Splinterlands Weekly Battle Challenge - Double Retaliation

Welcome to my first attempt at not only a Hive post, but a post breaking down a battle for the Splinterlands weekly battle challenge.

The theme for this week is the Retaliate ability. Retaliate is an ability that grants a 50% chance to effectively counter-attack when hit by a melee attack. It can even trigger when a monster is at 0 health from that attack. Overall, it's a cool and useful ability, though takes a bit of luck with the 50% chance to activate. Let's get into it with breaking down this recent battle:

Breaking down my line up:

1. Stonesplitter Orc
2. Unicorn Mustang
3. Beatrix Ironhand
4. Sand Worm
5. Mitica Headhunter
6. War Chaang

Both my first and last position monsters have the retaliate ability, it allows for having a chance of counter attacking on the front from the enemy tank, but also has a chance on the backend for any Sneak attacks. Also of note, Thorns is on my monsters courtesy of my summoner, Mylor Crowling, as well as Blast provided by the match's ruleset.

We see this strategy pay off midway through Round 1 - my War Chaang is hit by two Sneak attacks in quick succession from the Silvershield Assassin. The first only triggers thorns (breaking its armor), the second triggers thorns, then Retaliate, which in turn applies a point of blast damage to the adjacent monsters. Towards the end of Round 1, my War Chaang is hit again with Sneak from the Sand Worm, killing it. Before it goes, it delivers another two points of damage from thorns, and Retaliates (even with the 0 health). This kills the Silvershield Assassin, and leaves the Sand Worm with 1 health - which is promptly wiped by the high speed ranged attack from the Mitica Headhunter in the opening of Round 2.

This was a relatively quick two round battle, though it could have dragged out a bit longer had War Chaang's retaliate not activated. Even though the Stonesplitter Orc's retaliate didn't activate, it still did a fine job of tanking the damage and dealing it back with Thorns, leaving the Unicorn Mustang in high health to tank any leftovers in Round 2 (though it wasn't needed).

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