HELLO to all Splinterlands readers of my humble blog.👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻 Welcome to yet another week of the "new" iteration of the Splinterlands Weekly Challenges 😜. The "old" Battle Challenges are now a thing of the past (at least for now?) and they have been replaced with this week's "Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge: Underdog Victories".
For any old Hivers/Splinterlands players who've just come back and are confused, fret not! Even with the name and format tweaks, right at it's core, battles are still the foundation of these posts.
In this week's edition of my Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge: Teach & Triumph, I will do something drastically different from my usual battle showcases. Instead of war, I will become a peaceful teacher showing all new players how to most effectively navigate the topic of "Underdog Victories".
Alright, fellow deck tinkerers and (self professed) miracle makers 🤣. There’s nothing sweeter than a battle where your scrappy lineup punks the meta. Whether it’s through clever adaptability, surprise builds, or just an iron willed underdog spirit. This week we’re spotlighting those jaw dropping “how did I even do that?” moments. You know, the times you dinked through sweet rulesets, tipped the odds, or just outsmarted a looming stack of Goliaths with your humble but cunning lineup. Buckle up! I’m unpacking what makes underdog plays not just fun, but downright legendary in the Splinterlands arena.
That being said, here's some tips and tricks from Yours Truly which will hopefully help any new player who comes across this guide. Read on to find out more! 😜
No matter! I present to you — Underdog Victories.
So without further ado, let me introduce how best to navigate this seemingly impossible task to you! 🎉
With all that being said, here is how I would advice ALL players on how you can capitalize on some of these simple strategies!
The game's description of STAMPEDE is as follows: "The Trample ability can trigger multiple times per attack if the trampled Monster is killed."
Well first off, what is Trample? It is yet another Melee centric ability that allows you to launch another attack IF you manage to deal a killing blow. So you can see how effective this could possibly be if your attacking unit is allowed to run wild amongst groups of weak undefended units!
I will take advantage of this ruleset in my battle showcase today to show how 1 of my units in particular becomes a lot stronger than one would expect with STAMPEDE. Introducing the Summoner, POSSIBILUS THE WISE.
Possibilus the Wise is a leviathan from the future that has adapted to rule on both land and sea. His mission is to find and secure the lost sacred rune tablets of his race that were shattered into pieces and strewn across time and space by the entity known only as Desolation. In his present time, a war rages on his home world of Nyuuldus, but Possibilus was tasked with traveling into the past and the future to find these runestone fragments and return with them to defeat Desolation.
From Splinterlands Lore on POSSIBILUS THE WISE
Possibilus The Wise is a Legendary card released during the Chaos Legion expansion. It has definitely found it's place in many Water decks given its availability and usefulness. It's effects on the battlefield are ❤️+2 HEALTH❤️ and it grants the TRAMPLE & REACH ability to all your units. It's summoning cost is, like all other Chaos Legion Legendary Summoners, 6 🧪MANA🧪.
The stat buffs it gives are nothing out of the ordinary, so at first glance, he might look pretty bland. However, all of it combined makes this Summoner one of the strongest in the game!
Reach allows any melee unit on the 2nd spot of your lineup to also attack. While Trample allows your units to launch another attack if it manages to land the killing blow. You can see then how Possibilus has the ability to multiply your army's damage 😱. The battle will very quickly turn against the opponent with a few well placed attacks.
I would venture to say that with the STAMPEDE ruleset in play, a MELEE centric Summoner is the way to go! Add one and one together and I hope it's glaringly obvious by now that Possibilus is a match made in heaven for this situation. Possibilus gives that extra bit of additional health for your units to survive a hit that might kill most units. Furthermore, his Reach and Trample abilities have the potential to punish teams even further if a unit gets killed! There is no stopping the monstrous Possibilus from devastating the entire battlefield! 🔥
This could make all the difference if the battle comes down to the wire where the slightest advantage is the fine line between victory or defeat! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 This is definitely what I'd consider game changing! 😱😱😱
Let me present a battle I fought recently in which the ruleset STAMPEDE was in effect. My opponent used the Reward edition Summoner Franz Ruffmane from the LIFE splinter as his main pick, while I used the Chaos Legion edition Summoner Possibilus from the WATER splinter too. 👼🏻 VS 💧
At first glance, it would seem like I was at a distinct disadvantage.
My opponent was using a Summoner which gave all his units an Armour buff!
This would greatly hinder any melee based army as Armour basically gives them an additional layer of defence to take an entire hit.
My opponent had a tank with the dreaded TAUNT ability to negate any advantage my OPPORTUNITY based units had to pick off his weak units. 😭
A strong tank coupled with a double Heal with a Repair support setup behind seemed to mean this was an impossible barrier to break through! 😱
I was honestly expecting this to be a really bad matchup for me 😜🤣. This was a team who had an advantage against my lineup. His Tank and Supports would destroy my strategy completely. Would I be able to turn the tide of battle against such an opponent then? Victory or defeat would lie in the small details.
I would say that the ruleset STAMPEDE was DEFINITELY the MVP of this match, having played it's role in turning the tide of battle. The advantage it gave my team resulted in me outlasting my opponent in this battle. It definitely provided the edge that I needed to overcome my opponent.
