This is a challenge that's pretty close to my heart. I remember last year when I was starting with @Splinterlands and was looking for good cards to start with, this was one of the first set of cards I bought.
I was reading a blog to familiarize myself with the game and mercurial9 suggested (for the earth deck) to buy UNICORN MUSTANG, ORC SERGEANT, SPIRIT SHAMAN, GOBLIN THIEF, CHILD OF THE FOREST and the protagonist of this week's challenge, the peculiar bud WOOD NYMPH.
I remember buying Wood Nymph for $0.97 and nowadays, it's around $4 already, I wished I bought more back then.
Wood Nymph, even before the mage meta has always been a staple for earth users. Her Heal ability can be a game changer especially if the ruleset Fog of War is in place, she can peacefully heal-attack in the middle.
Honestly, I don't really use her that much because she is susceptible to Snipe and Opportunity attacks and with her low hp, it's hard for her to survive until the end, just like what happened with this battle.
I tried to do a battle without any rented cards just to see if I can win one with such and lucky me, I was able to win in my first battle.
If you want to watch the battle, just click on the link below.
Just like my last post, this is a pretty short battle, with my Wood Nymph, being taken down at the middle of the match, like I said, Wood Nymph is no match to Snipe and Opportunity monsters.
All righty, there's only one ruleset for this battle and that is:
Together with that, 20 mana is required for this battle with only water and earth splinters the only cards allowed to be used.
If you have been playing for quite some time and you see a magic spammer (which was what my opponent was), the first thing that you will think of would be using BORTUS and TORHILO THE FROZEN (if you're a water user) or UNICORN MUSTANG (if you're an earth user).
With this battle, I chose to use my ever dependable earth deck, with MYLOR CROWLING as my summoner. I especially like his Torns since it's a nice counter if ever my enemy chooses to use a lot of melee monsters.
I placed UNICORN MUSTANG as my tank since it has 10 hit points and Void that decreases the magic attack of the enemy monsters.
In the middle are MYCELIC MOPHOID and ** FURIOUS CHICKEN** which served as meat shields.
At the end is DOCTOR BLIGHT for his Affliction, I want to stop the enemy's healing if ever he will use a healing card.
And for this week's main card, WOOD NYMPH was placed in the middle to protect her from Sneak attacks.
The battle itself was pretty short, since it required low mana, there are only few choices of cards.
My opponent's Child of the Forest had the highest speed out of all the cards we used so he attacked my Furious Chicken at the very start, this caused my Chicken to go down (thank you Chicken, you've served your purpose).
His Unicorn Mustang attacked suddenly after that and since I am using Mylor, it activated torns. My tank was left with 7 hp but my very own Unicorn was able to put my enemy's Unicorn's hp to 5.
Dr. Blight attacked next but dealt nothing since it only have 1 magic attack. The new earth healer, Goblin Psychic healed my enemy's Unicorn back to 8 hit points.
My very own healer, Wood Nymph added 2 hp to my tank but Goblin attacked immediately dealing 1 magic damage. Wood Nymph tried attacking my opponent's unicorn but due to Void, it didn't make a dent.
Here's what I was talking about, after my initial meat shield was gone, Child of the Forest started attacking my Wood Nymph but since it only has 1 range attack, she was able to survive into the next round.
My tank attacked my opponent's Mustang next, it retaliated and attacked back, torn was again activated leaving it with only 3 hp. Dr. Blight attacked again and this time, it was able to activate affliction on my opponent's tank. With that, it won't be healed by Goblin Psychic anymore.
Before attacking, Wood Nymph healed my tank back to 8 hp then caused no damage to my enemy's Unicorn and with that, round 2 was over.
His cards are still complete while I already lost my Chicken and would be losing my Wood Nymph.
Round 3 started with just that, Child of the Forest taking down my Wood Nymph. My tank attacked next and then taking down my enemy's Unicorn.
Dr. Blight attacked Goblin activating Affliction. Goblin then cause 1 magic damage to my tank.
Immediately after round 3 was over, Child of the Forest cause 1 range damage to my Unicorn. My tank then took down Goblin and with a range card remaining, my opponent succumbed to defeat.
Now look at Mylor smirking and looking down on you!
It's not everyday that I use WOOD NYMPH because of its vulnerability. Especially if the enemy is an Opportunity or Snipe user, she would easily be taken down. But I can say, those round where Wood Nymph was able to heal my tank were there little moments I needed to win the battle.
This peculiar bud has been a long time favorite and with good reasons. Heal has always been in the meta and it's not going away soon so I suggest you buy your own Wood Nymph.
My strategy for this battle worked since my opponent has a history of using a lot of magic deck and I've encountered enough magic users to know how to counter them. With Wood Nymph's additional heal, my enemy wasn't able to take down my tank.
All righty! That's it for my Wood Nymph battle challenge. See you next week!
