Share Your Battle - Second Fiddle To Living Lava

The theme for the current "Share Your Battle" challenge is Radiated Brute, and I think this is a common card for Fire Melee lineup.

As usual, here's a portion of the lore for Radiated Brute:

The spreading blight on the continent of Praetoria twisted both the land and its people.

Plants and animals were the first to become corrupted. Fungus sprouted from vegetation and gave them sentience. Animals grew extra limbs, heads, and grew to extraordinary sizes.

Then the people fell ill. Some thought it was from the plague brought about by Doctor Blight. Others thought perhaps it was from the poisonous gases that seeped from the fissures near the volcano.

Whatever it was, those who survived the sickness were changed. They mutated, grew stronger, and were filled with an uncontrollable rage. Some were unable to control that rage and went on murderous rampages. Others fought to maintain their sanity long enough to protect their family, friends, and neighbors from themselves. They fled into the Jade Thicket, where they became as feral as the wild animals of the continent.

The people of Praetoria referred to them as Radiated Brutes.

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Battle Type & Team Lineup

Position	Card	Notes
Summoner	Pyre	Summoners were silenced for this battle so I went with the 3 mana summoner.
1	Living Lava	This is probably my default tank for Fire as I don't rent that Legendary card (you know which one I am referring to hehe).
2	Radiated Brute	I wouldn't say this is a top card but it is reliable as the second attacker nonetheless.
3	Tenyii Striker	This is a strong Sneak card and having 7 HP (after summoner's boost) enables hit to last a long time to deal decent damage.
4	Sand Worm	This is a nasty Sneak card as long as it does not miss.
5	Mantoid	I wasn't sure what card to fill the remaining mana so I went with the trickiest card possible, i.e. with Snipe, in case my Melee heavy lineup fails.
6	Lava Launcher	This is one of the few Fire cards with good speed and I will always use it when the mana allows.

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• Pre Battle: I wasn't surprised to see a Fire lineup on the opposite end, but what demoralised me was that once again, my Level 1 cards were faced off with higher levelled summoners and cards. Interestingly, the lineups were almost identical except my opponent filled the 5th card with Scavo Hireling whereas I filled it with Mantoid. There's no way to run so let's rumble on!
  

• Round 1: A big Snipe hit from Mantoid took out their Scavo Hireling. Apart from that, the hits were identical and my Living Lava had 2 less HP due to my opponent's armor repair. Let's see if my extra card advantage would help in fighting against the Level 2 and 3 cards.
  

• Round 2: My tank fell as Radiated Brute took up the front spot, while my additional damage hunted down their backline, with their Lava Launcher falling.
  

• Round 3: A crucial miss from their Sand Worm meant my Lava Launcher lived for another around, and immediately, my Sand Worm took out theirs. There's no way I could lose this.
  

• Round 4: Once again, Lava Launcher caused more problems for my opponent and the overall damage output was just too much. Secured victory but the match looked more close than the ending suggested.
  

If you are interested to watch the battle, you can find it here.

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Post Battle

Did my strategy work? I think my random choice of Mantoid in this battle proved to be crucial with the Snipe ability. Was also lucky as my opponent had more misses than me and that made it possible for me to overcome them with Level 1 cards.

Do I like Radiated Brute? I am quite neutral about this. For me, it's just a logical choice for the 2nd position behind Living Lava, but personally I would prefer Tenyii Striker over Radiated Brute because Sneak ability is better than Reach.

Final thoughts? Luck plays a huge role in the game, especially in the situations where a miss or the difference of one turn can tilt the game in either side's favour. But that's what makes the game so fun (and frustrating too)! Hehe!

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What are your takeaways from this battle? Feel free to comment below, as I am always keen to learn and improve!

As always, thanks for reading and have a pleasant day ahead!

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