Finding Synergies: Supply Runner (Strategy, including video)

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I need to be honest on this one, and tell you: I've never really noticed Supply Runner. He's a card which sits in my deck and doesn't receive a lot of love. How awesome it was then, to give him a bit of attention for this week's battle challenge. He's an interesting card when you get to explore him a bit further, he just needs the right situation and the right friends around him.

To do this, let's start with a dive into the man himself, Supply Runner:

On it's surface, this card looks a little bit unimpressive. The biggest reason for this is his mana cost - at 6 mana, let's face it, he's not cheap to put in your hand. For that cost, I would usually look for more than 2 attack, or 4 health without any armour. I can get the same stats in a number of other cards, like the Kulu Hunter for instance, for only 4 mana.

It just seems that on the surface, the value of this guy is a bit meh. However - what I overlooked at first sight was that this card is NEUTRAL. What this means is, you can use it in any battle, in any splinter - and so, it stands to reason, that when this little guy is leveled up he will be in a better position to add power to your team - and, you can use him over and over again.

To test my theory, that there was more to this guy, I decided to check out his stats. I only own him Level 1, and while I play in the silver league, it means I can access a Level 5 card at maximum - so I was interested to see where that would take him.

In looking over his stats, this card all of a sudden started to make a lot of sense - as the Level 5 card allowed you to access the skill SWIFTNESS. This is a skill which is applied to your entire team to give everyone extra speed. I also noted that from Level 3, his own speed pops to 4. With Swiftness, this will increase him to 5. In my own mind, I'm starting to think of how valuable this skill is in giving me the upper hand in many, many battles - as, if you can get the first couple of hits in a battle, it's likely you'll do enough damage to take an early unbeatable position. There is a lot of potential in this little guy.

I wanted to further consider this card as a potential investment, so I headed over to his purchase page in the market. In today's dollars, the card costs 139 DEC, or 13 cents per card. To make this guy Level 5, you need 60 cards total (for me, I only need 59!) In total, he'll set you back just under $8 to level him up. Not too shabby at all!

In helping to understand this card, I wanted to wait to a ruleset which would allow him to shine, and I think I found the perfect battle to do just that:

In reviewing this ruleset, I came to understand it was suited to Supply Runner in a few ways.

The absence of healing means that I need to focus on dropping one card at a time. I decided that I would only play cards which attack the tank, as not to split my focus. Without an ability to heal, it just means I'm chasing damage. The LIFE splinter is ideal to do this with, as the DEATH splinter is largely focused on SNEAK and SNIPE attacks. A split attack rarely works in this kind of ruleset.
The CLOSE RANGE abiltiy ruleset. This one, in a nutshell means that arrow shooters can attack in the front row, whereas they're usually limited to the backrow only. It makes an arrow shooter far more dangerous and means that the Supply Shooter can step into that front position and still get his attacks off.

But to make the battle work, the SUPPLY RUNNER needed the right friends, and I had a few good ideas how to make this guy really sing. The first one is LORNA SHINE. LORNA SHINE gives each card a DIVINE SHIELD, which means that they will not take damage the first time they're attacked. This would be a key part of my attack as it would give all my cards additional longevity, and allow my arrows to hit. This strategy may not seem obvious, as General Sloan gives all attackers +1 arrows. However, in this ruleset, I needed to balance offense and defense.

The next synergy that was really important was PELACAR ARBALEST. The reason is, this card has the DOUBLE STRIKE ability which will allow him to attack twice in a battle. This essentially gives him 4 attack, and combined with my SUPPLY RUNNER's 2 attack, meant I would be throwing a lot of damage at my enemy's tank.

And let's explore the rest of the team:

With 15 mana already allocated to SUPPLY RUNNER, LORNA SHINE and PELACAR ARBALEST, I needed to be smart with my remaining 5 mana and to try spread it across a number of cards. That would allow me to maximise LORNA's divine shield, and to sandwich my attacking archers.

In the TANK position I played BLINDING REFLECTOR. He only costs 3 mana and has 3 armour and 4 health. As far as a TANK goes, for that mana price, you won't do much better - and he would have sound longevity in a battle, unless attacked by magic, which is his weakness at Level 1.

I put the 0 mana SOUL FIEND in the off-tank position. In that position, he won't be super effective in the battle - but that's OK, his role is to absorb hits as a meat shield. With the DIVINE SHIELD on him, it'll take my opponent two hits to be able to kill him. A frustrating little guy in that position.

And finally, as my rear guard, I play the 2 mana CELESTIAL HARPY. I actually quite like this card because he has OPPORTUNITY. His FLIGHT ability and decent speed also mean he often gets misses - and that's helpful, as his role is to protect my archers.

This is how the battle gets underways:
At this point, I was feeling fairly confident. My opponent did the big no-no and split his attack. He has 1 card attacking my tank, 1 card attacking my first archer, and 2 cards attacking my rear. In a battle like this, he needed to have 1 target and focus on dropping card after card. My biggest concern in this one is my opponent's tank has THORNS and this may well impact my DIVINE SHIELD and my own tank's longevity.

Ok, let's have a look at how the battle went, have a look at this video. It's an interesting battle and can teach us a lot:

As you can see, this battle was on from the start. The biggest concern about how it would play out is from the rear. The SILENT SHA-VI is an amazing card, and I've seen him single-handedly win many battles before - the danger will be how quickly he can whip through my offense in the backline; my hope is to put him in the tank position quickly by targeting his tank and the subsequent cards filling that position.

At the end of round 1, you can see, the initial hits have taken my CELESTIAL HARPY's DIVINE SHIELD. She dodged a hit by the SILENT SHA-VI which kept her in the battle, and she took out my opponent's chicken. Otherwise, my focus on my opponent's tank is going well - and he's teetering on the edge of losing the card.

Round 2 was a bloodbath - as my SUPPLY RUNNER and ARBALEST were able to get all their damage to count. The SUPPLY RUNNER taking 2 health off the opponent's tank, before ARBALEST laned the final blow with his first hit, then killed the next card in the line-up who took to the front with only 1 health. The interesting feature of this battle is my BLINDING REFLECTOR is still standing, and my Soul Fiend is sill unhurt - this means when he takes to the front, he's going to be difficult to knock down quickly.

At the end of Round 3 I found myself in a strengthened position, as I had moved the SILENT SHA-VI to the front. At this point, he will defeat my BLINDING REFLECTOR quickly - but the depth remaining in my team, and the attack of my SUPPLY RUNNER, will mean this one is all but over. The DIVINE SHIELD on my meat shield ultimately being the key leading me to victory.

So what's the verdict?

There's a lot to like about the SUPPLY RUNNER, and in this team he had longevity. I note if I put the ARBALEST in the position ahead of my SUPPLY RUNNER, that his lower health would have led to the SNIPE taking him out.
When using SUPPLY RUNNER you need to get the strategy right. In the case of any team where the offensive has a single focus, and that's ripping through your opponent's team, starting with the tank.
In truth, I need to level up my card. At Level 1, this card isn't as good as it could be - but at Level 5, he suddenly moves into 'extremely useful' territory (particularly in a blast battle, for instance). Now he's on my radar, I'll be looking to get a higher level card in the next few weeks. BRING ON MORE BATTLES with this guy!

Thanks for joining me, for another Splinter Chat! This blog was put together as part of Splinterlands' weekly 'Share-Your-Battle' challenge. Have you put yours together yet?
LordTimoty

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