My first challenge of the week!
The theme and card of the week is Time Mage.
Thoughts: This is a card I often see other Life deck players use. It is not a card that I am able to fully grasp its usage of, but I do believe it is still a good card nonetheless.
It reminds me of the Creeping Ooze that was used before the Chaos Legion update. Except that this comes along with magic attack as well.
For this challenge, all cards are at level 1.
Card Showcase
| Theme | Time Mage |
|---|---|
| Edition | Chaos Legion |
| Rarity | Rare 🔵 |
| Element | Life 👼 |
| Attack | Magic 🌠 |
| Abilities | Slow 🐌 |
Battle Rules
| Symbol | Effect |
|---|---|
 | Standard: No modification to the standard gameplay rules and mechanics. |
Mana cap: 16
Usable elements: | ALL |
Team Composition
Role: Summoner
A pretty decent summoner that gives a (+1) HP to all ally monsters. This does allow for a more versatile pick to allow for a generally more beefy team.
Role: Tank
The first in position, a good and cheap card that emphasises on tanking. With pretty good health and armour stats for a 3 mana cost card, you can count on it to tank a number of hits. Especially useful in a low mana cost team.
Role: Fodder, Secondary Tank
The card of the week and also a cheap card that is able to take at least one hit, effectively buying some time for the backline to deal more damage to the opponent team.
Placed it as the second tank
Role: Magic Attacker, Debuff (Slow)
A pretty good card with decent speed and health. It also acts as a utility card with her Slow ability, slowing the enemy team, which may be crucial.
Placed her in the middle to hopefully keep the slow active.
Role: Opportunity
A cheap card which has the Opportunity ability to hit low health enemies from any position. She is good to target those glass cannon damage dealers.
Role: Backline Hitter, Sneak
A rather decent card as it has 2 melee attack damage and the ability Sneak. I was thinking of using Uraeus before seeing this card.
Placed it at the back as it can hit from anywhere and it also has an okay amount of HP to shield against some backstabs.
Play by play
Opposing Summoner - Thaddius Brood (4)
Opposing Cards - Cursed Windeku (6), Cursed Slimeball (1), Carrion Shade (1), Chaos Agent (1) and Death Elemental (3)
All summoner interactions will be skipped
> Round 1:
(Round 1 battle log)
(+) -- My cards / Positive outcomes
(-) -- Opponent's cards / Negative outcomes
(+) Time Mage slows the enemy team down!
(+) Time Mage dealt 1 direct damage to Cursed Windeku!
(-) Death Elemental dealt 1 direct damage to Time Mage!
(-) Cursed Windeku dealt 2 damage to Blinding Reflector!
(+) Celestial Harpy takes down Cursed Slimeball!
(+) Stitch Leech takes down Death Elemental!
(+) Blinding Reflector dealt 1 direct damage to Cursed Windeku!
(-) Cursed Windeku reflected 2 damage to break the armour of Blinding Reflector!
> Round 2:
(Round 2 battle log)
(+) -- My cards / Positive outcomes
(-) -- Opponent's cards / Negative outcomes
(+) Time Mage dealt 1 direct damage to Cursed Windeku!
(+) Celestial Harpy takes down Chaos Agent!
(-) Cursed Windeku dealt 2 damage to Blinding Reflector!
(+) Blinding Reflector dealt 1 direct damage to Cursed Windeku!
(-) Cursed Windeku reflected 2 damage to take down Blinding Reflector!
(+) Stitch Leech takes down Carrion Shade!
> Round 3:
(Round 3 battle log)
(+) -- My cards / Positive outcomes
(-) -- Opponent's cards / Negative outcomes
(+) Time Mage dealt 1 direct damage to Cursed Windeku!
(+) Celestial Harpy dealt 1 direct damage to Cursed Windeku!
(-) Cursed Windeku reflected 2 direct damage to take down Celestial Harpy!
(-) Cursed Windeku takes down Gargoya Scrapper!
(+) Stitch Leech dealt 1 direct damage to Cursed Windeku!
(-) Cursed Windeku reflected 2 direct damage to Stitch Leech!
> Round 4:
(Round 4 battle log)
(+) -- My cards / Positive outcomes
(-) -- Opponent's cards / Negative outcomes
(+) Time Mage takes down Cursed Windeku!
Strategy Talk
That was honestly really close. Almost got wiped out.
Looking at the opponent's history, I noticed him playing with a mix of Death, Earth and Water decks. I took the chance of the opponent not playing an Earth magic deck and hence arranged a low mana cost Life deck that might work.
In this battle, I tried to focus on the survivability of my backline hitters and also my debuffer (slow). Placing some tanks in front, I let my debuffer stay in the middle and kept my backline hitters at the back.
I had triumphed today with my lineup. I think in this battle, Time Mage had great impact in the battle. Firstly, she debuffed the entire enemy team by reducing their speed, ensuring my team is able to send some hits first. Secondly, her innate speed is already pretty high, allowing her to get the first hit every time. For example, in round 4, if Time Mage did not get that hit in first, it is likely the battle will end up in a draw.
I think that in this battle, I had gotten lucky by the enemy team's choice of cards which included many fodders. He might be expecting Opportunity cards which actually did appear, however, I also have a Sneak card in my hand, clearing out his Death Elemental all the way at the back. Without it, the only real threat is the Cursed Windeku.
Time Mage is a great overall card that provides many usages. I think she would be viable in low or even high mana cost decks. It would likely be best if you keep her near the middle or near the back of the lineup to maintain her slow debuff.
Thanks for reading!
It was fun to theorise and also find more ways to play with the card!
We keep on going. Cheers.
Link to the battle: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_57ab91eaf3387629fb4d8081bf255fdf&ref=tertius