Splinterlands - Even Stevens Strategy - LOW mana battles

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Today, I'm going to write about meta line ups in the even stevens ruleset. If you didn't know, in this ruleset, you can only use monsters that have even mana (0, 2, 4,6 etc)

I like to watch champion players' battles. So I picked some battles as example battles to show some of the most popular monsters in this ruleset. I organized the battles by splinter. Let's start from Fire!

FIRE

I see a lot of people use Yodin even in low mana matches. There are not so many choices of monsters, so it's very possible that you might see almost the same line-up as this match.

19 mana, armor up
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_c39812e5dedb8cb22fd96194dda22946

3 archers that you most likely to see

• Goblin Fireballer, 2 mana, 3 archery with Yodin, 4 speed, stun, snare
• Imp Bowman, 2 mana, 3 archery with Yodin, 5 speed, flying, piercing
• Spark Pixie, 4 mana, 7 speed, stun, flying, dodge

Tank Options

• Ant Miners, 2 mana, very popular since using Yodin requires a lot of mana. It has shield and scavenger abilities increasing health as monsters die.
• Antoid Platoon, 4 mana, shield, scavenger, very similar to ant miners but 2 more mana
• Cerberus, 4 mana, tank heal, retaliate
• Xenith monk, 4 mana, tank heal, magic reflect

*It is also worth noting that the opponent used very popular death line up. We'll talk about this later.

How this team wins

• overwhelming damage from relatively fast archers with Yodin blast
  
  

Weak points

• Generally, this team is weak against magic.
• Lorna shine magic team, Alric magic team, Resilient earth team can win against this team

Water

23 mana, no heal
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=7aabe9ff70d7bcb552ddd1437f52e52e34582c89

Alric, Vulnamor magic team is popular.

Tank Options

• Kelp initiate, 2 mana, most popular tank
• Spineback turtle, 4 mana, thorns
• Frost Lion, 2 mana, shield, void armor
  
  

Popular monsters

• Ice pixie, 2 mana, 2 magic, shatter, 5 speed
• Ruler of the Seas, 6 mana, 4 magic, swiftness, silence
• Pirate Archer, 2 mana, 2 archery with blast, 4 speed
  
  

How this team wins

• overwhelming magic damage with alric or vulnamor, or blast archery damage from pirate archer
  
  

Weak points

• This team is weak against magic reflect. Think about Pelacor conjurer, Xenith monk, and Failed summoner.

Earth

Earth has various ways to win in even mana ruleset.

Llama Flesh Golem

14 mana, heavyhitter

Around 13 - 15 mana, you should expect Lama, Flesh Golem. It has 19 HP, which means it heals 6 hp per turn. 6 melee damage and 5 speed with last stand.

How this team wins

• Flesh golem heals 6 hp per turn, it has 5 speed, so it might miss some attack. 6 melee damage per turn, you would want a tank with shield.

• If you don't have a minimum of 7 damage, you will not win. Flesh golem has void, so its magic damage gets cut into half.
  
  

Weak points

• not that scary as long as you have enough damage and a resilient tank.
• Selenia sky + archeries would be a great counter.

Prince Renynn Archery

23 mana heavy hitters
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_93c90ba3c3fda3aee8401be69f0f9f1e

Tank Options

• Failed summoner, 2 mana, go-to tank
• Cocatrice, 2 mana, 6 speed, flying, dodge
• Xenith monk, 4 mana, magic reflect, self heal
  
  

Popular monsters

• Swamp thing, 2 mana, weaken, slow, 2 archery
• Acid Shooter, 2 mana, scattershot, cripple, poison, 2 archery
• Khmer princess, 2 mana, tank heal, and triage
• Goblin Dartling, 2 mana, 1 archery, shatter
• Barking Spider, 4 mana, 3 archery, blind
• Iza the Fanged, 4 mana, not very popular but you might see it
• Mitica headhunter, 8 mana, you might see in matches over 20 mana cap
  
  

How this team wins

• Good amount of archery damage + failed summoner with khmer princess resiliency.

Weak points

• Yodin has higher damage output and speed.
• Lorna shine + armors might have too much resiliency against this team.

*I will talk about Selenia sky + earth monsters later in dragon section.

