This is my submission to the Splinterlands Weekly Battle Challenge. This time it is featuring the "Mushroom Seer".

About the Card

Mushroom Seer is one of the early reward edition cards that has become part of the beta gameplay and by now is out of print. The Seer is a versatile card that can fit well in many teams and rulesets. I do not like its low level versions very much because 5 mana is a high cost for a monster with 3 HP which could be diminished by opponents with Magic Reflect. From level 5 onwards though, the Mushroom Seer learns Poison which is a very powerful ability that can effectively kill your opponent’s tank monster. At max level with 3 ATK, 6 HP, Mute and Poison the Mushroom Seer becomes the versatile fit-for-all-cases card that I have proclaimed it was.

Card Use-Cases

Versatile as it is, the Mushroom Seer cannot be put into clearly defined boxes. Claiming that always using him in ruleset XYZ would probably be ill advice. There are, however, some factors that we can consider when thinking about using the Mushroom Seer on our team.

• In low mana games the Mushroom Seer might be a too expensive choice. If you only have 12 mana to use, I would prefer using that on a 3-mana summoner with three 3-mana monsters rather than squeezing the Mushroom Seer in the setup.
• In the Noxious Fumes ruleset, where all monsters are poisoned from round 1, the Mushroom Seer’s Poison ability goes to waste. So what, you may think, still a great card, right? Maybe, but you should take into account how the Splinterlands team balances the cards. When designing a new card, they have a base power, like let’s say 10 points, which they distribute on the card. 1 ATK may be 1 power point, a mighty ability like blast may be 5 points, a weaker one like Dispel may be 2 points. (the ‘power point’ amounts were made up by me but I know that @aggroed stated they were indeed using a process like this one during card design). Consequently, whenever you are using a card which has an ability that is inactive due to the ruleset, your card is relatively weaker to other choices.
• In the Broken Arrows ruleset, your opponent will likely make up for the lack of ranged monsters by using more magic attackers. The Mushroom Seer’s Mute ability is a nice counter. But keep in mind that your opponent may also anticipate you using more magic monsters and could counter this with Magic Reflect.

This week's match

Click on the video ^ to play or view the original match on Splinterlands.

In this week’s match the ruleset was Equalizer and Divine Shield.

1. Failed Summoner: A good card for Equalizer rulesets that can stall your opponent while your backline monsters unleash their attacks on them. Its Magic Reflect is a great magic counter.

2. Mushroom Seer: In the second slot we have the Seer. I put it before the other magic monsters which were supposed to stay in the back with their tank heal ability.

3. Wood Nymph: The tank heal ability will make it very difficult for my opponent to overcome my tank. The Wood Nymph also has the Strengthen ability which is perfect for Equalizer matches because it will give each of your monsters an additional HP which your opponent will be lacking.

4. Khmer Princess: Another tank heal monster. Together with Wood Nymph, the Khmer Princess has the power to fully restore a tanks health each turn even when their maximum HP is super high.

5. Swamp Thing: The Wood Nymph’s Strengthen ability will give me an advantage with my monsters having more HP. Swamp Thing comes with the Weaken ability which will make the HP gap between teams even greater, reducing all of my opponent’s max HP by an additional point.

6. Earth Elemental: The last monster in the lineup can be a weak spot to sneak monsters and does not profit from the tank heal ability. Therefore, I chose the Earth Elemental which can just heal itself.

Conclusion

With high HP and a lot of healing on both sides this match took over 10 minutes to finish. After 20 rounds the fatigue damage set in, accelerating things a bit. My strategy worked out perfectly. The Mushroom Seer poisoned 5/6 monsters which strongly contributed to me gaining the upper hand by having the opponent’s monsters die first. Me having a second tank heal (my opponent only had one) was another important factor in this week’s win with an otherwise pretty similar lineup on both sides.

Want to join the fight?

Create an account at the Splinterlands today and fight me in next week's battle challenge!

Posted Using LeoFinance ^Beta