Splinterlands Weekly Challenge - Theme: Manticore

Hello Friends,

We are already into mid week of another new week and Corona Virus is still spreading like anything in almost 210 countries!!!

Here I am with a blog in response to Splinterlands Weekly Challenge with theme: Manticore.

About Manticore:

Manticore is an Epic Dragon monster costing $0.21 and is one of the most used monsters among Dragon monsters because of it's melee attacks ranging from 1 to 3(+1 melee attack when used with Daria Dragonscale Summoner) and for it's abilities of Reach, Thorns and Flying at different levels among 6 levels of the monster as shown below:

This monster comes with a static speed of 3 in all 6 levels and as I said, the meelee attack ranges between 1 to 3 with no armors and health ranging between 6 to 9.

Let's see each of the abilities mentioned above:

Flying

Flying ability helps the monster with an increased chance of evading melee or ranged attack monsters without flying ability.

Reach

Reach ability enables us to use this melee attack monster at second position and still participate in attack.

This is one of the best features of this card besides the Thorns ability.

Thorns

Thorns ability makes this monster even more potent against melee attack and this ability enables to attack back the meelee monster and reduce health by 2.

My battle:

https://steemmonsters.com?p=battle&id=959f8562c899fdccd05334df153aa6e2cf280f2f&ref=coolguy123

This was a battle with 25 MANA cap and scenarios were Silenced Summoners(no stat buffs from summoners) and Up Close & Personal(only melee attack monsters to be used in battle)

Lineup:

I used Daria Dragonscale Summoner just to have Manticore in my battle with monsters as below.

Lord of Darkness:

Used this because of it's armors and ability to expand, Stun and Dodging and since this was a medium MANA cap battle(25 MANA), I thought this will be ideal one as front monster.

Manticore:

For it's ability of Reach, Flying and throwing Thorns, this was an ideal support for Lord of Darkness in melee attack.

Skeleton Assasin:

Sneak and Poison abilities of this monster are suitable for attacking from the other side of the monster lineup.

Maggots:

Used this to have an attack on low health monsters for it's abilities of Opportunity and Scavenger.

Elven Cutthroat:

Used this for supporting Skeleton Assasin for Sneak attack.

Creeping Ooze:

Last on the lineup and used this for slowing down the speed of opponent's monsters.

Opponent had used Selenia Sky Summoner and monsters were: Sacred Unicorn, Dragon Jumper, Fiendish Harpy, Armorsmith, Creeping Ooze and Crystal Werewolf.

Battle:

This battle lasted for 5 rounds with both of us having Opportunist monsters.

Round 1:

Most damaging round for me as I lost Sneak attack monsters Skeleton Assasin and Elven Cutthroat in an attempt to attack Crystal Werewolf and got thorns and attacked by Opportunist monsters.

In between, the Sacred Unicorn and Lord of Darkness attacked each other with Lord stunning the Unicorn.

Cards after round one were:

Round 2:

Round 2 started with Lord of Darkness attacking Sacred Unicorn and ending it followed by Opportunist monsters attacking low health monsters with Manticore attacking Dragon Jumper and reducing it's health to 3.

Round 3:

Opportunist monsters were the highlight in this round with Fiendish Harpy removing my Creeping Ooze and Crystal Werewolf taken down by Maggots with Manticore hitting the Dragon Jumper.

Round 4:

Round 4 saw a lone casualty in Fiendish Harpy after it escaped the attack from Lord of Darkness but finally bowed down to Manticore.

Round 5:

Round 5 was just a formality as Armorsmith with just one health left and removed by Lord of Darkness.

So, I won this battle although I was having doubts on myself because of the Opportnist cards my opponent had and also a healing Sacred Unicorn

Did my strategy work? What will I try differently next time?

It worked 100% although I was having doubts just for the Opportunist monsters.

May be a healer is what I can have if permitted to make that lineup even more stronger.

Do I use the MANTICORE often? Why or why not?

Yes, it's one of my favorites for it's abilities especially flying and thorns and the reach with just 4 MANA and a melee attack of 4(with Daria Dragonscale summoner) makes it my go man most of the time.