In this week's Splinterlands Challenge, we have been tasked to fight a match using ANY Dragon. That's right, we've got a huge amount of leeway to pick whatever Dragon we want and charge into battle. What Dragon will I pick, and how will the battle turn out? Find out below!
The Lineup
As with every Splinterlands match, the exact ruleset and Mana allotment can change from battle to battle which means that players must adjust their strategy to take maximum advantage of the particular characteristics of the match. This match was fought with 19 Mana and no modifications to the standard ruleset. So, I decided to choose Drake of Arnak as my summoner. One of the advantages of choosing a Dragon summoner is that they can fight alongside ANY Splinter. I decided to ally with the Fire Splinter as I feel that I have the strongest cards in this Splinter.
In first spot, I decided to play Living Lava. Living Lava is an absolute tank that has high health, good armor, and the "Shield" ability which reduces the damage it takes from melee and ranged attacks. On top of that, it has a good attack. Really, its only downside is that it has quite slow speed.
Fineas Rage is my favorite second position monster in the entire game because he has blazing fast speed, a good attack, and high health. On top of that, I own Fineas Rage in a gold foil card which gives a dec boost (assuming I win the match).
As always, I like playing Furious Chicken in the lineup because it costs zero Mana and can serve as a good buffer monster that causes the opponent to waste one of their attacks and can protect my other monsters and keep them in the fight longer.
In last spot, I played Creeping Ooze. Creeping Ooze is definitley a great "force multiplier" as it can slow down the opponent's whole team for the cost of only 1 Mana. It's a great monster to play because it has a low Mana cost, but a very strong efect on the battlefield.
The Match
Although I felt really strong about my lineup, I knew I was going to be in trouble as soon as I saw the opponent's team. Not only did my opponent play Haunted Spirit, which has the Heal ability, they also played Zintar Mortalis which reduced the melee attack of my monsters by 1. This meant that my monsters were only able to deal a combined total of 3 damage per turn. Haunted Spirit was easily able to absorb this damage each turn and heal itself which meant that my monsters were basically wasting their attacks. All the while, the opponent's lineup was slowly whittling down my team. At the end of the match, my opponent easily walked away with the victory.
Analysis of Dragons
I have to be honest I don't really play with the Dragon Splinter a lot, but they do have some strong advantages. The ability to fight alongside any Splinter is a huge benefit, and it means that Dragons are one of the most versatile Splinters. Additionally, Drake of Arnak is a strong summoner and the +1 Armor boost is nice because it really adds some defensive strength to your team. Although we lost this match, I don't think that should reflect negatively on the Dragons. Rather, I think my opponent just picked the perfectly right team to counter my strategy.
Summary
Win or loose, it is always nice to enter into the challenges and try new strategies and cards. Although the primary purpose of this post is to share my battle, I always like to remind players that Splinterlands rewards players for EVERY SINGLE match that they win with cryptocurrency. Players also win from daily quests, end of season rewards, and even get free airdrops of the SPS governance token based on their card collections. It's not financial advice, but if you like trading card games or just earning crypto and NFTs, then feel free to check out Splinterlands or watch my battle replay here
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_41de36ab28cd9fb3b6882fea55681f0c&ref=parttimeeconon
