This week's battle challenge involves the Portal Spinner! The Portal Spinner is a Life splinter Ranged monster with the unique Scattershot ability. This card may not be used often but it serves a very useful function.

Portal Spinner Highlights

The Portal Spinner is a powerful but niche card in my opinion. It wasn't at the top of my list of cards to level up but it definitely deserves a spot in my collection.

The main utility of this card comes from it's Scattershot ability which is available from Level 1.

Icon	Ability Name	Description
	Scattershot	This monster's attacks hit a random enemy target
	Snare	When attacking enemies with Flying, removes the Flying ability and cannot miss

In Bronze league (level 2), you don't gain a whole lot by leveling up this card but you should own one at least. At level 2 you do get another health point but I wouldn't say it is necessary.

In Silver (level 4), it becomes a little more powerful with a an extra damage and more armor.

In Gold, you unlocked the Snare ability which can be helpful in the Earthquake Ruleset.

At max level, it can do 4 damage which isn't bad for a 5 mana card.

So when do I use the Portal Spinner?

• The Portal Spinner is a finnicky beast due to the Scattershot ability. You're essentially leaving it up to RNG which can be a good or bad thing depending on the use
• The Explosive Weaponry Ruleset is where this monster can do some serious damage by spreading out its attacks. This can take down weak monsters, remove armor, and remove Divine Shield
• Scattershot is NOT affected by Taunt so you can use this to your advantage if you suspect your opponent will be using a large Taunt monster with a lot of "glass cannons (low health, high attack)" behind it
• Unprotected is another Ruleset where this card shines. Since no monster has Armor, the Portal Spinner has the potential to 1-shot some of the weaker monsters

This Week's Featured Battle

In this week's featured battle, we have a General Sloan versus Thaddius Brood in Knockout battle!

Battle Ruleset

	Heavy Hitters	All Monsters have the Knock Out ability
	29 Mana	This is considered a medium mana battle
	Active Splinters	Life, Death, and Dragon splinters are available

• Heavy Hitters
  • If a monster is hit with Stun, it will take 1.5X damage from each attacker
  • This Ruleset doesn't make a huge difference in Bronze and Silver due to the lack of monsters with the Stun ability
  • In Gold and above, however, you will see Stun used a lot more often which can be problematic (or helpful if you own those monsters)
• 28 Mana
  • This is a medium Mana battle so expect to see a full lineup of monsters

As I mentioned before, at Silver Leagues and below, you don't have to worry too much about the Heavy Hitters Ruleset. In Gold and above, you may want to consider using monsters with Stun and being aware that your tank may be stunned.

In this case, I saw that my opponent liked using Thaddius Brood which can be used with the Revealer monster who has Stun, Since it is a Magic attacker, I wanted to thwart it's attacks by Reflecting the attacks back to it while also Amplifying the Magic Reflect.

The other thing that I wanted to do was include the Portal Spinner since there are a few useful but low health Death monsters that I can imagine my opponent using. My hope was to 1-shot some of those monsters with a lucky 4 damage Scattershot.

Since I was using General Sloan, I wanted to make sure I'm taking advantage of the Ranged attack buff so I plan to include some Ranged attacks.

The Lineup

Position	Card Image	Card Name	Notes
Summoner		General Sloan	Rare Life summoner that grants a +1 Ranged attack buff to all friendly monsters
Pos 1 (tank)		Pelacor Conjurer	At only 2 Mana, this card is used A LOT as a low mana tank. Especially if you're up against Magic due to its Magic Reflect ability
Pos 2 (support/attacker)		Venari Spellsmith	The Amplify ability is key to making a good Magic Reflect build. Dispel is also useful to remove enemy buffs
Pos 3 (attacker)		Time Mage	One of my favorite low mana cards due to the Slow ability. I expect the Magic Damage to get debuffed but the Slow ability is crucial for my Ranged attackers
Pos 4 (attacker)		Portal Spinner	The Portal Spinner is placed here to "tank" if it comes down to it. With Armor, it may be able to survive enough attacks to allow the backline to finish them off
Pos 5 (attacker)		Venari Crystalsmith	Great card that benefits from the General Sloan buff while also being able to tank heal
Pos 6 (attacker)		Pelacor Arbalest	This will be my main damage dealer

Let's Battle!

• My opponent did NOT do what I was expecting which could have ended poorly for me if they went heavier on the Sneak attacks
• Honestly, I'm not quite sure what they were going for. Maybe a fatigue win? They had a good amount of healers in their lineup but my buffed Ranged attackers did too much damage
• I played a few heavy Sneak lineups prior to this battle so it's likely that they were looking to counter it with Thorns in the back position
• Using Slow allowed me to get ALL of my attacks off before they had a chance so their tank didn't even get to attack
• I was lucky with Scattershot since it hit their Uraeus twice, killing it

Did it work?

Yes! I was able to dish out major damage and take down my opponent quickly considering the amount of health their monsters had.

I analyzed the battle with Splintertools and was given a 100% chance of winning the battle. That is always great to see!

Final Thoughts

The Portal Spinner is an excellent card if you have the stomach for RNG. You really need to be selective on when you use it though since Scattershot is not always the way to go. At times you will want to concentrate your attacks.

At only $0.074/BCX, it is 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!