This week's Share Your Battle challenge features the Dragon splinter. This is always a challenge that I like to see, because Dragon cards have a wide variety of skills and strengths, and it is a lot of fun getting to showcase them in a fight. For my battle this week I will be featuring Brighton Bloom, a Dragon splinter summoner with a particularly useful ability. Oh, an as a bonus - this battle also ended up including the newest card to be added to the game on the opposing team, Lux Vega!
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!
This was the ruleset for our battle - a medium mana cap fight with all splinters available, and very importantly, the Earthquake ruleset. Earthquake means that non-Flying monsters will take damage each turn, making it one of the more annoying rulesets to play with. Luckily, I do have some tools in my deck to deal with it.
My answer to the Earthquake ruleset is our guest star of the week - Brighton Bloom! Brighton doesn't buff any monster stats, but more than makes up for it by granting my entire team Flying. This not only gives my monsters an additional chance to dodge attacks, but also means that they won't take Earthquake damage each turn. Unfortunately my copy is only level 1 which means my monster levels (and rewards!) will be limited this battle, but his ability is so strong in this ruleset that I thought it was worth it to choose Brighton anyway.
I opted for a slightly unconventional lineup this fight, because my strategy for this battle was for my team to slowly grind down the opposing team while giving Earthquake more time to inflict damage on the enemy monsters. So instead of leading off with some heavy hitters, I started off with Hardy Stonefish and Uraeus in hopes of buying some time at the start of the battle. Both of them had a bit of armor and should be able to soak up a hit or two, and if I got particularly lucky then Uraeus might even be able to get off a Sneak attack onto my opponent's back line.
The middle of my team was where the real meat of my team started. Djinn Oshannus has outstanding bulk, a bit of evasion with 5 speed, and even some anti-magic with the Void ability. I supported Oshannus with Merdaali Guardian for some healing. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted a slightly longer battle, and having some healing on my team would certainly help with that.
I closed out my team with Axemaster and Torrent Fiend. Axemaster was the hardest hitting monster I brought along for this battle, with a double ranged attack each turn for 2 damage each. Torrent Fiend was there as a meat shield to give Axemaster some protection in case of any Sneak attacks.
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I don't feel very good about my chances. My opponent has gone with the newest summoner in the game - Lux Vega. Lux gives some very nice bonuses, with buffs to health, armor, AND speed. On top of that, my cards are at a serious level disadvantage.
In part due to my selection of a lineup intended to try and slow down the battle, there is not much action in the first round. By the start of round 3 though, there are some serious developments. Both of my throwaway monsters at the front have fallen, but in return my combination of Axemaster and Djinn Oshannus has nearly taken down my opponent's main tank, the Pelacor Mercenary.
One more round and things are beginning to look up for my team. My opponent's Pelacor Mercenary falls, and their backline Acid Shooter and Fungus Fiend are about to die to Earthquake. On the other hand, all of my expensive monsters are mostly unscathed, with my Merdaali Guardian doing a great job of keeping Djinn Oshannus healthy and with Brighton Bloom preventing all of the Earthquake damage.
By the start of the next round this battle was all but over. All that was left on the enemy team was a single Gargoya Devil. I had plenty of damage output left on my team, not to mention that Djinn Oshannus was receiving enough healing each round to completely negate that Gargoya! 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. Brighton Bloom did an amazing job of protecting my team from Earthquake damage, allowing my team to slowly grind its way through the opposing lineup. The Flying ability is extremely useful in the Earthquake ruleset, helping my lineup to overcome a heavy disadvantage in card level and stats. Brighton Bloom is one of the most useful summoners in my toolkit, and I will continue to use him often in the future - though the the new rewards calculations, I should really look into getting a higher level one!
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: (Financial) Contagion - An introduction to the concept of a Contagion, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!
Deadeye Dhampir - Using Dhampir Stalker in Battle! - Last week's battle challenge, featuring Dhampir Stalker!
Splinterlands Economics: Nash Equilibrium - A introduction to the concept of a Nash Equilibrium, and the insights it can give us into Splinterlands.
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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.