Greetings, Splinterlands warriors!
There are times when a battle isn’t won by the monster with the biggest attack. Sometimes, victory comes from a monster that works quietly behind the scenes—one that doesn’t stand out much but ends up making all the difference. Today's Battle of the Day reminded me exactly of that.
This match featured two very interesting rulesets: Dragon Breath and Melee Mayhem. At first glance, they might seem fairly straightforward, but once I considered their effects, I immediately realized this battle would be a true test of endurance.
The Dragon Breath ruleset causes monsters hit by magic attacks to suffer a burning effect. Meanwhile, Melee Mayhem allows melee monsters to attack from any position. That means the battlefield quickly fills with attacks coming from every direction, while burning damage continuously chips away at everyone's health each round.
As soon as I saw these rulesets, one card instantly came to mind: Time Bandit.
Time Bandit is one of those Earth cards that I believe still has tremendous potential for the future. Right now, it is only available up to level 4, but even at its early levels, it brings an incredibly useful ability: Cleanse.
At 9 mana, Time Bandit certainly isn't a cheap card. However, in certain rulesets, the ability to remove negative effects can be the difference between victory and defeat.
That’s exactly why I decided to build my lineup around its Cleanse ability.
I chose Underboss Fabino as my Archon. His ability to apply Poison to an enemy monster is always something I like to take advantage of right from the start.
My team lineup consisted of:
Looking at this composition, some players might wonder why I brought several magic attackers into a Dragon Breath battle.
The answer is simple: I wanted to use the burning effect against my opponent as quickly as possible.
When I saw my opponent’s lineup, I felt fairly fortunate.
They only brought a single magic monster: Dark Arborist.
Without hesitation, I selected Dark Arborist as the Poison target from Underboss Fabino. In my mind, if I could eliminate that monster quickly, the threat of burning effects coming from the enemy side would be significantly reduced.
Sometimes a strategy doesn’t need to be complicated.
Sometimes all you need to do is remove the main source of the problem.
As it turned out, that decision helped tremendously.
The first round began with intense action.
My magic monsters started attacking, and the impact of Dragon Breath became immediately apparent. Every magic attack not only dealt damage but also left behind a burning effect that continued draining enemy health.
The problem was that I felt the same pressure on my side.
My tanks were repeatedly hit by magic attacks and soon caught fire. Fortunately, Time Bandit was standing faithfully behind the front line, doing exactly what it was brought to do. Every round, the burning effect on my tank was removed through Cleanse.
Honestly, watching a tank get burned and then immediately cleansed felt like receiving an extra breath of life in the middle of a grueling battle.
Still, I knew Cleanse wasn’t some unlimited miracle. Damage was still getting through. The burning effect disappeared, but enemy attacks continued to land.
Eventually, both of my tanks fell one after another.
Even though losing my tanks hurt, I began to see the benefits of the strategy I had chosen.
My opponent’s monsters slowly lost health from the combined effects of magic damage, Poison, and the burning effect from the ruleset. Round after round, their health pools continued shrinking.
Meanwhile, Time Bandit had extended my tanks’ lifespan long enough for my backline attackers to keep dealing damage.
The most interesting moment came when I realized my opponent was actually losing to the ruleset itself. They weren’t just being defeated by direct damage—they were also being worn down by the relentless burning effect that steadily consumed their health.
One by one, their monsters fell faster than expected.
And when their final monster collapsed, I couldn’t help but smile at how much impact a single, seemingly simple ability like Cleanse had made.
Full battle can be viewed here:
In the Dragon Breath ruleset, abilities like Cleanse can become incredibly valuable assets. Even a card that often flies under the radar, such as Time Bandit, can transform into the key to victory.
This battle also strengthened my belief that Time Bandit is one of the most promising Foundations cards to watch. Although its current maximum level is still limited, I’m very curious to see what abilities it may gain in future levels.
Today’s Battle of the Day showed that victories don’t always come from the strongest monster on the battlefield. Sometimes they come from the monster that is simply the right tool for the situation.
Time Bandit may not have delivered the highest damage numbers, but its Cleanse ability kept my tanks alive longer and gave my burning strategy enough time to do its work.
If there’s one piece of advice I can offer, it’s this: never underestimate support cards. In Splinterlands, the cards that seem ordinary often become the true heroes when the perfect ruleset appears.
See you in the next Battle of the Day. May your reward chests contain the cards of your dreams, and may Time Bandit soon receive new levels that make it even more dangerous!
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