Splinterlands - Weekly Battle Challenge, Mycelic Slipspawn

And it's time for another Weekly Battle Challenge and to see what Splintermate has done with the card of the week.

First things first, feel free to just go to their website directly but if Splinterlands interests you I'd be very happy if you joined up with my referral link:

https://splinterlands.com?ref=silver-edge

This week features the Mycelic Slipspawn - a mainstay of Earth teams - why, lets see:

The high mana cost of nine can be a bit offputting but do you get bang for the buck?

No armor but 10 life and two magic damage is not too shabby and of course it's three magic with Obsidian. But more importantly the Slipspawn starts with the Taunt Ability at level one which combined with it's high life can really help the team survive. At higher levels it gets Forcefield and when maxxed out it gets the slow ability which is awesome - not that I'm likely to have a maxxed Slipspawn or use a maxxed one any time soon! Where I'm at it's just the basic taunt and more often than not that is enough.

So let's see an Earth Lineup run by Splintermate and featuring the Slipspawn.

The Battle

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_28ad659ff064482b659f0324a8538f26&ref=silver-edge

The rules for this battle were:

• 50 mana cap - Nice sized cap allows most of my bigger cards to be played

• Stampede - Trample can trigger more than once as long as the monster gets a kill

• Explosive Weaponry - All monsters get the Blast ability

• Earth or Dragon only.

The Splintermate picked

Obsidian (4) - Plus one magic is very handy!

Grund (10) - An interesting front line pick - usually I'd do the Mustang to mitigate magic damage but Splintermate has gone with the double melee attack. The 50 mana cap helps make this an option and can be a good choice as if the enemy goes Earth & Mustang it may help get through it but its a dangerous choice with a chance of hitting Dragons and the Djinn Chwala;

Legionaire Alvar (9) - Another interesting choice - I rarely use Alvar but if you think you might be vs magic it can be quite the tank thanks to his high armor and void armor ability. I'd probably have chosen the Mushroom Seer for the magic mitigation but in the right situation Alvar makes a lot of sense;

Goblin Psychic (6) - Who doesn't like a tank heal and two (three with Obsidian) magic attack. The only downside is the Psychic is slow and only has three life but here Splintermate has put him in third spot where the Psychic is quite well protected;

Regal Peryton (5) - Flying, two (three with Obsidian) magic and a middling health of five combined with very fast speed at six makes the Peryton a great choice.

Queen Mycelia (4) - magic attack and bonus armor to help the team survive. Works well with Alvar vs Magic! The downside is the relatively low life.

Mycelic Slipspawn (10) - for the Taunt of course!

A team I probably would not have thought of but looking at it now looks really good. Explosive Weaponry means the taunt is really handy to get most of the damage near the back allowing Grund to do more damage and the Slipspawn and Queen Mycelia are really protecting the Peryton and Goblin Psychic so they can use their magic damage as much as possible. The Psychic and the damage splitting of Taunt also helps Grund Survive so he can do more damage and Alvar is just a damage sink. I definitely like where this is going! The biggest risk I think is if the enemy uses magic mitigation (i.e. Mushroom Seer) combined with healing and thorns as thorns really rips double attack melee attackers like Grund!

So what does the enemy do?

An Obsidian team as well!

Obsidian (4) - Plus one magic of course!

Unicorn Mustang (8) - magic mitigation, fast, decent melee, what's not to like.

Mycelic Slipspawn (10) - for the Taunt of course! But never put him in the middle of team when Explosive Weaponry is active. Taunt vs Explosive Weaponry is a bad combination if you put the taunt in the middle as it guarantees every shot taunt attracts hits three of your lineup! A bad mistake for this guy!

Mycelic Infantry (8) - I like this card quite often as it is a very good tank with the shield ability. It is weak to magic though and can't attack mid pack. It will soak some damage bouncing off the Taunt from the Slipspawn but a poor choice in my opinion.

Regal Peryton (5) - Flying, Decent Magic attack (less than mine as its base level here), all in all a solid attacker with Obsidian!

Goblin Tower (7) - Fairly sturdy with three armor and life, not so much against magic. Slow but has two ranged attack which could help beat magic mitigation. It has blast natively but that's not a plus under the Explosive Weaponry ruleset.

Goblin Psychic (6) - Healing for the Mustang and strong magic attack is great. In the back so could be sneak attacked but Taunt helps mitigate that for a while.

Another team I wouldn't have run - I rarely use the tower and I'm not a fan of the Infantry in the middle of the pack. Taunt & Explosive weaponry with this line up is not great either.

Let's see how the battle goes.

Turn One - My Peryton goes first as it's really fast and does six damage! Three to the Slipspawn, One to the Mustang and two to the Infantry. A good opening salvo. Their peryton goes next but only does three damage, two to the Slipspawn and one to Queen Mycelia. A good start indeed. The Mustang being fast hits Grund and blasts Alvar but only armor damage. Grund doesn't like that and smashes the Unicorn Mustang for six damage and the Slipspawn for four damage, a massive attack! The Slipspawns trade damage but mine does six damage compared to his doing four damage thanks to the placement. Their Slipspawn dies while mine survives which is great though my Slipspawn can't take much more damage! Queen Mycelia does a little damage to the Mustang and the Infantry, his Psychic heals the Mustang, damages the Slipspawn and finishes off my Queen, my Slipspawn returns the favour damaging the Mustang and killing the Infantry. His tower goes last finishing off my Slipspawn and damaging the Peryton. Thinks look pretty even at first glance with both teams losing the Taunt and the teams even at four on four but Grunds Double Attack makes it almost like five on four and his mustang is almost dead already!

Turn Two - My Peryton again goes first executing the Unicorn mustang and damaging their peryton. His Peryton returns fire but doesn't really do much to Grund and Alvar who just soak the damage up. Grund unfortunately misses one attack on the Peryton but does hit the second time around but the Peryton and the Tower are able to soak up that damage. If both attacks had hit things would be almost over!. Their Psychic heals the Peryton and does some damage to Grund and Alvar who again soak it up before my Psychic heals Grund, kills their Peryton and almost takes out the tower. The battle is basically over, the Tower cannot attack from first slot and both the Tower and the Psychic will go down quickly as they are slow and my team will take them out before they can attack again.

Turn Three - Pegasus first takes out the Tower and reduces the Psychic to one health. Grund delivers the coup de grace and the battle is won. Alvar never even took a shot and never lost any life, just some armor.

Goes to show Splintermate definitely picked a great team for this battle!

A couple of things to think about after the match:

• Legionnaire Alvar is a very good tank vs magic;

• Taunt vs Blast can be very painful if your positioning isn't right; If you do get it right the Slipspawn can soak up a lot of damage though!

• A mix of attack types can help get through damage mitigation (i.e. Unicorn Mustang);

• Double attack of Grund is awesome if you can keep him alive, and even more so with Explosive Weaponry!

A fun match to review and nice to see the Slipspawn doing its job really well!

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Have fun and keep on Battling!