Life

18 mana, stampede

Tank Options

• Pelacor conjurer, 2 mana, go-to tank
• Xenith monk, 4 mana, magic reflect, self heal
  
  

Popular monsters

• Dax Paragon, 2 mana, 2 magic damage, amplify, affliction
• Defender of Truth, 4 mana, 3 magic damage, protect
• Time Mage, 4 mana, 3 magic damage, slow, rust
• Light Elemental, 4 mana, 2 magic damage, flying, blind, headwinds
• Celestial Harpy, 2 mana, 2 melee damage, opportunity, true strike

How this team wins

• Balance of good amount of damage and resiliency from pelacor conjurer, divine shield and armors.

Weak points

• This team doesn't have much weakness. So I had to come up with team ideas that can beat this kind of team.

Yodin with Xenith monk to reflect magic + big archery damage with a blast. I added Scavo Chemist to reduce crystal swith's archery damage and reduce the opponent's speed. Time made reduces speed, we don't want to be any slower.

The same level of resiliency. Double tank with Xenith monk and failed summoner + khemer princess heals. Boost 2 archers' damages with Selenia sky.

Death

I honestly don't recommend death splinter very much in this ruleset unless it is necessary or you know that the opponent uses magic 100%.

https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_a7d695422c0a7a5efb1b9065773e20aa

This is a pretty similar set up as the match from the Fire splinter. BUBKE is one of the best, if not the best champion player in the game. So he might be the best player in the game.

He used popular death line up in even steven ruleset. Magic or weaken is not very effective against wavebrood. He lost.

Tank Options

• Xenith monk, 4 mana, magic reflect, self heal
• Animated Corpse, 4 mana, void
• Skeletal Warrior, 2 mana, shield
• Cursed Windeku, 6 mana (in a bit higher mana match)

Popular monsters

• Undead Priest, 2 mana, slow, weaken
• Undead badger, 2 mana, sneak
• Darkest mage, 2 mana, 2 magic damage, rust, affliction
• Weirding Warrior, 2 mana, 2 archery damage, shatter, amplify, rust
• Dr.Blight, 4 mana, weaken, affliction, poison
• Venari Spellsmith, redemption
• Halfling alchemist, redemption

How this team wins

• Reduce the enemy's hp by 3 and give damage slowly by undead badger's sneak or magic damages.
• kind of a worse version of the full-fledged weaken team.
• It is very good against magic water team in general especially when you use Owster or Thaddius Brood. The summoner can reduce magic or give magic reflect to monsters. Xenith monk naturally can reflect magic as well. Water seems to have low hp backline monsters in this ruleset which undead badger can attack.

Weak points

• If the opponent has high hp monster, weaken doesn't do much.
• This team is not resilient at all. Weak against high DPS.

Dragon

You'll see Selenia sky with Earth, Life, Water most of the time. I think it is because those splinters have good 2 mana tanks like failed summoner, Kelp initiate, Pelacor Conjurer. Those splinters have one or more good low mana archery monsters as well.


15 mana, popular selenia sky set up with earth
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_d6d47eb4678b1fe0bc790d97c7f3a01c

Earth has good low mana cards. Failed summoner, Khmer princess, Queen mycelia add resiliency to your team. Acid shooter is really good with 3 archery damage with Selenia sky and it has poison.

Popular cards

• Selenia sky, +1 archery
• Naga Assassin, 2 mana, 2 archery, swiftness, backfire
• Fiendish Harpy, 2 mana, 3 melee damage, opportunity

15 mana, popular selenia sky with water
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_61297e01e6662d79a5f8564f309a4f81

13 mana, Selenia sky with life
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_0e7eeb1c5023f3e14443aec9bb5222c9

How this team wins

• Resiliency from a tank + pure archery damage

Weak points

• Lorna shine life team might have too much resiliency than this kind of team can handle.

Even Stevens Strategy Summary

In General

• Expect magic and archery
• Sneak is not very common, the most popular sneak monster is undead badger
  
  

Per Splinter:

• Fire, Yodin archery, weak against magic
• Water, Magic is popular, weak against magic reflect
• Earth, Llama Flesh golem (13 mana) - make sure to do 7 or more damage
• Earth, Archery - Yodin has higher damage output & speed, Lorna shine is good against this
• Life, Lorna shine + armor + magic attacks. Xenith monk + high archery is good against this.
• Death, don't recommend unless you have to or you know water magic is coming.
• Dragon, Selenia sky with earth, water, life. Think about Lorna shine to counter.

Closing

I hope you liked my analysis on low mana even stevens ruleset strategy. I spent hours and hours studying what people are using and writing this article. If you like this post, I'd appreciate your upvote!

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