Do you like my header?

Lately, I've been wanting to up my game again as far as graphics go. Back in the day, I used to have access to Adobe Creative Cloud or whatever it's called through a job I had. I used to make a lot of different header images and stuff. Sometimes, I reuse them now, but they're stale and some of them even have the Steem logo in them still. I thought it was cool how I blended that into the images, but it doesn't really seem appropriate anymore considering this account doesn't even exist on Steem.

That was my attempt at possibly luring some people in. When I scroll through the feed, I do see a lot of screenshots of rewards and other gameplay screens, and it does get old. While I haven't come up with anything super original or new yet, I did make something a little different today with the simple addition of that text. The colors of the text are from the Splinterlands site.

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All aboard the STRUGGLEBUS!

It's cutthroat out there on the battlefields!

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WINNING BATTLE 1 of 5

MANA CAP	RULESET 1	RULESET2
25	Back to Basics	Rise of the Commons

LINK TO THE BATTLE

• When going back to basics, tanks should be able to take more than one hit, just like seasoned stoners.
• Use a big, dumb, indacouch card instead

I don't think that Exploding Dwarf is a smart choice upfront when one of the rulesets is Back to Basics. What that card lacks in life/health it makes up for with its abilities. Without those abilities, however, the card is likely to be taken down by the first attack against it.

What I usually do is throw something like the Gelatinous Cube or Peaceful Giant in the front and then use magic and ranged behind that, if they're both possible. Additionally, I think it makes a lot more sense to throw the Furious Chicken up in the front if you're dealing with Back to Basics, because no one can really attack the back, and it won't be good as the last card standing unless you really luck out. I do love those battles when the Furious Chicken saves the day.

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WINNING BATTLE 2 of 5

MANA CAP	RULESET 1	RULESET2
22	Super Sneak	Taking Sides

LINK TO THE BATTLE

• Thorns in the back = good idea here.
• Inspiration from a demented shark helped out.
• Healing vs healing... healing wins every time!

I've been experimenting with the new Demented Shark card just for the Inspire ability. It's been working out pretty decently. It's not a super-powerful card other than that, really. It can last a few rounds usually, which is nice. I had enough healing to keep up. The thorns I had in the back really didn't hurt, either. I'm glad I used the Demented Shark this time, because the Inspire ability counteracted the other player's summoner's mele debuffs.

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WINNING BATTLE 3 of 5

MANA CAP	RULESET 1	RULESET2
27	Earthquake	Heavy Hitters

LINK TO THE BATTLE

The strugglebus broke down five times in between wins 2 and 3 in this quest. That's why I said it was a struggle. Translation: I lost five battles in between the two wins. I still have a pretty decent buffer keeping me in Gold II. I was actually right up to Gold I at one point, but my collection rating isn't high enough to unlock that league anyway.

Sea Genie saves the day

You don't really say that too often. The Sea Genie has always kind of been a cheap card and isn't one of the most popular, but if you don't have the money for some of the better ones in the Water Splinter, it's not bad. It's more useful now when there's the Earthquake ruleset because of its flying ability. In fact, that's basically the only reason I won this battle.

To be honest, I don't really know much about the Heavy Hitters ruleset. I know it's supposed to give anyone the knockout ability, but I don't know that I've noticed it working much.

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WINNING BATTLE 4 of 5

MANA CAP	RULESET 1	RULESET2
21	Target Practice	Lost Magic

LINK TO THE BATTLE

• Double Healing can be your friend

This win was the very next battle after the last one. It seems as though the Strugglebus is running well again and is more like a regular bus than a strugglebus. This win is one of those wins you get because the last card your opponent has on the battlefield is a ranged one and it cannot attack from the front. Even the healing couldn't save Water Elemental here as he was gunned down for the win.

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WINNING BATTLE 5 of 5

MANA CAP	RULESET 1	RULESET2
27	Stampede	Equalizer

LINK TO THE BATTLE

• Super fun rulesets!
• Too bad I don't have any TRAMPLE abilities
• Neither did they!
• Demented Shark again!

So, yeah, the Stampede ruleset is fun in theory, but a lot of people don't have cards that can trample. I have a few, but not in the Water Splinter. It doesn't seem to work out that well most of the times I try it anyway. Equalizer is a fun one, though. I tend to make sure I include a lot of really low-mana cards that are powerful but die quickly in normal battles. Cards that are designed as sort of a trade-off in that sense. If you can use, say, a Halving Alchemist in Equalizer, it can last a long time and even stand a few hits, and it can cripple every monster it attacks, one after another.

I think I got this one because of the double healing, the thorns, the inspire ability, and the Halving Alchemist. I put a lot of thought into it, so I'm glad it worked out.

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OKAY...

Wow. Thanks for reading all of that, if you did. I put a lot of time and effort into it. I'm going to see how that works out for a while. I need all the tokens and all the Hive Power and all the HBD.