Splinterlands is not really a skill game; superior cards usually win. The higher the league you play in, the more apparent this becomes—if you haven’t invested thousands in epic and legendary cards backed by elite summoners, you can hardly stand a chance in most battles. However, you can still slay a superior deck with a bit of wit and a portion of luck. And you don’t need to use all six monsters, as I demonstrated in this rather specific battle, where Healed Out, Briar Patch and Earthquake modifications came into play.
I happen to have a perfect monster for Earthquake battles, and since it belongs to the Dragon Splinter, I had no option but to draft Helios Matriarch as my summoner.
Expecting to face magic strikers, I chose Imperial Knight as the most suitable tank—its Void Armor made the choice clear.
With Helios Matriarch in the lead, I could draft a gladiator, and Captain Katie was the one. I hoped she would shoot down a foe or two while buffing herself.
Martyrs are often true game changers, and since it was obvious that Venari Marksrat couldn’t last more than two rounds, placing it strategically became key to my success.
Now for my flying monsters—the ones meant to survive the battle. Night Reaper is priceless in such rulesets; it essentially won me the game.
War Pegasus served as a solid rear monster, often capable of dodging opponents with Sneak. Besides, it has reasonable offensive stats.
My opponent assembled an almost perfect deck led by the best summoner for this ruleset—Risqruel Drath. Thanks to that, they didn’t need to cherry-pick flying monsters; all were buffed by this skill. The second of Drath’s buffs came in handy as well, as my opponent composed their deck mostly of elite ranged monsters—with the single exception of Halfling Refugee, which served as a decoy tank. I would have swapped Torch Myrmidon for Molten Ash Golem since the latter has more HP and deals less damage if it was my deck. The artillery behind them—Rush Townsend, Countess Sinash, and Kha'zi Conjurer—dealt up to 14 damage per round when buffed, which is an extreme number, I must admit. Anyone glancing at the battlefield would likely assume my army stood no chance against such tough opponents.
However, the battle ultimately turned into a decisive victory for me, even though I lost the first round badly—my tank couldn’t withstand the mighty blows, and Countess Sinash slayed my martyr before it could even move. Captain Katie reached the first position and was doomed to perish at the very beginning of the second round. Worse still, I only managed to eliminate the opponent’s decoy tank, which was intended to be sacrificed anyway. At the start of the second round, my army seemed to be wiped out in no time.
That’s when a spark of luck shone on me—Kha'zi Conjurer spread Burning to Sinash, and both monsters were eliminated at the end of the second round. Night Reaper dodged one of the blows and survived almost intact, enabling it to shoot down Molten Ash Golem at the beginning of the third round, while War Pegasus took care of Torch Myrmidon. And since Rush Townsend could not attack from the first position, the battle was effectively decided.
It was a surprising victory, indeed.
