Splinterlands Social Media Challenge! Testing new Strategies with RUNEMANCER KYE

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Hello guys, this is my entry to the "Splinterlands Social Media Challenge!". If you want to participate and/or read more about the challenge, click here.

We are at the end of another season and once again we are ending the season with a new featured card and forming new strategies which will help us in the coming seasons. I saw a powerful mage on the rental market which alone can change the fate of the game.

It is a legendary water unit and comes with a hefty price of 11 mana! Can it justifies this huge cost? Let's focus on its stats now.

RUNEMANCER KYE

CARD
EDITION	RIFTWATCHERS
RARITY	LEGENDARY
ELEMENT	WATER
LEVEL	1
MANA COST	11 POINTS
ABILITIES	Flying, Life Leech

Runemancer Kye is a legendary unit that deals with heavy magic attacks and comes with good health and armour. It comes with the following abilities:

• Flying: Has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from those monsters who don't have the Flying ability.
• Life Leech: Monster's health increases each time it damages enemy health in proportion to the damage dealt.

Both these abilities make it much harder to kill.

I used a level 1 unit which dealt 2 magic attacks with 3-speed points and comes with a relatively good amount of health of 8 hp and 5 armour as well. This huge amount of health and armour along with two of the best abilities makes it a good choice for a tank.

Now, let's talk about my lineup. Any guesses where I would have placed this?

My Lineup

This is my lineup for the battle

Position	Summoner/Monsters	Abilities
Summoner	Keyla Frendul	+1 armour, +1 speed
Position 1	Albatross	Flying
Position 2	Runemaster Kye	Flying, Life Leech
Position 3	Venari Wavesmith	Protect
Position 4	Ice Pixie	Flying
Position 5	Spirit Hoarder	Triage
Position 6	Pelacor Bandit	Sneak

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It was a 29-mana battle and had two interesting rulesets:

• Earthquake: Non-flying monsters take 2 melee damage at the end of each round.
• Broken Arrows: Ranged attack Monsters may not be used in battles.

Both of these were very restrictive. Ranged attackers were out of the equation and all non-flying monsters have to be used with utmost care or they will be dead sooner than later. However, magic, earth and death splinters were active during this battle.

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I used the Keyla Frendul as my summoner which gave an extra shield and +1 speeds to all my monsters. The shield was something I wanted to get as the earthquake ruleset is tough to face.

In the first position, I used the Albatross. It is a cheap unit costing just 1 mana but came with the flying unit and with extra armour it had a chance to survive a little longer and take a few strong hits. I didn't expect much as it had just 1 health.

In the next position, I used the Runemancer Kye, this was my preferred tank as I didn't hope for Albatros to survive for long. Although it costs 11 mana but it dealt heavy magic attacks (2 damage) with 3 speeds and had a huge amount of health. Also, it comes with 5 armour of its own which makes it a great defensive option.

Its flying ability was perfect for this ruleset and *life leech ability also recharges hp as well which makes it even harder to kill. All those factors justify its 11 mana cost easily.

In the next position, I used the Venari Wavesmith. It was another powerful mage which dealt just 1 magic attack but its protect ability is so useful during battles, especially against melee and ranged attackers. So, every monster on my lineup had at least 3 armour to start.

It was a 29 mana battle and I had to utilize it effectively so I used another low mana cost unit, the Ice Pixied. It is one of my favourite mages and it comes with a flying ability as well. I only had to make sure that I place it in the middle of my lineup and cushion it from both sides.

Spirit Hoarder came in the next position on my lineup. It was yet another mage in my heavy magic attacks lineup. It only had 1 speed and 1 magic attack but costing just 3 mana and having an interesting ability was nice. Its triage ability heals the back-line monster that has taken the most damage. So, a healer with only 3 mana was nice to have in any lineup.

In the last position, I used the Pelacor Bandit, it was the only melee attacker in my lineup. It also came with the flying ability and sneak ability too. Although it only had 3 health but it had good speed and it won't take the earthquake damage as well.

Now my lineup was all set and it was time for battle.

I will share my battle here, which I have uploaded to YouTube.

My Strategy

with 29 mana and some restrictive rulesets like Earthquake and Broken arrows. I decided to go for a heavy mage attack with a focus on providing extra armour to counter the earthquake damage.

The Runemancer Kye was a vital point in my lineup. I depended on its defensive abilities and used low-health monsters at the back of the lineup. It worked as a great tank and also showed its great attacking strength as well.

Since I had 3 extra armour on all my monsters I used a couple of low mana units which may not have added to the attacking strength but they increased my defensive ability.

Round 1

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My opponent also used the same summoner but went with the opposite strategy. They focused on the melee attackers and didn't care about dealing with earthquake damage.

They used Diemonshark as their main tank but in round 1 we both lost our first, sacrificial units (that's what I call them). But since I had the magic attack their tanks shield was just useless.

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Round 2

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Round 2 was a big round for me. Since my opponent didn't focus much on flying units they took much more damage and most of their armour was gone.

But the worst news was by the end of this round their most important unit, their tank was booted out of the battle by my mages. After the end of this round, it was looking bad for my opponent.

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Round 3 & 4

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Rounds 3 and 4 were just like we all expected, my Runemancer Kye proved to be a badass in this battle. While their heavy melee attackers took heavy damage first from the earthquake damage at the start of each round and then from my mages. Even though they manage to take down a few of my units as well but my tank was too strong and powerful for them.

The life-leech ability helped immensely during this battle and in the end, I got an easy victory. Of course, the MVP in this battle was Runemancer Kye.

Conclusion

Runemancer Kye is a powerful unit, it excels in both attacking and defensive domains. With its powerful magic attacks, good speed and flying ability. It is a beast in the battleground.

Its high mana cost is something which doesn't allow it to be used in low-mana cap battles but it rules as you go through the high-mana battles.

It should be present in every player's deck as it can be used in many compositions. I recommend this unit, just make sure to use it carefully.

Thanks for reading...

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Note:

• Text dividers are from freeztag.
• Card images are from @splinterlands.
• Banner created in Canva (free version).

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