One of the most important concepts to understand in constructing a Steem Monsters team is the concept of protection. Protection is all about understanding where monsters can and can't be attacked, and making sure your weakest and most important monsters aren't in those positions.
In any Steem Monsters lineup, there are only three positions that can be attacked at any given time.
By understanding this, we can build structures which allow us to "hide" certain monsters from being attacked, sometimes for long periods of time. This is especially true in teams which can be built without a ranged attacker at all, which is common in the Life and Fire splinters.
The Inspire Pocket is the key construction for Level 1 teams for the Life splinter. It looks like this:
Depending on mana available and circumstances you might use Clay Golem or even Silvershield Warrior in front rather than Silvershield Paladin, but the rest of the team is key. While Silvershield Knight sits and the back and never attacks, he serves two very useful purposes: his Inspire ability boosts the attack of each of the rest of the team, and his good armor and high health prevent the weak Feral Spirit and Elven Cutthroat from Sneak attacks.
This team works from the back; both the front monster and the Silvershield Knight exist primarily to stand their ground and absorb hits while the two inspire-boosted Sneak attackers devastate the opponent from the rear.
While Fire doesn't have Inspire, it can field a similar team:
Here it's Malric's +1 to melee attack that provides the boost to the Sneak attackers in the middle, and Fire Demon's high health that protects them from being Sneaked in return, but the team works very similarly.
In other splinters, where double sneak melee attack is less effective (and impossible for Earth), protection is often a matter of protecting from either Sneak or Snipe, but not both. Cyclops' especially-high health makes it a good candidate for the back of any team that has the mana to spare, as does Water Elemental's self-heal.
The important thing is predicting which parts of your team are in danger of immediate attack, and making sure the monsters in those positions can withstand at least a little bit of enemy fire.
