My favorite Battles from the First Day of the Season Pool Reset

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The Beginning of the Season

The beginning of the season is my favorite time of the season. Sure, sure pulling loot chest is fun-- we all love and get excited for those endless potions. But, somewhere under 24 hours after season end, something magical happens. The pool resets, less people are playing after the End Of Season climb. While the leaderboard climbers and casuals are resting their ECR, there is opportunity to be snatched with conviction. Massive DEC payouts even in Bronze and Silver where I play, and since everyone reset, I have the opportunity to play with many players far better than me and bots coded better than the ones I typically play. I love the extra dec, and I love the opportunity to learn the game better and hone my wonky, off beat fighting style.

A little about me as a Splinterlands Player

I'm by no means a skilled Splinterlands player, and I never do well in tournaments even when the collections are even. I'm also no whale. I've spent a fair amount on the game, but nothing close to enough to be competitive in Bronze or Silver Leaderboards. My deck is worth somewhere around 1500 USD, and it's not even selected optimally. I didn't select my cards exclusively on cards that would be tournament viable or give me the best edge. I'm a gamer at heart, and I wanted a deck that I could fall in love with. That's why my most expenisve card I own, Selenia Sky, and the most expensive card I rent, Kitty, are the core to every strategy I try to play. I'm predictable. I'm not the smartest. I'm not the wealthiest. But boy do I know how to have fun, and I do that with Dragons and a novice deck geared at trying to outplay the bots and players with strategies I pray aren't ready for despite spamming them nonstop. It's a game. I say let's have fun with it!!!
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My Morning Battles

99 Mana Dragon vs. Death Starter Cards WIN

Friends Don't let Friends leave their budget Bot running at the Beginning of Season. This was just a massacre. Gorlodon is insane on 99 mana battles as is the amazingly strong 14 mana Chaos Dragon. Poor Bot thought he hit a captcha.
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12 Mana Broken Arrows. LOSS

Ok, well this bot taught me something. Perhaps magic would have countered it, but too risky at such low mana without Alric. Would love to hear some ideas from people who are good at the game. This guy definitely got me good. I really think that would have beat living lava too without enough mana to use Tarsa.
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27 Mana Lost Magic Kitty vs. General Sloan WIN

This bot almost got me. General Sloan Ranged is so good, and I basically just bludgeoned my way through with Kitty. There were a few lucky dodges here that saved my skin, but this bot was truly the better player. Dragon Jumper is one tough threat to deal with. Throw in +2 speed from Byzantine Kitty, and he becomes a next level threat to deal with.

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30 Mana Explosive Weaponry Kitty vs. Sloan WIN

This worked very much the way I'd hoped it would with Opportunity and Snipe blasting everything around it-- By going quality over quantity, I was able to out last and devastate his lower health creatures. Opportunity and Snipe really are MVP mechanics in this ruleset because they will often hit three enemies with one attack, and with Dragon Jumper that's 3 damage to his first target and 2 damage to the adjacent targets. You thought Dragon Jumper was insane normally, Dragon Jumper in this ruleset is insane.
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26 Mana Aim True Bortus vs. Mylor WIN

I gotta say I do love Mylor, and I so love Hunter Jarx. I am so glad I was able to see them on the field of battle today, and I almost feel bad smashing them into the ground. I was expecting earth magic with this ruleset and mana availble, and while I was half right, I think the days of being able to spam mylor with success are just over. Too many great starter card strategies that don't involve melee, and I'm not seeing a lot of Mushroom Seers or Centauri Mages in Bronze and Silver Mylor comps either. Not sure why.
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18 Mana Explosive Weaponry Selenia vs. Keyla LOSS

He got me good. This wasn't even close. Deeplurker and the extra armor and speed Keyla gives is so insanely good for blast. I should have known better. I accept defeat with humility, and a drive to be better. I bow before this clearly better player, and I beg forgiveness for not providing an adequate challenge.
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16 Mana Broken Arrow Keyla Mirror LOSS

RNG definitely hated me hard in this battle. I should have won this, but three misses with Deeplurker on that Ice Pixie and then five misses in a row on that Serpent of Eld did me in hard. There was no recovering from RNG that bad. The Ice Pixie, thanks to the ooze, had the same speed as the Deeplurker. There is no reason he should have missed three times with a 25% dodge modifier from flying. I accepted my last defeat with humility and grace, but not this one. RNG screwed me on a battle I should have won.
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28 Mana Lost Legendaries Kitty vs. Obsidian WIN

I love it when a plan comes together. Had some Magic Defense lined up, the double heal to help him sustain against their superior assault while my double opportunity went to work on their squishes. I was expecting a little bit of sneak that didn't materialize, so my 7 speed Naga Assassin just got to chill in the background throwing down insult on injury. Kitty is a tough customer on 28 mana and up, and every mana above 28, she only becomes more and more powerful.

