Local Elder Carries Team - Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge

The card featured in this week's @splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge was a tricky one for me to use, but after a few unsuccessful attempts, I got to see just how this card can shine in battle. That's what I'm sharing in this post.

The Efreet Elder is an interesting card from the Reward Edition. It is a rare, fire splinter card. For 6 mana, it's no terribly cheap to play, but it has fair speed and health at 3 and 8 respectively. It's 1 magic attack isn't terribly significant.

Fire splinter has many good options for playing fast and aggressively. But while there are some options for magic attackers, those options are relatively few. Since Efreet Elder is a magic attack card, was a little difficult for me to build a good team around it. It turns out, I didn't really need to build a good team as Efreet Elder did most of the heavy lifting at the end of the game.

The reason for this is its Last Stand ability. Last Stand gives the card increased stats if it is the last card left on your team. In this particular battle, it did end up being the last card, so its stats increased to a whopping 12 health, a quick speed of 5, and a respectable 2 magic damage.

Let's Talk About The Battle

The Ruleset for this battle was normal rules, with all splinters available and 24 mana. So, plenty of flexibility here.

My Strategy

For my summoner, I chose Pyre to give all of my monsters the +1 speed boost. Like I said, fire is aggressive and speed is good.

My first position monster was Living Lava, a very common monster to see tanking in fire teams for these Bronze tier matches. With its armor and shield ability, it does its job.

Furious Chicken was thrown in the second spot as padding for the monsters behind it, just to give them a little extra time in case the Living Lava was lost.

Next up was Serpentine Spy with its Sneak ability to whittle away at the back row damage dealers.

Fire Elemental came up next. Its Blast ability allows it to both attack the opponent's tank, as well as to help the Serpentine Spy slowly clear back row. Gotta love love a card that can pull double duty like that.

And finally, in the back, our Efreet Elder. I was hoping that its 8 health would keep it alive and defending from any sneak attacks from the back row that might get my spy or elemental.

Did It Work?

There's clearly a very common meta when it comes to fire battles at the Bronze tier, as my opponent had a very similar lineup with Living Lava, Serpentine Spy, and Fire Elemental. Since we both used Pyre for our summoners, speed wasn't the deciding factor in this battle.

Fairly evenly matched, my opponent did a little better and ended up clearing all of my monsters until only the Efreet Elder was left.

My Fire Elemental did end up getting rid of their Serpentine Spy before getting killed off, so that worked mostly according to plan.

I hadn't planned on winning with the Last Stand ability, but the increased attack and health allowed it to finish the remaining monsters on the field after the opponent's tank was gone.

Here's the link to the battle so you can watch it yourself!

Reflections

I'm going to continue to play around with lineups that include the Efreet Elder. I've been hesitant to use it since it costs as much mana as it does for just a 1 attack. But now that I've seen the Last Stand ability in action, I see the card in a new light. Maybe I'll try some lineups with other magic attackers, or maybe with more expendable monsters ahead of it and a weaker tank.

Thanks for reading this battle report! If you have some good tips on using the Efreet Elder, let me know!