Strategy beats level | The danger of becoming predictable

On my previous post I said how I was going to be more analytical of my playing and what the fuck was going on with my strategies. Since I mostly play on the cell phone, I usually can't see the real level of the cards I'm playing against (there seems to be some bugs there devs).

But seeing as I've decided to blog about my Splinter journey, I think I'll be playing from my laptop from now on and here I can see the actual levels.

So, as soon as I posted, I went to the last battle I had lost and analyzed it.

I had the higher level cards, yet still got my ass kicked

The first thing I noticed is that most of my cards were near the level cap for gold, while my opponent had at most a level 3 Enchanted Pixie and the rest on level 2. I went with Malric Inferno and @mario13 used Alric Stormbringer.

Watch the battle

Venari Wavesmith's tower ability and River Hellondale's resurrect were key to my opponent's victory. Since I focused my attacks on the back, the had to first bring down the Water Caller, who was resurrected with armor, forcing my sneakers to spend another turn in really finishing her off.

Never use damage debuffers "just in case"

As to my faults, Molten Ogre and Mordeus were really a waste of mana that could have been better used. I don't remember if I saw previous to the battle that my opponent had heavy usage of melee cards, or I just placed Molten Ogre there just in case.

Anyway, I will draw a line here and take this as a lesson:
NEVER USE DAMAGE DEBUFFERS "JUST IN CASE". Only bring them in when there is a very high chance that they will be useful.

Mordeus fucked up for being to slow, missing on the first turn which gave the Pixie more time to keep attacking. Opportunists should be used with discretion, they are often fragile cards that can easily backfire. They look really sexy and all, but they will lose a lot of time if the opponent has shields.

The only card that was actually Lord Arianthus which reflected a good amount of magic damage.

The big reason for my defeat: I was predictable

Get ready for this one because there is a deeper analysis to be made. On this season I wanted to try and go as far up the season ladder as I could. But as soon as I got to Gold, I realized that my renting strategy wasn't even being paid by the rewards obtained, so I was getting negative numbers. What's the point of turning a pay-to-earn game into a pay-to-win?

I came up with the idea of using a fire melee team and max out cards that attacked in the front, had reach, sneak, and opportunity. The idea was to just spam with that team and see if there was a good winning rate. At first it worked nicely, but after a while, many players started reading into my strategy and it became very obvious that they should protect their back.

So I don't recommend this idea of just one really good, heavy damage line-up. I've gotten much more accomplished with lower level cards that allowed me to adjust to different situations and also surprise my opponents.

Most useful cards of this match:

Venari Wavesmith (2)
Hellon Riverdale (2)
Lord Arianthus (2)

I will keep a record of those cards (and their respective levels) that have shone in the battles I analyze, that way I can begin to identify patterns that might be useful later on.

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