I was thinking about how to make the most out of unit's magic attacks and looking around the Splinterlands marketplace for what might inspire me. Magic damage already ignores armor, but when you add Opportunity into the mix, it gets even crazier. Instead of just hitting random targets, magic units with Opportunity can clean up weak enemies fast before they even get to attack. It’s one of those ideas that sounds small on paper but when you stack it with the right archon and the right strategy, the concept starts to snowball really hard.
That’s the idea I wanted to test in this battle. I used Marlai Singariel as my archon to boost all magic units and tried to make full use of Opportunity. Even with Earthquake Modifier working against me, the power of boosted magic damage was enough to carry my team through a really tough fight.
Unit 1: Daigendark Surveyor
Unit 2: Mar Toren Trader
Unit 3: Abyssal Elemental
Unit 4: Shock Trooper
Unit 5: Quillstorm Mage
Opening Rounds:
At the start of Round 1, Shock Trooper quickly eliminated Great Bear Druid which is huge as this gives me access to the enemy's back line. His high damage is really good for this quick "Hit fast, hit hard" strategy. Quillstorm Mage will help but not so much because of the friendly fire I have on this build.
Mid-game:
Quillstorm Mage kills Little Sister even before the round ends. This gives me a lot of advantage because by the start of the next round, I'll get hit by Earthquake modifier and Electrified debilitation. That's 3 damage each round. So, I need to finish the battle quick.
Final Rounds:
With the combination of Earthquake modifier and Electrified debilitation and Thalgrimore's -1 health, my Quillstorm Mage's 4 health quickly diminish. I'm still lucky though because Shock Trooper survived with 1 health and the two remaining unit's damage is enough to take care of the enemy's health for this round.
👉 Watch the full battle replay here
https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_417c2f7f8fc040355443063f432e1684
What strategy I was aiming for:
The strategy for this battle is based on Marlai Singariel. Her +1 magic is being maximized by using a lot of magic attacks. Since I don't have any Flying units, my goal is to hit fast and hit hard and hopefully, I take their units out before they can take out mine. It was a risky plan but sometimes the best way to survive Earthquake Modifier is to end the fight before it lasts too long.
What surprised me:
I was surprised at how good my strategy would work. The enemies both have Flying abilities that would ignore the damage they would get from Earthquake. I was in a lot of disadvantage on this game since I am taking damage from Earthquake modifier, Electrified debilitation from Shock Trooper and the enemy Archon's -1 health. Still, with all of those disadvantages, the strategy worked more than I expected.
What I learned:
I learned that the meta is not always correct. The meta play in this battle is to use Flying units to negate the Earthquake Modifier damage which is what my enemy did. Yet, I won and they didn't. I learned that not because something is good in theory, it would be the same when the battle starts. Sometimes what looks risky ends up being the most effective plan of all.
This battle showed me that being at a disadvantage in a fight doesn’t always mean losing. You can be on the bad side and still come out on top as long as you have the right plan and understanding of how the modifiers, abilities and damage works. You can still outplay teams that follow the meta play even with these negatives. I went into this battle expecting to lose but instead, I came out learning something new that the most proven strategies can sometimes be overcome by new improvised ideas.
Even when the Modifier seems against you, there’s always a way to make it work. Sometimes all it takes is trusting your build and watching the plan unfold just like you imagined.