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99 Mana Bronze Bot abuse. Loved every second of it. WIN WIN WIN

Speaking of gaining power for every mana point above 28, 99 mana is just incredible for her. The Chwala getting healed while dishing out massive damage, Gorlodon as an off tank that will heal for 4 health a turn if he goes in the first spot, a 7 speed dragon jumper dealing 3 damage oppurtunity, and a sandworm who can't miss? Yes please. Oh, and did I mention that I had enough mana left over for the 14 Mana Chaos Dragon? At 99 mana, the Dragon says ROAR!
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19 Mana Odd Ones Out Thaddius vs. Obsidian WIN

At relatively low mana, I wanted to really get value for mana. With Odd Ones Out, my choices were relatively slim. I went with Haunted Spirit because his surviavability value is out of this world, and I went with Soulstorm since his damage value is so high. And with high speed and flying, soulstorm does decently with sneak. I chose Life Sapper as a buffer in case either the front or rear critically failed from an overwhelming assault. Luckily, he was just able to chill while Haunted Spirit tanked the Magic with the Help of Thaddius Brood's -1 Magic. It was so much fun to play with Haunted Spirit again. I could not believe how cheap he was to rent today.

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15 Mana Equal Opportunity Owster v. Obsidian WIN

Speaking of missing Haunted Spirit, I went with my own personal take on the old school Bronze Bot death team, and it worked wonders. Haunted Spirit tanked up front, my chicken and fiend reflected back his enraged magic while Twisted Jester kept proving why he used to be THE Bronze Bot Juggernaut back in the day. I had a lot of fun with this battle. I really have noticed the bots going with magic for the Green Taunt, and Owster is a shockingly cheap rent right now. I think anyone looking at taking on bronze and silver bots should want a good death deck in hand for them.
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29 Mana Equal Opportunity Knockout Kitty vs. Obsidian WIN

I had a good feeling the bot would go with Magic in equal opportunity with the taunt and overwhelming damage available to it, and I knew Kitty Mustang would just wreck that with anything else added in. I used the rest of my mana to hedge against some other strategies in case I read this bot wrong, but luckily, I didn't need them. Good Fun. The fungus fiend is in there as a buffer for any opportunity although I should have went with chicken to be targeted before the ooze. This is one instance where the Chicken would have been better. Still good to have all the 0 mana monsters just in case. You never know when you need a seat warmer.
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23 Mana Noxious Fumes Earthquake Bloom vs. Tarsa WIN

This is a brutal ruleset and Macfillet played it well. Both Earthquake and Noxious Fumes is just wrong. He went with Tarsa Living Lava Cleanse and Cube, which was a fantastic play while I went with Bloom, Living Lava, a Snipe, a Spy, and a Cleanse. In the end my Living Lava and Cerberus out lasted him well. I won this fight by throwing money at it. While the Spy didn't really pan out, I was very happy with the cerberus standing back up. If Living Lava got his last hit in, the Cerberus would have been ready to end the fight.
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21 Mana Equal Opportunity Little League Bortus v. Obsidian WIN

I'll admit I used to not enjoy Little League, but the release of Chaos Legion changed that indelibly. So many amazing Chaos Legion 3 and 4 mana cards to fill the gaps on this ruleset. That said, when I saw that Queen Mycelia my heart sunk. I was certain I lost this round because she is so good. Luckily, my plan to maximize damage to health ratios and hedge against both magic and ranged with Bortus and Naga Windmaster really paid off. I was on the edge of my seat the entire battle on this one. It came down to the wire, and if you only watch one of these battles, make it this one.
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17 Mana No Neutrals Kitty vs. Tarsa LOSS EPIC LOSS

S4B4T0N simply played better than me. I didn't prepare heavily enough for melee, and frankly I had no reason to truly expect magic in the 17 mana no neutral matchup. He played well, and he is clearly the better player. While I threw thousands of dollars of expensive cards at it for the fun of it, he was playing the game correctly and strategically. He deserved that win for sure. I only offer the sincerest apology that he didn't match with someone better than me and worthy of his skill.
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42 Mana Equal Opportunity Lost Magic

In Equal Oppurtunity my strategy here was to keep Haunted Spirit as the monster with the lowest Health, which was a challenge with his whopping 7 health at 5 mana. I had to cut my beloved Dragon Jumper, but the obligatory Disintigrator made the cut. Since Sneak overrides opportunity, I was sure to sneak a Cursed Wendiku in the back to have thorns on both the front and the rear. Since I had one odd mana left, I chose to put in Shadowy presence just to give Haunted Spirit a bit of a breather before we really needed his heal to work.
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Back to Basics Little League Selenia vs. Tarsa

In this back to basics battle, I had a tough choice between going Selenia Sky Ranged and Delywnn Magic, and I'm pretty happy with my choice of Selenia Sky. I always enjoy watching cheap archers rip through low health monsters at low mana, but I think Delwyn would have done just as well. Back to Basics is a tough ruleset to prepare for, and in many ways, it runs counter to the rest of the game. It's my least favorite ruleset despite being pretty decent at it. I just feel like it removes all the fun parts of the game, and when it's silent summoner back to basics, that's double the misery.
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Farewells

I really had fun spending this afternoon with you sharing the results of my morning battles, and now it's time to get back to grinding and taking full advantage of all this extra DEC that won't earn itself. If you're having trouble competing with the bots, learn from them. Watch their strategies and make them your own. Have fun with the game. It's tough to learn, but it's worth it. It is such a fun game to play, and I can easily get lost for hours in it.

If you are interested in playing the game, set up your account today at splinterlands.io.



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