Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge - Sea Monster
Welcome back everyone! This week, we have been challenged to complete a Splinterlands match using the Sea Monster card. Sea monster is a common water monster that has a strong attack, high health and healing ability, but lacks speed. In this post, I'll share my strategy for using Sea Monster, the results of the battle, and my general impressions of the card.
Sea Monster has the heal ability which means that it can restore a portion of its health each round. However, if it takes too much damage and is knocked out of the fight, the heal ability obviously becomes worthless. With this in mind, I did not want to put Sea Monster in the first position because he would be facing all the attacks of the full opponent's team all at once. Rather, my strategy for the match was to place Sea Monster at the end of the formation and try to remove as many enemy monsters as possible before Sea Monster made it to the front lines. My thinking was that Sea Monster's heal ability would be much more effective towards the end of the match when he was only repairing damage from a few attacks as opposed to trying to heal damage from a full onslaught of opponent's attacks.
For this battle, there was a Mana cap of 22 points and no modifications to the rules of combat. The low Mana count meant that I had to choose each card carefully. Since Bortus is the only Water Splinter summoner that I had, he was the first pick and used 3 Mana.
I chose Frozen Soldier for my first place monster. This monster has a good (but not great) speed and attack, but has strong health and the shield ability that reduces the damage it takes from opponent's attacks.
Under normal circumstances, I like putting a monster with the "Reach" ability in second place. This allows it to deal damage from the second position, but unlike a ranged monster, it can continue fighting if it moves into the first position. Wave Runner is currently my only Water monster with reach ability, so it was chosen for second spot. Although this was a choice of necessity, it was also a good choice as Wave Runner has relatively high speed and a good melee attack for only 5 Mana cost.
In keeping with my strategy, Sea Monster, who costs 8 Manna was placed at the rear of the formation. My hope was that by time he reached the first position spot, Frozen Soldier and Wave Runner would have eliminated several enemy monsters and that Sea Monster's "Heal" ability would allow him to regenerate any damage that was done to him each round. If he was able to regenerate more health than the opponent could deal each round, I knew victory would be mine.
When I first saw the opponent's lineup, I was a bit concerned. They had chosen Unicorn Mustang as their first position monster, which is one of my favorite Earth monsters. Unicorn Mustang has high speed, a strong attack, and great health, so I knew it would be a challenge to defeat it. They also included Centuari Mage, Furious Chicken, and Goblin Thief on their team.
Although I placed Sea Monster at the rear of the formation with hopes of avoiding damage, Goblin Thief and its "Sneak" ability deliberately targets monsters at the rear of the formation which meant that Sea Monster began taking damage even before he reached the first position spot. Although this was not my plan, it actually worked in my benefit as Sea Monster was able to heal all the damage that Goblin Thief dealt each round. Basically, this nullified Goblin Thief's attacks.
With Goblin Thief essentially wasting his time attacking Sea Monster, this left Frozen Soldier and Wave Runner free to double team Unicorn Mustang and take him out of the fight. As soon as Sea Monster moved into first position, he was easily able to knock out Goblin Thief. With only Centauri Mage and Furious Chicken Left on the opponent's team, Sea Monster was easily able to heal all the damage that he received each round and carry the victory.
Sea Monster was instrumental in securing victory this match and I feel that it is a great card to have. The high health combined with the heal ability means that it can absorb a lot of damage and stay in the fight. The strong attack allows it to quickly dispatch the opponent's monsters.
Although Sea Monster is a great card, it isn't invulnerable. Sea Monster has a slow speed which means that the opponent will almost always attack him before he can attack the opponent. It also means that his attacks are more likely to miss against an opponent with high speed. Lastly, Sea Monster's "Heal" ability can be overwhelmed if he is facing an opponent that has a lot of ranged, magic, or "Reach" capable monsters that can target Sea Monster all at once.
After considering both the strengths and weaknesses, I have to say that Sea Monster is indeed a very strong card and is welcome among my lineup when I play the Water Splinter. That being said, it is important to use Sea Monster (or any card for that matter) in battles that can highlight its strengths while minimizing its weakness.
As always, thanks for reading. Feel free to check out this article on other social media platforms, or watch the full replay.
read.cash
Watch the full battle replay here.
All images of cards belong to Splinterlands.
Thanks for sharing! - @ashikstd
Hey... well done with the post.
You got a point strategy, it seems.
But how was it a nice lineup as you've used a melee attacker with a big melee attack at the last position while he was only getting hit and healing himself without attacking the opponent?
As the battle had the "Standard" ruleset so you better had to use the Sea Monster at the front and then some monsters who could attack from any position/other than the first position eg. magic or ranged monsters.
Although you've won the battle... but it doesn't mean that your strategy did the thing.
I know the things like this and if you know anything other than that then you may mention me and let me know how it was a nice lineup.
Cheers.
Ahh thank you. I didn't think about that, but you are right, just because the battle was won doesn't always mean it is a good strategy. Perhaps it is better to put Sea Monster first and have ranged and magic monsters support him from behind. Thanks for the comment!