Supply Runner: Coming in Fast, Hitting That Gas

This is a Share Your Battle Challenge post featuring Supply Runner. Note that all strategies and points of view in this post are only relevant within the Silver Leagues.

Watch the showcased battle here.

Featured Monster: Supply Runner

At six mana cost, Supply Runner may look somewhat underwhelming. It starts with a two-point ranged attack; its health is a modest four. That's why at Bronze Leagues, this Neutral monster feels like a waste of mana.

However, it's a different story once it unlocks its Swiftness ability. The skill is, fortunately, available by level 5. Most monsters have their advanced skills gated at level 6 onwards and could only be accessed within Gold Leagues and beyond.

With the Swiftness skill, the Supply Runner transforms into a different type of beast. One that becomes extremely worthwhile as one of the few monsters available that influences speed. For the record, we only have three Neutral-type monsters like that within Silvers.

Creeping Ooze	Spirit Miner	Supply Runner

The chosen few Neutrals with Speed Buff or Debuff

My Lineup

The upcoming battle has a Close Range ruleset that lets ranged monsters attack from the first position. Having their primary weakness abolished, I'd be more comfortable placing more ranged attackers such as Supply Runner.

The opponent is also likely to go heavy with Sneakers that are powered up by Tarsa. So Runner's speed buff would give me a big boost in my team's evasion. It's truly a perfect match to let the new Chaos monster shine.

Here's my lineup focused on fast attacks and nimble dodging.

Summoner		I'm using Quix primarily because of his Speed debuff. The bigger the gap between my team and my opponents' speed stat, the higher my chances of evasion are. Got him on level 2 as Silver's max cap.
1st		Clay Golem is a pretty reliable tank with high health and magic defense. If I pair it up with a healer, it would regenerate three points of health for every round.
2nd		Djinn Renova's Vitality skill is always a welcome boon in every match. Its three-point magic attack at level 3, makes it even more appealing.
3nd		Like Renova, Defender of Truth is one of those solid cards to have in your team. It has a skill that grants armor to everyone and a good two-point magic attack. All of that packed in a four-mana cost card.
4th		Here's the star of this week's Battle Challenge. Supply Runner's primary bid for a spot in the team is its speed buff ability. I'm placing it in the middle since I'd like to keep that Swiftness for as long as possible.
5th		Protecting the healer wins the match. Crystalsmith is in charge of keeping the team alive. It sits in one of the safest spots within the lineup. It's precariously vulnerable to sneak attacks, but I'm counting on the next monster to prevent that.
5th		Air Elemental is one of my key players on the team. With its Dodge ability and high speed, it's a perfect counter for physical sneak hits. And with my speed buffs and debuffs, it will surely rain more misses later.

The Battle

It's hard to be accurate in predicting the opponent's lineup, but it's always worth the effort of guessing. Because on the minor chance that you'd get it right, it's an instant massive advantage.

Watch the live battle here

Lucky me. The opponent did get sneak-heavy with Tarsa. The other side had very intimidating, powerful attacks. But look at how far the gap between our speed is. Most of the enemy monsters' speed dropped to a measly one or two points. While my Air Elemental at the rear has gone up high as seven points.

Before we get into the actual battle, let's calculate the potential evasion rate of my Elemental. We will use this formula:

Evasion = Speed Gap * 10% + Dodge Rate
Evasion = (7 - 1) * 10% + 25%
Evasion = 60% + 25%
Evasion = 85%|

Wow. That 85% dodge is a bit insane! 😱 That's the potential rate if someone as slow as Sand Worm attacks Air Elemental. Uraeus and Tenyii Striker have a slightly higher speed, so the expected evasion probability is at 75%.

Now, it's time for battle!!! ⚔️

Round 1 started with most of my team dishing out their attacks before the opposing side gets a chance to make their first move. My team's speed is just too overwhelming. Uraeus was favored by the RNG and got a lucky hit, despite the expected 25% success rate. Sand Worm and Tenyyi Striker weren't as lucky and were hitting air. Good thing for me since Sand Worm's gigantic seven-point attack would have knocked out Air Elemental in one hit.

Evasion Count: 💨💨💨

At the start of Round 2, Air Elemental lands a swift fatal hit on Tusk the Wide. The enemy tank didn't even get the chance to deal any damage in this match; its one and only attempt in the previous round was a miss.

As the round closed, the enemy team is down by two monsters. My team is still at max capacity, but Clay Golem is feeling the brunt of the enemy attacks. Unlike Air Elemental, Golem isn't nimble enough to dodge a lot. I'm hoping Crystalsmith could pull it back from the brink of collapse.

Evasion Count: 💨💨💨💨💨

It's somewhat unbelievable that my team wipes out both Tenyii Striker and Magi of Chaos before they even get the chance to lift a finger at Round 3. The enemy camp only has two monsters left, both of them sneakers who once again failed to deal damage to Air Elemental.

Evasion Count: 💨💨💨💨💨💨💨

The battle ended in my total 🥳Victory🥳 in Round 4 with a flood of attacks from my side. The enemies again were not given the chance to make any moves. The successful evasions my team had in this battle totaled 💨seven 💨, around 53% of the enemies' attacks.

Battle Retospective Review

The battle went pretty smoothly. The clincher was correctly guessing that my opponent would focus on Sneak attacks, so I was able to prepare a perfect counter. My team delivered on the expected dodges and were left with a complete party after the dust settled.

However, if I were to nitpick, I'd say that I should have utilized the Close Range ruleset more. I could have replaced Defender of Truth with another quick ranged monster with a high attack. The armor bonus from Defender isn't that significant, since I'm banking more on evasion; the enemies won't be able to hit my team much anyway, so what's the armor for?

But on the other hand, it's still often good to maintain a nice balance between magic and physical attackers if you're not 100% certain of the opposing team's composition. So leaning further towards ranged attacks may not be a good idea after all.

I will conclude this battle assessment that my team strategy and composition is fairly optimum for the given circumstances. 👍

Author's Note: In case you are wondering what's up with this four-year old account that has few blogs and barren engagement, I'd like to reveal that this @minnowlife account is just an alternate account exclusively meant for Splinterlands play and publishing content related to it. I considered transferring all my game assets to my main Hive account, but that would erase all of my current progress. 😭

More details about this found on my "introduction" post.