Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge - Spineback Wolf

In this week's Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge, we have been tasked to fight a match with Spineback Wolf. Although Spineback Wolf has incredibly high speed, good health, a little bit of armor, and the "Reach" ability which allows him to attack from second as well as first position, he also has a fairly weak attack. Will his advantages be enough to help us win this battle? In this post, I'll share my strategy for using Spineback Wolf, the results of the match, and my overall thoughts of his value in my lineup.

As with every match in Splinterlands, the ideal strategy will depend on the ruleset and Mana cap. For this match, we had a Mana cap of 25 and no modifications to the standard ruleset. Although I usually play Goblin Mech in the first position when I fight with the Death Splinter, I wanted to switch things up and play Undead Rexx this time. Undead Rexx has an insanely strong melee attack of 5 and health of 9 points, but it does have a bit of a slow speed (which I mitigated with Bogeyman).

In the second position, we have the hero of the battle, Spineback Wolf. His "Reach" ability makes him a good second position monster as he can fight and deal damage from the second position but also keep up the fight if he moves into the first position (unlike a ranged monster).

In the third spot, I played Boogeyman. Boogeyman is one of my favorite cards in the Death Splinter because he has a strong magic attack combined with the "Slow" ability which reduces the speed of ALL the enemy's monsters. Playing Boogeyman was a key part of my strategy because it made sure that Undead Rexx was able to attack Goblin Mech first. Had Goblin Mech got the first blow in, the match could have ended differently, so I like to think of Boogeyman as a "force multiplier" since he can fight on his own, but also de-buff all of the enemy's monsters simply by being on my team.

In the fourth spot, we have Furious Chicken. You all know that Furious Chicken is one of my favorite cards because it costs zero Mana and makes a great buffer monster.

In the last spot, I was able to play Undead Badger and use all 25 of my Mana. I always like it when I am able to use all of my Mana because I feel like I have fielded the best possible team and left nothing on the table. Undead Badger isn't a card that I play a lot, but I thought that his "Sneak" ability to target the last monster on the opponent's team would be a nice addition.

The Battle Results
As the battle started, I was a bit worried to see that my opponent played Goblin Mech. Those of you who have read my past posts know that I think Goblin Mech is a strong monster and is one of my go-to monsters whenever I am playing with a Splinter other than Earth or Fire.

Although I was worried to see Goblin Mech, I was pleased by how my team performed. Both Undead Rexx and Spineback Wolf dodged one of the opponent's attacks which helped them avoid damage, and the speed advantage that Boogeyman gave my team helped ensure that my monsters were able to get in some first-round attacks before the opponent. At the end of the day, my team was able to carry the victory.

Spineback Wolf Analysis
So, after using Spineback Wolf in the match, what do I think of him? On one hand, his high speed helps him dodge attacks, and his armor means that the enemy will waste their first-round attack on depleting his armor and not damaging his health (unless they have the "Pierce" ability or it is a no armor ruleset match).

On the flip side, he does have a very weak attack which is my biggest concern. If I was playing a match against an opponent that used a "Shield" monster like Living Lava or Gloridax Soldier, Spineback Wolf's attacks would be completely worthless as I need a minimum damage of 2 to overcome the Shield's damage reduction ability and actually deal damage.

For me, Spineback Wolf is a good monster, but has to be played in the right circumstances. If I see that the opponent has a history of playing a shielded monster or has played Fire Splinter for several matches in a row, the Spineback Wolf will probably be sitting that match out. At the same time, Spineback Wolf is the only "Reach" capable monster that I have for the Death Splinter, so he can come in handy for a ruleset where only melee monsters can be used and I can't put a magic monster in the second position.

Overall, I have to say that Spineback Wolf is a good card. To be fair, he isn't one of my absolute favorites, like Furious Chicken , but he is still a good asset to have on the team, and he proved his worth in helping me win this match.

Summary

As always, I'd like to thank you for reading. I'd also like to encourage you to consider checking out Splinterlands. It is free to get started, so you can try the game out and see if you like it with no risk. If you later decide to get involved, you have the ability to earn through daily quests, end-of-season rewards, tournaments, and challenges such as I did with this article. Overall, it's a great way to have some fun in crypto gaming, learn more about Hive/NFTs, and be a part of the community.

Thanks for reading!

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