Learning by getting stomped

When you look at this Splinterlands battle, the first thing you're going to think is "Joys is obviously going to win". Not only because of the high-value gold-foil epic card, but because my team clearly looks stronger.

However, I was defeated by that which is pretty much a default chaos legion life composition. So, what really happened here? Why did his team have so much more value than mine, to the point where I could only kill one of their monsters before being defeated?

Both of us have healers, but all of my opponent's monsters attack first. This means they get an entire round of attacks before my next heal, which causes Grund's demise, while they themselves end up keeping Luminous Eagle alive.

Of course, that was only the case because this battle had the Equalizer rule, forcing every monster's health to be the same as whoever had the highest health in the first place. This almost guarantees whatever heal lands is going to be significant. A single heal meant his victory and my defeat.

Despite justifying it like this, his Pelacor Arbalest is usually a glass cannon - but because of the Equalizer rule, he'd deal 6 damage every turn, turning him into an incredibly cost-effective damage dealer. I could only do so much damage thans to Grund, but he died soon, while Arbalest didn't.

Moreover, Shieldbearer had armor, while Grund fought naked. Had I chosen Mycelic Infantry, I'd have a real meat tank that could last a long time in this battle, specially while being healed.

Last, but not least, Hunter Jark has snipe. This means he attacked a high-health monster all by himself for the entire battle, which led nowhere. While everyone else grouped up against the enemy frontliner, he trolled. Just like the other three reasons I've mentioned, this difference alone could have made me win instead.

In conclusion, these are the true reasons I've lost this battle: my backliners couldn't deal enough damage, my frontliner was too fragile and my monsters were too slow, and I didn't stick to a specific strategy. Ideally, none of these would have occurred, so it's valuable knowledge I've acquired and written down.

Image sources: https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_9c574f7755c6c17a3c16dcd3aee2f705