Outplayed with strategy, not stats.

Want to see how I pulled it off?
Here’s the full replay: Watch the Battle

⚔️ Battle Overview ⚔️

Before diving into the strategy, here’s how the battlefield was set:
• Mana Cap: 52
• Ruleset: What Doesn’t Kill You: All units have Enrage (+50% melee power and speed if not at full health, rounded up)
• Allowed Elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Life, Death
• Format: Modern

🧠 Ruleset Breakdown – What Doesn’t Kill You

This ruleset makes Melee attackers incredibly dangerous: once they take damage, they gain bonus +1 Melee and +1 Speed, often allowing them to land devastating follow-up blows before the enemy can respond.

This can quickly turn the tide of a battle, especially for Melee-based teams:
• Slower tanks suddenly outspeed attackers
• The increased Speed can make dodges more frequent, tilting the battle momentum

Most players tend to lean into Melee-heavy lineups under this ruleset, aiming to exploit the Enrage buff to its full potential, especially with fast or high power Melee monsters like Bera Dallin or Gramel the Hunger, which were both used by my opponent @Herthaner.

But I took a different path.

Knowing this, I deliberately avoided Melee to prevent triggering high-risk Enrage synergies on the opponent’s side and the gamble paid off.
The only exception was my frontline tank in Position 1, who had Thorns, allowing me to reflect +2 damage back to any melee attackers who targeted it.
This way, I could still punish enemy melee units without relying on direct melee damage myself.

Instead of playing into the Enrage mechanic, I deliberately built a team that:
• Focused on Magic damage to ignore the armor that Meele units often use
• Included boosting abilities for my team like swiftness, flying, fury and ambush
• Included disruptive abilities like Affliction, Weaken, Thorns, Backfire and Redemption to gradually weaken the opponent

This approach allowed me to:
• Keep control over the pace of the battle
• Avoid unpredictable damage spikes caused by Enraged melee attackers
• Maintain consistent damage output while the opponent’s team lost synergy as key units fell

🧩 Synergy with My Summoner – Lorkus (Level 2)

Lorkus added further stability to my anti-Enrage setup:
• +1 Melee Attack for my front Position Tank with Thorns (not really a game changer)
• +1 Magic Attack made my already strong magic units even more dangerous
• Affliction and Life Leech to two of my units

💀 Affliction – What It Does

Affliction is an ability that gives a monster the chance to prevent healing on the enemy it successful attacks.

When a monster with Affliction successfully damages a target, there is a 50% chance that the target will be “Afflicted” which means:

🛑 They can no longer receive any healing.

Unless the effect is removed (which currently is very rare in Splinterlands).

I chose to give Affliction and Life Leech to my fastest and most impactful backline units, Barashkukor and Rush Townseed and positioned them safely in the rear to keep them alive as long as possible.

While my frontline tank technically had higher speed than Barashkukor, it was expected to fall early in the battle, so assigning those key abilities to my front unit would have been a waste.

The big advantage of giving Affliction to high-speed monsters is that they can apply it early, disrupting enemy healing before it has any real impact.
That strategy worked perfectly, my opponent was running three monsters with healing abilities, and shutting them down early gave me a huge advantage.

🧛‍♂️ Life Leech – What It Does

Life Leech is a passive ability that increases a monster’s maximum Health each time it deals damage with its attack.

When a monster with Life Leech successfully damages a target, it increases health and max health by 50% of damage dealt (rounded up) which means:

💡 The higher the attack, the higher the benefits of Life Leech

If the attack is enhanced (e.g., with buffs like +1 Magic), the unit can gain even more Health over time, turning it into a powerful backline tank with high damage output and near-unbeatable late-game potential as seen in the last round.

🧩 Synergy with My Units – Silverleaf Warlock & Helheim Demon

Another key part of my strategy was the positioning and role distribution within the team.

🛡️ Helheim Demon – The Protective Shield

Helheim Demon played a crucial role with two powerful abilities:
• Taunt – forcing all enemy attacks (except Scattershot or Sneak) to target him
• Flying – giving him a 25% chance to dodge physical (Melee and Ranged) attacks

By absorbing enemy focus through Taunt, Helheim Demon effectively protected my two strongest backline monsters, Barashkukor and Rush Townseed.
Thanks to Flying, he was able to dodge enough hits to stay alive longer, buying time for the backline to ramp up with Life Leech and to apply Affliction to the opponent.
This combination created a frontline distraction that allowed my real threats to grow stronger with every round.

⚡ Silverleaf Warlock – The Speed Enabler

Equally important was Silverleaf Warlock, whose Swiftness ability granted +1 Speed to all allied units.
In a game where speed determines both attack order and hit accuracy, this bonus was huge.

With higher speed:
• My team’s attacks landed successful attacks more frequently and earlier
• Especially Barashkukor and Rush Townseed, already fast, became even more lethal
• Enemy monsters had a harder time dodging, making every strike more reliable
• My monsters were also able to dodge more of the opponent’s attacks

In essence, Silverleaf Warlock didn’t just support the team, he amplified the strengths of my carry units, ensuring their damage output remained consistent and hard to avoid.

🏁 Final Result

Despite my Level 2 Summoner, I outmaneuvered a high-level, nearly maxed lineup through smart counters, ruleset exploitation, and tight unit synergy. No brute force, just brainpower.

💬 Final Thoughts

This match was a perfect example of how a deep understanding of rulesets, synergies, and unit roles can triumph over raw power.
Splinterlands is a game that rewards smart strategy and this battle proves it.
You don’t need maxed-out cards to win. Start small, learn the abilities and synergies of your cards, master the mechanics and the victories will follow.

Ready to dive in? Join Splinterlands today!