The humble Carrion Shade. I would have never imagined seeing a 1 mana cost monster featured for Splinterlands Share Your Battle Weekly Challenge.

It’s been a long time since I’ve used it. I remember renting a level 3 in Bronze league to get its flying ability. It used to be pretty good.

But that was back in Bronze league.

I’m fully expecting it to get stomped on and erased from existence in Silver league and above.

Clearing this week’s Battle Challenge is going to be challenging.

Planning ahead

Now that I’m in Silver league, I highly doubt getting its flying ability will make much of a difference. DEC is running low in my account, and every single DEC matters.

So I will be using the free level one Carrion Shade then.

No renting of level 3 flying Carrion Shade for me.

I’m approaching this as a side quest, like a handicap that I need to include in my line-up and still beat my opponent.

#budgetsplinterlandsplayer

Rulesets I’m looking for

To do this successfully, certain conditions that support the use of Carrion Shade and the Death Splinter needs to be fulfilled.

There were a few criteria I was looking for.

Firstly, I needed a low mana cap battle, where the Death Splinter usually shines.

Secondly, I’m going to look out for a few specific rulesets.

Maybe Equal Opportunity, so that my Carrion Shade will take the first hit for the team.

Maybe Equalizer, which will buff my Carrion Shade into a beefy tank.

Unique Opportunity

A chance to use Carrion Shade appeared pretty soon and unexpectedly. It came as a Super Sneak/Spreading Fury ruleset, with a 17 mana cap.

I wasn’t convinced that this was the best opportunity to use the Carrion Shade, but I wasn’t going to waste this chance.

After messing around with the mana cap and position, this is the team that I came up with:

1. Cursed Windeku: Placed in the last position to deal Thorns damage to all melee sneaking monsters. It can do its own sneak damage too.

2. Uraeus: For the DPS and armour, even though it already has sneak.

3. Crypt Beetle: For the Shield in Position 1.

4. Carrion Shade: Placed in some random position in the middle cause I wanted it to survive and deal some light DPS.

Line-up analysis

I was doubtful that my team would prevail.

Obviously, it’s terrible against magic since all my low HP monsters are in front.

My line-up also has very low DPS, except for Cursed Windeku’s Thorns (He is basically my main carry).

I was banking on the fact that it’s a low mana cost battle, so my opponent may shy away from using a magic-heavy team. And hoping that my opponent uses a couple of melee monsters so my Cursed Windeku can do its job.

Battle Commences

As it turns out, I got pretty lucky.

My opponent chose a green splinter but went for Wizard of Eastwood instead of Obsidian. Magic would have devastated me.

The only noteworthy monster was the Unicorn Mustang, making this match up a 4v1 scenario since all my monsters can potentially hit it.

The Enrage ability given by Spreading Fury may mess up my chances of getting a win, but as long as my monsters land their hits, it should be ok.

Battle result

The enraged Mustang had an impressive 6 speed, but My Uraeus and Carrion Shade managed to land their hits.

My Cursed Windeku can take out the Mustang with Thorns even if I miss every single hit from here on.

Closing thoughts

So that’s how I managed to clear this week’s Battle Challenge. You may catch the entire battle here or in the Youtube link below.

Was Carrion Shade the hero of the battle? Far from it.

But it did contribute that 1 hit in Round 1 that sealed my victory.

I guess Splinterlands can be more about strategy and art of war, instead of who spends the most money on the game and who can build the best performing bot.

And when it does, Splinterlands feels truly rewarding and challenging to play.