This week's Share Your Battle challenge features Supply Runner! This is a card that I really like, but it does need to be levelled up a little bit in order to reach its peak usefulness. Unfortunately, I'm in the awkward position of not having the right level summoners to properly use Supply Runner to it's biggest potential, but it still works well as a slightly above average ranged attacker.
As I just mentioned, Supply Runner really likes having a few extra levels. It really hits its stride at level 5, where it gains the Swiftness ability and is able to singlehandedly speed up your entire team. However, the level I'll be using today is level 3 - the base level you get from having a gold foil version. There, you get a serviceable, though not amazing, ranged attacker. At level 3, for 6 mana you get a passable 2 ranged damage, to go with a very respectable 4 speed and 5 health. Thanks to its speed and health, Supply Runner offers a lot more bulk and than you can expect to get from most ranged attackers, and will be a bit more evasive and accurate than you'd get from your replacement-level archer.
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!
I'm aiming to use a lineup heavy on ranged damage, so General Sloan is the natural pick. That +1 bonus to ranged attacks will be a big boost to my attackers, particularly with the Blast ability all of the monsters will gain from the Explosive Weaponry ruleset - it'll boost the damage dealt to the primary target, AND to the secondary damage from Blast.
The front end of my lineup was designed to negate as much damage as possible. Shieldbearer was crucial to my strategy, because its Taunt would ensure that all of my opponent's damage would be heading to the monster at the front of my lineup, rather than some of the weaker portions of my lineup. Chaos Knight served as a secondary tank, and also would do a great job of soaking up damage from Blast with its Shield ability.
The next couple of monsters were to provide support and a bit of ranged damage. Venari Crystalsmith could help to keep my Shieldbearer and Chaos Knight alive for as long as possible, and Supply Runner provided a some speedy ranged damage. Both of these would be doing some extra damage thanks to General Sloan's summoner ability.
I closed out my lineup with the heavy hitters. Prismologist punches out a heavy 3 damage, boosted to 4 by General Sloan. Pelacor Arbalest only hits for 2 damage, but once you take the ranged damage buff and its Double Strike ability into account, that's suddenly 6 damage per turn. Not to mention that it would be hitting the weakest monster every time, AND dealing Blast damage. This backline duo should make quick work of the enemy monsters, assuming that they can stay alive.
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the battlefield I am hopeful. My opponent has brought a lineup with a lot of bulk, but not as much damage output. And they also seem to have placed their Taunt monster in the second position, where Blast damage will be able to hit 2 additional monsters, instead of just 1.
The battle starts off with a bang! As predicted, being able to do damage to both adjacent monsters was a huge help - in just a single round I was able to knock out both my opponent's Shieldbearer and Goblin Mech, and also deal heavy damage to the Gelatinous Cube as well. On the other side, my Shieldbearer and Chaos Knight were also taking a lot of hits, but were holding on for now.
As you may expect from a battle involving both Equal Opportunity and Blast, this was a fairly quick one. One round later it was all but over - I hadn't lost a single monster, and all my opponent had left was a heavily damaged Djinn Renova. Fittingly for this week, our guest star Supply Runner was the one the land the final blow and finish off the flawless victory. And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.
My strategy of forcing my opponent to attack my primary tank while minimizing the Blast damage my monsters took and dishing out high powered ranged attacks worked to perfection. My monsters were able to finish off the enemy lineup in just 3 rounds without any casualties. Supply Runner did a great job, fitting right in to the ranged attacking lineup and even landing the last hit to end the battle.
I think Supply Runner is a great card, and it will continue to find its way into my battles moving forward. As I mentioned at the start of this article, I don't currently have the properly leveled summoners to use it to its full potential, but I am making that one of my top priorities moving forward!
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: Anchoring - An introduction to anchoring, and how we can can apply it to Splinterlands.
Nobody Expects the In-Quix-ition - Using the Dragon Splinter in Battle! - Last week's battle challenge, featuring Quix, the Devious!
Splinterlands Economics: Nudging - An introduction to nudging, and how we can can use it to our benefit in 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.