This week's Share Your Battle challenge features Temporal Master! This challenge is one of those challenges that I refer to as a "learning challenge". Because while I do have a copy of Temporal Master, I very (very!) rarely use it in battle. So the tricky thing this week was figuring out how to use Temporal Master to its full potential.
Upon closer examination, Temporal Master is actually a relatively solid card. It is super cheap at just 3 mana, and at level 1 you get 1 magic damage paired with 2 speed and 2 health. These stats are nothing to write home about, but we do have to remember that magic attackers tend to cost a bit more for their stats than most other cards - so Temporal Master isn't bad! The challenging part about using Temporal Master is that it also has the Recharge ability, meaning that it only gets to attack every other turn. On the other hand, when it DOES attack it gets to do triple damage.
If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup? Read on further!
First up: the ruleset for our battle. I was looking to use a Life lineup with mixed ranged and magic damage, and this set of rules looked to be a good fit for it. 28 mana is a medium amount that gives us enough space to bring in a good amount of ranged damage and support to complement a bit of magic damage.
Temporal Master is in the Life splinter so we're going with a Life summoner - I choose General Sloan because his buff to ranged attackers is great for any lineup with more than a little ranged damage.
I started my team with my tank and secondary tank. Shieldbearer is an amazing tank because of the combination of excellent bulk (4 armor AND 9 health!) with Taunt, which will ensure that the squishier monsters on my team will be protected, barring any unlucky Scattershots. Soul Fiend isn't much of a backup tank, but could take a hit if things went south and Shieldbearer went down.
The middle of my lineup contained some tricky damage. Stitch Leech could Sneak around and hopefully be able to deal some serious damage to my opponent's back line. Our guest star of the week, Temporal Master was also here - with 1 magic damage plus Recharge, he would hit for 3 damage every other turn. And with that attack being magic damage, my hope was that it would be able to get around any enemy armor and be able to dish out some serious hits.
I rounded out our team with as much ranged damage as I could fit in. Venari Crystalsmith would contribute to the frontal assault, as well as play a huge role in keeping Shieldbearer healthy. Pelacor Arbalest was the hardest hitter in my lineup, attacking for 2 range damage, boosted to 3, two times per turn! While Stitch Leech and Temporal Master looked for sneaky ways to deal damage to the opposing monsters, Venari Crystalsmith and Pelacor Arbalest would be trying to knock down the front door.
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I feel pretty good about my chances - my opponent has brought a team with a huge tank and some healing, but not much else. Djinn Chwala with Thorns is an intimidating tank, but most of my attackers won't have to worry about Thorns - Stitch Leech will be attacking the back, and the rest of my back line consists of magic and ranged damage.
In the first round of battle the attacks fly around, but there isn't much to be shown for it in the health column - the only monster that has take any hits to their health is my Shieldbearer. While this looks awful for me, there are a couple of factors still in my favor - first, my opponent's Djinn Chwala started off with a whooping 8 health which is now all gone, and second, my Temporal Master was busy Recharging in round 1 and is now ready to attack.
One more round and things look quite a bit better. Temporal Master and Pelacor Arbalest are able to team up to knock out my opponent's Djinn Chwala, and Venari Crystalsmith is able to just barely keep my Shieldbearer alive. With Djinn Chwala out of the way, my opponent's team suddenly looks much less intimidating - it has much lower damage output, and the remaining monster are looking awfully fragile.
It took 2 more rounds, but the outcome was never in doubt the test of the way. With Venari Crystalsmith keeping Shieldbearer healthy, the rest of my team was able to knock out the remaining enemy monsters one by one. And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.
My strategy for this battle worked out perfectly - Shieldbearer protected the rest of my team while my combination of different attacks was able to pick apart my opponent's lineup. Temporal Master played a key role in this battle, helping to take down my opponent's primary tank and even scoring a solo kill later on in the fight.
While I am not the biggest fan of Temporal Master, this battle shows that it does have a niche as a cost effective magic attacker - something particularly important to keep in mind now that there are even more rulesets discouraging us from choosing particular attack types. I don't expect Temporal Master to see frequent play in my games going forward, but it is certainly a monster that I could se myself using from time to time!
Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:
Splinterlands Economics: Gluts - An overview of the concept of gluts, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands.
Taking a Flier on this Deer Mage - Using Regal Peryton in Battle! - Last week's battle challenge, featuring Regal Peryton!
Looking Back, Looking Forward: 1 Year in Splinterlands - A look back at my first year playing Splinterlands.
Thinking about giving Splinterlands a try but haven't signed up yet? Feel free to use my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=bteim, and be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions!
All images used in this article are open source and obtained from Pixabay or Unsplash. Thumbnails borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Canva.