Arrow Tactics

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#PowerfulCombos

This is my first entry into the Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge. This week's theme is about powerful combos. I haven't really have much experience yet with most of the cards available in modern especially with the previous set, Rebellion. Luckily I received temporary cards from Brave Tofu and had access to a level four summoner called Prophet Rosa.

Prophet Rosa gives two cards a +2 range or a shield to one card. Now what I realized is that unlike other summoners that I use, you have to choose the cards that will have the abilities after the card selection phase. You have less than a minute to do this and I sometimes forget to select my cards, so you have to watch out for the tactics phase before leaving the game window.

So my combo works like this:
https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_cfa95ee5d97f1dea0821a81f77efad4c?ref=badeaux

First I have to choose range cards that will receive the +2 damage increase. For this strategy I chose Bludgeon Hucker and Steppe Stalker.

Steppe Stalker
Steppe Stalker has a base range damage of 2 at level five. And although it is a little slow, it has armor and the close range ability, enabling it to attack even if it moves to the first position. Range attack cards usually lose their ability to attack when in the first spot, which I discovered early on the game and caused me some matches. The other ability though, painforge, I haven't really learned how to use it properly yet.

Bludgeon Hucker
Next the Bludgeon Hucker is positioned usually at the third spot or further back. I do this because it does not have close range like Steppe Stalker. But Bludgeon also has armor which makes it harder to kill if it led to a situation where the first and second cards are destroyed. It also has the snipe ability that makes it attack back cards which sometimes have weaker defenses.

An important ability of both Bludgeon Hucker and Steppe Stalker is the slow. Each slow reduces the enemies' speed by one and the two of them combined makes it two speed reduction. Speed determines which card attacks first which is very important. Also lower speed means less chance for the cards to dodge the attacks from my cards.

Commander Slade
Next we have another key component of this combo which is the tank. And for this position I selected Commander Slade which I got from the rewards chest. I'd say this is definitely one of the coolest looking Splinterlands card I've owned so far. Although it has a very high mana of 10, it has good armor and health making it a good candidate as tank. There's also the enfeeble ability which lowers the melee attack of the enemy card. But what makes it complete the combo is Commander Slade's high speed and the dodge ability. Dodge increases the chance to evade physical attack by 25% which means range and melee. And since the enemy cards are removed 2 points in speed by the slow from Bludgeon Hucker and Steppe Stalker, it increases the chance for Commander Slade to evade incoming attacks.

Combo Weaknesses
From the battle rules I have encountered, one weakness for Commander Slade is being matched with a lot of magic attacks since magic cannot be avoided unless you have phase which it does not have. Magic also pass through armor making it useless for Commander Slade. For the range attacks, encountering enemy cards with high armor becomes a problem for me. There are also times when the enemy also has cards with repair which makes range attacks useless.

Combo Strengths
As for the strengths, of course when there are rules where no armor are allowed. This means the full four damage from Bludgeon Hucker and Steppe Stalker will be dealt to the enemies. Another favorable rule is the one that does not allow you to pick magic cards. This means Commander Slade has a chance to evade all attacks.

This is one of the combos that I have been using so far from playing the modern league. Thank you for reading. And if you plan to play Splinterlands in the future, please use my link below. I would highly appreciate it.
https://splinterlands.com/register?ref=badeaux