Here's a link for this week's challenge
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_1eda7f3fc1813aa659742479323e059b&ref=jingo-submo
Here's the ruleset
Lineup:
Summoner: Owster Rotwell
Owster is a fantastic summoner if you happen to be facing a lineup that heavily features magic wielding monsters. Death teams feature some of the strongest monsters based on individual stats but the summoners tend towards debuffs more than buffs. This makes it especially important to predict what your opponent is planning.
With the Super Sneak ruleset I went with a lot of melee attackers and should have anticipated more of them from my opponent.
With Zintar or Daria as my summoner and these lineups the final outcome may have been different. I hope to add both of those summoners to my collection within the next month or so.
Tank: Carrion Shade
Traditionally you want a tank that's able to soak up a lot of damage and hopefully deal a lot of damage too. Carrion Shade does not fit the bill. 1 and 0 mana monsters are sometimes helpful to soak up a hit or 2 depending on the ruleset before your true tank comes into position. The idea behind doing this is to keep your true tank alive longer.
1st position (backup tank(my true tank for this match)): Harklaw
Harklaw has what you want in a tank. Harklaw soaks up a lot of damage especially with the Shield ability and that high life total.
Did my strategy work?
No, I got beat in this battle.
What will I try differently next time?
When I'm expecting a lot of melee damage in a match my favorite summoner is Mylar to damage my opponent whenever they attack. My second choice is Kelya because the +1 armor soaks up an extra hit for each of my monsters. Owster would have been great if my opponent was going for a lot of magic damage. The mana cap was high enough that I knew it was a possibility but in the Super Sneak ruleset we were both thinking melee and my opponent was better prepared.
Beyond the considerations at summoner, I could have prepared better with monster placement. If I had placed Carrion Shade and Corpse Fiend between Harklaw and Nightmare they both would have lasted longer and done a couple of extra damage to my opponent's Diemonshark. I don't think that would have been quite enough to swing this battle in my favor, but it would have been closer.
Do I like Carrion Shade?
Yes, the 1 mana monsters in Chaos Legion provide some significant value and do a great job filling in gaps when I have an extra mana available. I also think of Carrion Shade as a strict upgrade to Cursed Slimeball at level 1.
Thanks for reading and thanks to any who like, follow, repost and read my other content on peakd.