Hi everyone! Welcome to the very first installment of Jedo's Splinterlands Brawl Report. This post will explain how I approach my battles in Tier 4 Brawls while representing TeamPH. Keep in mind this is a Wild Gold Fray where cards are limited to Advanced Level caps. I will walk you through my thought process in deciding which Summoners and Monsters to pick. Now, I am not an expert player by any means and I will have some misplays from time to time. Any comments or suggestions that could help me improve my decision making and rules analyses are welcome and will be very much appreciated! Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a new player in the game, I would like to hear from you! We can all be better together! Let's get into it!
@crescendolukeI forgot to take a screenshot of the Opponent Revealed page for this battle. We got a Standard ruleset with no modifications to standard gameplay and it was a low mana match - only 14 Mana for your whole team!
Out of the six elements, only Fire, Life, and Death were active. I went with a Lorna Shine - Sneak Play using low mana monsters. My opponent went with Mimosa, a strong Legendary Summoner from Untamed Edition, and placed a solid tank up in front - Cursed Windeku. With this selection, he limited himself to other monsters he could play.
I got worried for a quick second realizing that his tank had Thorns and almost all my monsters were melee! I knew the Divine Shield from my summoner would protect my monsters and it did! The Windeku struggled to keep up with the overall damage my monsters were dealing and this resulted in my first win of the brawl.
@bobaphetBattle 2 brought me face to face with Bobaphet. The Close Range + Keep Your Distance Ruleset allows you to attack with your ranged monsters from the tank position but prohibits the use of melee monsters. With a 61 Mana Cap for this match, and only the Death Splinter being unavailable, I did not really know what to expect to face in this match.
I selected Lily Shieldpaw with Grimbardun Smith in front. Behind him is Rage who gave GBS Weapons Training, letting GBS attack with Magic damage. Rage can also stand as a secondary tank in the event that GBS dies in battle. Behind Rage is Iziar, a popular Taunt monster who also buffs units adjacent to her when she dies. I placed her in between Rage and Chaos Dragon, another popular Dragon monster, who creates chaos (pun intended) with its Blast and Scattershot ability. Dr. Blight is a card I try to play as much as I can if the rules allow it. His kit is very useful - Aflliction, Poison, and Scavenger. I have won so many battles with his Affliction + Poison combo that neutralizes enemy tanks that has healing or healing support. Of course, this is assuming that the opposing tank does not have Immunity. In 6th position, I decided to play Venari Crystalsmith. This way, I have a way to sustain my tank as I expected that all damage would be dealt to him due to Lily's Camouflage ability. My summoner also has Triage that could help Iziar survive some attacks.
I was not expecting to see Obsidian on the other side of the Battlefield. I thought I was going to face mid to high mana Dragons. Maybe even Immortalis. The Silence abilities from his monsters hindered my Magical Damage output but with the help of Iziar's Martyr, my Dragons' attack increased and eventually did enough damage to win me the battle. Also, notice how GBS's magic damage did not get deductions from the stacked Silences. Is this due to his Immunity?
@zsanderI was paired against Zsander for Battle 3. Mana cap was 48 with Fire, Earth, and Dragon as the only available Splinters. Super Sneak, Might Makes Right, and Holy Protection as the rulesets. The combination of rules threw me off a little bit. I wasn't sure what to play. I decided to go with Dragon again but I wasn't sure if I wanted to play Kitty or a another Dragon summoner.
With a little under 2 minutes left for team selection, I pivoted to Quix the Devious in order to play higher mana Dragon Monsters. I placed Agor Longtail in front with Chaos Dragon right behind it. With the leftover mana I have, and with already having selected Fire as my secondary Splinter, I picked Sinash for Ranged damage with her Opportunity ability and a speed boost, Serpentine Spy with a melee Opportunity attack, and Night Stalker, another melee monster that already has Sneak. I quickly realized this was a bad play and that my selection didn't really make sense. I just ran with what I have due to the time limit and ended up losing the match. Zsander's team were faster and stronger. The focus fire on Agor due to his Taunt was too much for him to survive.
@elifoxBattle 4 was against Elifox. Battle rules were Melee Mayhem, Beefcakes, and Are You Not Entertained. Earth was unavailable and we were allowed to have a max mana of 58. I thought I had plenty of options for this battle.
I decided to go with a Dragon + Life combo with Kralus in font as the main tank and Agor Longtail as in the final spot as a "backline tank." Agor has Taunt which directed all damage to him. The Melee Mayhem ruleset also allowed him to attack with his physical damage from the backline. His self heal along with Lily's Triage sustained him throughout the whole match.
My main damage dealers were Jared Scar and Venka the Vile. Jared Scar went crazy and Bloodlusted a couple of times. Elifox's Djinn Oshannus somehow gave my melee attackers a hard time due to his Forcefield and my attackers' high melee damage. Thankfully I had monsters with attack under 5 damage that just punctured through Oshannus' Forcefield. Once I got through him, all other monsters from my opponent were easier to kill. I took the win here.
@steven-patrick99-mana match for Battle 5! Fire, Life, and Death were available. Going the Distance, 'Tis but Scratches, and Taking Sides. Typically, for this combination of rulesets, I would lean towards using Drybone Raider but unfortunately no Neutral monsters are allowed. I expected to face Yodin, Mimosa, or Ilthain. I chose Yodin, one of the favorite summoners from Untamed, and hoped I can deal enough firepower to get myself another win.
I placed a decent tank in front with Ash Mirage right behind it. The Headwinds ability lessened all ranged damage coming my way. Ash Mirage also has Reflection Shield and I strategically placed him in the 2nd position to disrupt Yodin's blast damage in case my opponent used the same summoner. I also selected fast and heavy-hitting monsters for my backline.
Getting early damage in during the Ambush round quickly decided the match in my favor. This was a quick one.
@raised2b - Opponent FledI was hoping to see this match happen especially with the intriguing rulesets. Unfortunately (and lucky for me, I guess), my opponent fled the battle after not submitting a team when the Brawl timer was up. I'll take the free win.
For this battle, I selected Risqruel Drath so I can give my monsters Flying. I thought about using Tofu but then opted to use the Squirrel instead. I placed Coeurl Lurker in front to taunt all the enemies into attacking him. Behind him is Oaken Behemoth with his Melee + Magic combo. Fizbo follows the Behemoth and then I placed Venka behind my support card. This way both the Behemoth and Venka gains Reflection shield as protection for Tofu's thorns (just in case). Spirit Miner was also chosen to buff up the speed of my entire team and provide Blind, hoping more attacks would miss Coeurl Lurker. And lastly, Dr. Blight. A key card in dealing Affliction to prevent opposing tanks from healing and getting healed. Do you think this lineup could have worked?
The Brawl ended with me having 7 wins and 1 loss. Not bad. Overall, TeamPH took the top spot again for the second time in a row! Congrats to all especially to my guildmates who swept their frays! One of the perks of being part of TeamPH is that you get additional rewards for sweeping your brawls and being our guild's Brawl MVP for the season!
As much fun as I had playing Brawls, I understand that I have still so much to learn. Some of my wins might have been because of luck. Some might be actual good plays that other players can learn from. Either way, I hope you guys enjoyed this article and if you have questions, comments, or feedback for me, please let me know! Let's all learn and grow together and set each other up for success! Vonak! Together We Thrive, Kapamilya!
