Welcome back Splinterlands battlemages for another edition of "For Guild & Glory," my brawl report article series covering Tiers 3 and 2 for the most recent brawl #107. You can see my last report for #106 here.
This cycle, the total number of guilds in Tier 3 continued to grow past 10, so 
SHIELD OF GLORY continues to climb up the standings in Tier 3 with another 3rd place finish, winning our best bounty so far, 80 crowns and 4444 Merits for each participant. The guild had a 55% win rate at 66-54, finishing only five games out of 2nd place.
We were led by a trio of brawlers who defended their frays impressively, only suffering one loss: 
@uberone 
@slaying4psyberx 
@prince.kai 
@woody-5757 
@spirits4you 
@veliozz 
@happychillmore My inexperience playing Yodin caught up with me in my 1st battle and some sloppy placements got punished by a very strong Quix team in a high-mana contest. My opponent's Void Dragon as rear tank really stymied my sneak play. However, in Battle #2 despite a low 15-mana battle, I played Yodin again to a tight win in back to basics. And for the third straight week, I dropped my match to the Immortal God's brawler Prince Kai, this time struggling with my Tarsa team to beat Mylor in a melee-only little league battle.
In another tight low-mana battle, my deadly Gorlodon took out their fiery Forgotten One in Battle #4. Closing the gap, my win in Battle #5 against Spirits4You, the brawler for 2nd place Legendary Dragons, was my most satisfying win. The speed of my Kitty was able to outpace Camila's debuff to my team in the high-mana melee-only match, which featured many similar monster selections.
Battle #6 was another close encounter as we both brought similar Kelya teams featuring the gladiator Isgald Vorst. My gladiator got a crucial hit in on their tank to really turn the tide. And in the last contest, I battled against the brilliantly named brawler Happy Chillmore. I was able to field a strong Kitty lineup in the 44-mana lost legendaries battle, but I feel like summoners should join monsters on the sidelines for these types of battles.
All in all, I was happy for my 5-2 finish and the overall play of my guild, as most of us performed better. The more wins we can take off the guilds ahead of us, the more we can close the gap on those leaderboard places.
THE 420 SYNDICATE took a step back this brawl, stumbling to an 8th place finish in a full brawl Our unpalatable 46-79 overall record was well off the 50% record needed to have a shot at the podium places. The leadership bested by a strong 6-3 finish from 
Not pictured are the victors - Team Possbile - and 2nd place Peakmonsters Champs. I was able to post a positive 4-3 record in my Fray 14 - Modern Bronze Gold Foil, but lost against a fellow mav from the victorious guild that to me made the difference between a good brawl and a great brawl.
@realluckybooster 
@edu89 
@ton0777 
@strongstreams 
@digital-wisdom 
@tamil 
@jonacau In the 1st battle, Trey overcomes the dangerous double-striking gladiator Katrelba Gobson killing BOTH monsters in the back on the 2nd round of attacks. Deeplurker once again shows why it is an MVP with that opportunity ability. Another W in Battle #2, as my Kelya squad outlasted the thorns from Mylor by gaining bunches of life with the Guardian and throwing down heaving magic damage with Nerissa in this odds-only battle.
I was totally outplayed in Battle #3, expecting a sneak lineup and getting an opportunity play, so my faulty lineup was quickly picked apart. Another important lesson was served up in the next battle, as I lost because I put my ranged attack in front of Nerissa instead of behind her like my opponent - we had similar lineupsin the low-mana battle. With better placement of my monsters, I would have been a favorite to win.
For another loss, I was foiled by Digital Wisdom of Team Possible with a deadly, heavy-hitting, reach gladiator Chimney Wallstop and more opportunity attackers causing all kinds of trouble with Yodin. Interestingly, I don't actually play my battles from top to bottom so it wasn't actually my third straight loss. I like to start by playing my away battles first when it's my cards restricted and then finish with the home-field advantage. I just play the blindly paired opponents in a random order, but I do try and get an idea of what I should be expecting.
I managed to win the last two battles in some tight mirror matches. Although my opponent ran Bloom, their Dragon team had a death lineup like my Thaddius team. And to silence the haters, I won in a Sloan mirror using the blast of the Prismologist and the sneak of Stitch Leech. 4-3 was a good showing, but I want great brawl finishes. I love this competition!
ZENSPORTS finished well off the leaderboard places in 7th place of nine guilds with close to a 40% win rate at 40-61. 
I took another beating in Fray 15 - Wild Silver Gold Foil ending 2-4, just trying to piece together some smart wins with my mish-mash collection of GFs on this account. A few good GF gladiators would make a huge difference and I'm encouraged to keep plugging away at Tier 2 for larger rewards despite the lower finishes.
@untamable 
@vassal 
@uwe.apx 
@doomaker01 
@kesryn 
@chiefb Things started off well enough, sneaking my Bronze-league Sloan past their Bronze-league Keyla in this Silver league battle. Another win followed as I was better able to take advantage of the 52-mana battle, although neither of us came close to filling the cap.
But it was all downhill for the last four battles and I mostly got beat by superior lineups with some less than favorable color pairings. The void in quality of the monsters from Silver to Bronze league was pretty evident in many of these matches, so there is much more work to do.
Only DuceCrypto was able to pop a few cases with 4,444 merits and I decided to try opening them individually to help me crack this next GF and in my second pack - BINGO! For my first Fire GF gladiator, I got Chimney Wallstop. WOOOT!
Even more guilds have joined the ranks in Tier 3, as SHIELD OF GLORY will be battling eight other opponents, including Summoner's Tribe and Legendary Dragons, who only finished five wins ahead of us in the last brawl. With a few more wins, 2nd place could be in the cards!
Even more exciting though, is that we upgraded our Arena to Level 7 to get ready for Tier 4. I'm not exactly sure how many guilds we would need to make it more profitable to play at Tier 4, but I'm pretty sure once SPS rewards come out we will find out because Summoner's Tribe was also signaling a move to T4.
Back in Tier 2, I'm hopeful THE 420 SYNDICATE will be able to manage a top-half finish in a wide-open 10-guild brawl, but ZENSPORTS faces another uphill climb with some real powerhouse guilds like Guardians of Glory and HD2 Marauders of Crom in its nine-guild group.
For all my regular readers, thanks again for dropping by to enjoy another brawl report. If you have any lineup suggestions for the replays you watch, I'm always looking for comments to help me improve. For players new to Splintersland and curious about getting started, you can use the large link with my Lazy Lion below.
Good Luck Brawling and I'll see you in the Splinterlands!