This ensured that the other units could eventually wear down the opponent until victory was achieved! 🏆🏆🏆
1st CARD SLOT
The Cruel Sethropod is chosen for this slot. He plays the role of the Main tank perfectly with his great stats. His Low Cost and High Armour and Health will also allow him to have much longer staying power on the battlefield. This allows all other units to be kept safe until he is taken down.
2nd CARD SLOT
The Tide Biter takes up the 2nd slot. This is another Low Cost unit with great stats for it's price.
3rd CARD SLOT
The Demented Shark occupies this slot. It's main role here to be a MELEE BUFF for the team with it's INSPIRE ability.
4th CARD SLOT
Noa the Just sits here in the middle. Even though he has no attack stat at all, he serves a very important role in reducing the Armour of the enemy via his RUST ability.
5th CARD SLOT
The Deeplurker occupies this slot where it's role is to pick off the weakest units amongst the opponent's team via it's OPPORTUNITY ability.
6th CARD SLOT
The Kulu Mastermind fills the last slot as the main DPS for the team and also acts as a backline defence against SNEAK and OPPORTUNITY attacks with it's high Health.
I hope you're starting to see the pattern here in my team setup. 😉
As you can see, both of us fielded very different units in our matchup. The opponent went for a mix of units while my own units were mostly MELEE. 😱
👼🏻LIFE👼🏻 VS 💧WATER💧
My opponent used the Legendary Iziar as his tank in the 1st slot which was a VERY good choice. With his health stats, and the Taunt and Void abilities, he is more than capable of holding the line.
The Soul Fiend occupied his 2nd slot. This unit is simply a sacrificial unit that costs 0 mana. It serves it's purpose to absorb a hit.
In his 3rd slot was Adelade Brightwing. This unit does good Magic DPS and also has the Repair ability to constantly top up any damaged unit's Armour.
His 4th slot was a Sola Renjell. This Legendary Gladius unit is a Magic DPS unit with the HEAL ability.
This was followed by a Venari Crystalsmith which formed yet another part of his very potent support heals.
His last unit was a War Pegasus which deals great Ranged DPS and also has the Shatter ability to destroy Armour with just 1 hit.
All in all, I would say that the opponent picked a really strong team.
My choice of the Main Tank was the Cruel Sethropod who is perfect for this task. He has really high HEALTH and ARMOUR stats at a very low MANA COST in order to take extra hits to ensure that all the other units are protected.
The Tide Biter occupies my next slot. It is another very cost efficient unit with good DPS and Health.
The Demented Shark is next, where it's role is mainly to buff the melee DPS-ers via it's INSPIRE ability with +1 dmg.
This is followed by Noa who will disrupt the opponent's Armoured strategy by debuffing his units with -2 to Armour thanks to the RUST ability.
My team was rounded off by 2 OPPORTUNITY units in the form of the Deeplurker and Kulu Mastermind. Both of whom were extremely hard hitting Melee DPS units.
The battle started out with all our units just duking it out pound for pound. It was a high mana game with 38 mana as the limit. The rulesets were STAMPEDE.
The first round saw both our sides launch a flurry of attacks and the damage from the opponent quickly overwhelmed my Cruel Sethropod and brought it down.
Not only that, as expected of his Tank + Double Heal lineup, his main Tank quickly recovered from all the damage I threw at it.
The 2nd round was a surprising one that even I did not expect to be so effective.
My Kulu Mastemind took advantage of his main Tank not being healed up fully yet due to his slower healers.
It then went on an amazing QUINTUPLE KILL crazed rampage thanks to the TRAMPLE AND STAMPEDE combination of abilities!!!
It was all over in Round 2 as the rest of my units finished off his sole War Pegasus. What a sudden turn of events!
It was all over for the opponent now as I eventually mopped up his remaining units. 💀💀💀
Talk about doing WAY MORE than it was supposed to!!! 😱🤯🥳 All I expected was for the STAMPEDE ruleset to give me a slight advantage. I had expected my units to be stopped by his extremely strong Tank and Supports. However it ended up being the entire reason for my win! By capitalizing on the ruleset, I was able to chain multiple kills and destroyed his entire army at a go! The opponent simply could not handle all that DPS at all.
Well as you can see here in this video recording of my battle, the results were pretty good! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
This was truly an eye opener! 😁🏆
Slowly, but surely, I wore down the opponent's team and the match ended up with me inflicting a crushing defeat. My team selection proved to be the edge I needed to eventually overpower my opponent. 💪🏻
Would I have done anything differently? 🤔 This might have seemed like a disadvantage at the start but I ended up winning handily. IF I had to use the same cards again, there would be no better lineup than what I had already used for the match. Any other combination MIGHT have resulted in a loss for me. I'm really satisfied with the results against such a worthy opponent. 🏆🥇
I definitely can appreciate Underdog Victories and how it changes the dynamics of usual gameplay. This is one of those situations which can be turned into a huge advantage if surrounded with the proper strategies. The role it brings to the battlefield will give a player the edge in squeezing out every tiny advantage to get the win. 👍🏻
I hope this article has given you some insight into its potential. 😉
To any new players who wish to explore the world of Splinterlands, do feel free to sign up with my REFERRAL LINK 😊.
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Don't miss out more events that are always being organised. Join the PIZZA DISCORD. Even if you aren't interested in the 💰🍕🎁GIVEAWAYS & AIRDROPS💰🍕🎁, there is a vibrant and friendly community there awaiting you.
