Share Your Battle: Sand Worm

Prelude
Hello everybody, how is everyone doing? We've just witnessed the crowning of new World Cup Champion, Argentina. Match over, time to share battle! This week, I will be sharing on Sand Worm. A card that does great punishment to backline.

Thoughts on Sand Worm

It strikes you hard and from the back. That's how the Sand Worm is.

Without further a do, let's get started with this week's sharing.
Let's look at the Level 1 base stats for Sand Worm:

Mana	Attack	Health	Speed	Armour	Ability
9	5 (Melee)	5	1	NA	NA

Bronze League - Speed + 1, Health + 1
Silver League - Attack + 1, Speed + 1
Gold League - Speed + 1, Health + 1, Snare
Beyond Gold - Attack + 1, Piercing

What does Sand Worm looking on growth?

While Sand Worm gets faster, stronger and beefier as it levels up, my personal need for Sand Worm was actually better if it remained at level 1. Reason being is that the 1 speed it possess at level 1. In reverse speed, keeping that speed low is key.

But I do feel, a levelled up Sand Worm has its use too. A 7 damage damage piercing at full blown is no joke. And if it is an earthquake match, any potential fliers are being pulled down from the skies.

Alritey, let's see start the battle sharing.

The Battle
Link: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_ecbc5156bccc1ec8ec044e5ffbe43187&ref=vaynard86

Rules
Rise of Commons, Reverse Speed
Mana Limit: 29

Lineup

Splinter	Mana Cost	Position	Reason
Tarsa	4	Summoner	Trusty fire summoner
Radiated Scorcher	1	1st	Putting this in front, hoping to smash some armour.
Radiated Brute	5	2nd	Reach out and smash.
Tenyii Striker	5	3rd	Sneak attacker
Sand Worm	9	4th	Big sneak attacker
Ant Miners	2	5th	Scavenge for late game
Lava Spider	3	6th	Sniper alert
Total Mana:	29

Opponent Lineup

• Summoner - Mylor Crowling
• Position 1 - Unicorn Mustang
• Position 2 - Goblin Psychic
• Position 3 - Regal Peryton
• Position 4 - Scavo Hierling
• Position 5 - Goblin Thief

Prediction before pressing rumble
Ok, this is a little tricky. I am using almost full melee and I see Mylor. This spells trouble. Let's see how this turns out.

Let's get ready to rumble
Round 1, Ok, this is really fast paced. Sand Worm took out Goblin Thief and Tenyii took out Scavo Hierling. But my Radiated Scorcher was taken out too.

Round 2, Regal Peryton fell victim to Sand Worm. Radiated Brute died to the hands of thorns while Tenyii feel to thorns and attack from Unicorn Mustang.

Round 3, Sand Worm open the round with a direct smash on Unicorn Mustang and took it out. Ant Miner subsequently took out Goblin Psychic and secured the victory.

After Thoughts

What seemed like a potential loss turn out in my favour. All credit to Sand Worm taking out all the pesky big health cards in my opponent lineup.

What made this game so crazy is that at reverse speed rule set, Sand Worm gets to start first. This is why in round 1, it took out Goblin Thief, Regal Peryton on round 2 and Unicorn Mustang on round 3. All of which are key cards on my opponent lineup.

Imagine with me, if Sand Worm is not at speed 1 and ended attacking much later and my opponent having something that is at speed 1. With Mylor as summoner, if someone did manage to hit Sand Worm earlier, when I take my hit subsequently will result in thorns damage and eventually losing my Sand Worm.

Did my strategy work in this game? This strategy I deployed was intentionally made for this kind of rule set. I knew Sand Worm is critical, but there is an additional set of consideration which is the mana cost. To put in Sand Worm, it is a 9 mana commitment, so its presence must be counted, hence I had other small critters added to the lineup so as to cater for Sand Worm insertion. One good consideration is Ant Miners. This little monster start small but as our sneakers do their jobs, unknowingly, Ant Miners becomes a meat shield of its own and does 2 damage due to Tarsa's boost.

Will I be using such a lineup in the future? Yes I will. Sand Worm is almost like the King of Reverse Speed. The dilemma comes when whether or not we should level Sand Worm up.

Keeping it at Level 1 really makes it a pesky thing to opponents. With Tarsa, it is 6 damage, any un-armoured backline will just get torn apart by this beast. Even when I am using my Water Splinter Lineup, in order to take down opponent cards at non reverse speed, I also deploy Sand Worm to help wane down backline faster.

This card while dominates the reverse speed realm, can be used in many other lineups to deal good damage just that in non-reverse speed, there is risk of missing hits.

Nevertheless, I certainly feel everyone should own 1 copy of this else, please make sure you have it on permanent rent.

Wrap Up
I hope you guys enjoyed reading my sharing on Sand Worm. I would really appreciate it if you liked and/or commented to let me know what are you thoughts.

I am currently part of PIZZA, an active gaming and creative arts crypto community on the HIVE blockchain and part of PIZZA guild. Popular cryto games such as SPLINTERLANDS, RISING STAR and HASHKINGS are actively discussed in this community.

Many events are being organized from time to time. Join the PIZZA DISCORD. This is a place filled with 💰🍕🎁GIVEAWAYS & AIRDROPS💰🍕🎁 and most definitely consisting of a friendly community to be in.

Till my next battle sharing, take care, stay safe and happy battling!

If you are keen on playing Splinterlands, feel free to join me via this link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=vaynard86