attack their Axemaster.

Arrrr the Pirate Captain steps up again, taking aim and hitting Crustacean King. While it only does one damage, it brings it down to 1, and tells me it will be out prior to healing next round. That will play a critical role in the match!!! Djinn attacks Onyx dropping me down to 2 health, and dangerously low to going out next round. After another round of healing (+3 Djinn, +2 Onyx) we move on to round 3!

Round 3

Their Axemaster does 2 damage, mine does 4 in a repeat of the prior rounds. I know I will not survive another round and am risk of losing my tank. Bandit only does 1 damage to their Axemaster, and drops its health to 4. Still plenty to do a12 more ranged damage before going out.

The Savior Pirate Captain is here to save me. It snipes the Crustacean King again, taking it out. Leaving only a 3 health Djinn and a 4 health Axemaster. After Djinn attacks dropping Onyx to 1 health, I get my heal to 3 and we move to round 4

Round 4 and beyone

Its clear to me that I will win now. I have too much damage before their Axemaster is moved into 1st position and stops doing anything to me. They go first dropping me to 1 health, but then I go. I do enough damage to knock out Djinn, and essentially the game is over. While I don't win in round 5 by a Axemaster deathblow, it was over as soon as I sniped and took out the healer.

Summary

I fear if I played a more traditional lineup for my style I would have lost. They really had a great team, high damage, thorns and speed. While I may have won, this was more a case of the perfect counter, I am not sure if given the same setup if other teams would not win more consistently. I guess in this match I got lucky and played a counter lineup to the most common lineups.

I will have to try that more often given how well it worked here. I do love snipe cards. There is something about having a whole back lineup of snipers behind a massive tank. I do feel sniping has gotten much harder given the new Venari Wavesmith card. It now give too much protection to the previously low health magic cards in magic. What used to be a strategy of snipe and speed taking them out prior to their attacks is now muted by the additional armor in lower leagues.

I miss the inspire from my old days playing in gold league, having that card give some melee boost was always fun and could really pack a punch. I hope something in CL comes close to replacing its utility.

~~@senstless