This week's battle challenge involves the Pelacor Arbalest! The Pelacor Arbalest is a Llife Splinter Ranged monster that is an excellent card due to it's ridiculous damage output when paired with General Sloan!

The Pelacor Arbalest is what we call a "glass cannon." It has relatively low health for a 6 mana card even at max level. However, the double strike ability makes this thing VERY strong. How many monsters can deal 4 damage at novice levels? Pair it with General Sloan and you can dish out 6 damage in one round!

Icon	Ability Name	Description
	Double Strike	Monster attacks twice each round.
	Flying	Has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Monsters who do not have the Flying ability (+25% chance of evading)

At Silver, Bronze, and Novice, the Pelacor Arbalest isn't very fast and doesn't have much in terms of survivability so it's crucial that you draw attention away from it!

In Gold leagues and above, you gain Flying which can help a bit with evasion and also allows the Pelacor Arbalest to be used in Earthquake rulesets!

• It can be tricky trying to use this monster but definitely rewarding!
• Fog of War rulesets can be good but you need to watch out for Opportunity
• This is definitely a medium to high mana card although you MIGHT be able to use it in lower mana battles if you can use Taunt to keep it alive
• Aim True, Unprotected, and even Explosive Weaponry can be great times to use this monster

In this week's featured battle, we have General Sloan versus the PEAKRIDER in an Unprotected, no-neutrals battle!

	Unprotected	Monsters do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs
	Taking Sides	Neutral Monsters may not be used in battles
	25 Mana	This is considered a medium mana battle
	Active Splinters	Only Fire and Life splinters are available

• Unprotected
  • Melee and Ranged damage will not be hindered by armor
  • Sneak and Opportunity can destroy lineups
  • Double strike is also great here
• Taking Sides
  • Not really a whole lot to say here except keep in mind what you can no longer use but also think about how your opponent won't be able to use either
  • No Doctor Blight, Uraeus, etc..
• 25 Mana
  • This is a medium Mana battle so expect to see a full lineup of monsters

With Unprotected, my initial though is always Sneak/Opportunity with Melee. If your opponent doesn't use Taunt, they will be in a world of hurt. However, we have to look at the available Splinters which are Fire and Life.

Fire is primarily a Melee play because Tarsa is cheap and readily available. Life is primarily a Ranged play because of General Sloan. Obviously, this is summoner dependent but I like to think in terms of Chaos Legion FIRST because it is so widely available.

So because of this, I felt that with a Medium mana battle, General Sloan would be an excellent choice primarily because of the Pelacor Arbalest! It will be dishing out some serious damage and potentially killing 2 monsters per round!

Usually if I am tempted to play the Arbalest, I need to make sure I can protect it with Shieldbearer's Taunt along with some support such as healing, repair, etc..

In this battle, I figured a long drawn out one would not benefit me so I want to strike first and strike hard! For that reason I went with the Time Mage to slow down my opponent instead of the Venari Crystalsmith who would Heal my tank. Without armor there's a chance that my Shieldbearer is dead before it can even be healed!

Also, as I mentioned earlier, opportunity can really hurt your opponent so I made sure to include the Celestial Harpy just in case.

Position	Card Image	Card Name	Notes
Summoner		General Sloan	Rare Life summoner that grants a +1 Ranged Damage buff to the friendly monsters
Pos 1 (tank)		Shieldbearer	Excellent tank due to it's high health, armor, and Taunt ability. Great for protecting your backline
Pos 2 (attacker)		Celestial Harpy	Slow but very low mana opportunity attacker. Decent damage and Flying could potentially cause a miss!
Pos 3 (attacker/support)		Time Mage	Good damage, great speed and the Slow ability is awesome! Slow is much needed in this lineup
Pos 4 (attacker)		Pelacor Arbalest	The glass cannon! I'm relying on the Arbalest to do the majority of the damage in this one
Pos 5 (bait)		Gargoya Scrapper	I placed this in the back as a Sneak/Opportunity protector once Shieldbearer is taken out
Pos 6 (bait)		Soul Fiend	Again, this is Sneak/Opportunity bait to protect my other monsters.

• Wow I was NOT expecting a Peak Rider but luckily I was anticipating Sneak
• Having the 2 meat shields in the back saved my butt! Additionally, the speed advantage worked perfectly for me. I was able to get some major kills in before they could even attack
• Attack order was another reason for going Ranged over Melee. For the same speed, Ranged WILL attack first so that can just be enough to set you above your opponent
• Although the Peak Rider did nerf my Arbalest, it is such a strong card that 4 damage is still pretty strong
• It was also pretty nice taking out a Level 3 Legendary summoner with a Level 4 Sloan!

Yes! I had the speed advantage which allowed me to do some major damage and get some kills before they even got to attack. Without Armor getting in the way, my Arbalest dealt some BIG damage.

Since I'm playing in the Gold 1 league with a Silver level deck, I really need to make sure every card serves a purpose while also trying to anticipate what my opponent may do.

Because of this, I like to analyze my battles with Splintertools to make sure I am getting the optimal positioning and monster selection for different situations.

I analyzed the battle with Splintertools and was given a 94% chance of winning the battle. That is always great to see!

The Pelacor Arbalest is an excellent card at every level which is reflected in the price of $0.22/BCX. However, it is still extremely affordable and should be owned and leveled up by everyone!

Thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed it!

Referral link : https://splinterlands.com?ref=at.bui89

If you decide to use my referral link, I'll happily send you a few cards to help you get started!