The Spineback Turtle is a very effective card for only 4 mana. It is one that I enjoyed playing with for a long time but didn't realize that it wasn't part of my collection. For this week's challenge, I rented it from the market and it is pretty cheap.
Back to Basics and Noxious Fumes - 21 Mana Cap
Back to basics coupled with poison is an interesting one as the usual strategy of either using an immunity card or one with self-healing doesn't work. Then probably the best strategy to me is to use the card with the most high health.
Summoner: Bortus to reduce the magic damage of my opponent
Position 1: Spineback Turtle for its health and shield
Position 2: Kelp Initiate for reasonably high health
Position 3: The Kraken for its very high health
The strategy was to keep my Kraken at the back for as long as possible and since this was a back to basics rules match, the Kraken's taunt and lack of sneak or snipe would keep it out of action for longer.
It was effective although it didn't play out quite as I expected. For one, my opponent had no magic cards so my summoner was quite useless.
At the end of the first round, my Spineback Turtle had absorbed all the damage from my opponent and was killed. All my opponent's cards were intact.
At the end of round 2, my opponent had his Shieldbearer and Portal Spinner while I only had my Kraken left. Poison was making its way around.
Round 3 and round 4, my Kraken still has a lot of health while the poison is wearing down my opponent's Shieldbearer. The 4 damage from the Kraken kills my opponent in the 4th round.
You can catch a replay of this battle here
For one, I would have changed my summoner if I had known that my opponent would not be playing with any magic creatures. Perhaps I would have gone with Kelya Frendul instead for the extra shield and speed protection. Then again, the overall strategy of outlasting my opponent was pretty good.
The Spineback Turtle offers a lot of health and shield for only 4 mana. It is hard to get such value for your mana. I find it quite useful for low mana battles where I need a tank in front and at the same time want to use some high mana magic creature at the back.
Renting one is pretty good value and you can easily make it back with a single battle.
