A Noobie's Guide to Destroying Bronze Ranked Battles Without Legendaries

Have you ever wondered how champ players use monster positioning to best their opponents?

Today I'm going to share with you the three most important abilities to master:

1) Snipe - Targets enemy Monsters with Ranged, Magic, or no attack that are not in the first position

2) Sneak - Targets the last Monster on the enemy Team instead of the first Monster

3) Opportunity - Monsters with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy Monster with the lowest health

Noobies might think, battles are from to back right? But you're way passed that. You already understand that melee tanks belong in the front and fragile damage dealers are in the back, so you know the importance of these three abilities. The question is, how can you outplay your opponents by correctly positioning your monsters to counter the strength of those pesky ninjas that ignore your tank? Let's walk through a few of the most popular scenarios you will see, and I'll show you how to counter them.

Exhibit A:

Here you can see my opponent is using a standard death deck that is used all the time, as these cards are all part of the starter pack. This setup is popular because of a good tank and quick damage dealers that bypass your frontline tank. Do you think my setup looks good enough to win?

Spoiler, I won this match, but how? My team looks so fragile, and he has such a big tank. However, after scouting that my opponent used this same setup frequently, I decided to put the famous cocatrice up front, as it has a great chance of dodging the slower tank's attack. Because snipe monsters attack the closest nonmelee creature behind your tank, I wanted to ensure that my fragile 1 hp damage dealers were not in that sweet second spot. So, I put 3 hp in that position to soak up both of the snipers' attacks. Then, I ensured my very last monster also had maximum hp because if I put my 1 hp monsters there, they'd get swooped into oblivion faster than they could make their impact on the battle. If you want to see how this played out, checkout the replay here:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=e905ec33c04f0be72b5629330270937a9a79d743&ref=godislove7777

Exhibit B:

Here you see the opponent using an interesting strategy with two tanks. One of them has taunt, so all of my creatures other than my tank will target him while attacking until he is dead. White decks will commonly use this tactic of having super tanks up front with some healing and sneakers and snipers in the backline to pick off your carries. How do you manage to get past that big wall without losing all your damage dealers first? Once again, you see the importance of sandwiching in your super fragile carries in-between monsters with extra health. In this case, the 7 hp Captain's Ghost in the back is strong enough to take 7 rounds worth of hits from the sneaky cat. To dodge the snipers, I put 6 hp worth of monsters before my 1 hp carries become vulnerable.
And of course, a solid tank up front does the trick well. So how do you think I fared in this matchup? See the replay here: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=5031418203c3b4f02ae4c7dda9362478a5db95f0&ref=godislove7777

Exhibit C:

Here we see a common fire setup with a very opportunistic spy looking to execute enemy carries. The death player on the opposing side has a great strategy setup which only costs him 1 mana. He places the Cursed Slimeball at his very last position. This monster only has 1 hp, so the opportunity enemies will attack him first. You can see the fire player has experience in positioning, as he has placed his furious chicken in the last position. The death player has bested him, however, due to one crucial mistake. What mistake is that? Take a look at the lonely monkey, a great 1 mana cost monster which can be used to soak up damage. The fire player has positioned it in a basically useless spot. Why? Because it does not draw aggro from snipers due to it being melee. This mispositioning actually costed him this match as you can see in the replay here: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=0fe616efa75fbe8e6213964798c9d2841a7e4eb6&ref=godislove7777

Conclusion:
Positioning your monsters is the difference between excelling into silver and staying sunk in bronze. Remember, the higher rank you become, the more loot boxes you get per daily quest, the more dec you earn for ranked wins, and the more loot you gain from season rewards.

Honorable mention:

This card, as you may have noticed, is of unspeakable value. For 0 mana, you can use this chicken as bait to soak up an attack from a sneak monster when placed as your last monster or as bait to soak up a sniper's attack when placed behind your tank (careful not to level it up too high or it will gain 1 melee attack and no longer bait sniper attacks). So, you can see why this card is already $15, and I'm not certain it will ever lower in value, as the supply is already capped, and the demand continues to grow.

If you've enjoyed this article or learned anything, please give a thumbs up and feel free to follow! I plan on bringing more helpful tips to light for our new players in the upcoming days. Have a blessed day.