Hi again, all! King-of-Rockets, back again like Dilated Peoples with the Splinterlands goods. Got a fun little series I want to start called:
"Lessons from Losses"
Now THAT sounds like a more positive title! This is where I share with you an "L" I took but learned something from. It's not just all about wins. It's the losses I really learn from. Well, at least that's what I like to tell myself so I can sleep better at night. But, I thought this would be a great way to share some Splinterlands tips and at the same time bare my soul to the universe and admit some of my "less shinier" moments.
So to set up this battle, it has a 23 mana cap. This is what I consider low-medium so using a lot of low mana monsters with a heavy tank seemed appropriate, especially with the rulesets: First is "Up Close and Personal" which means melee monsters need only apply. I think it's funny how in video games we don't have another word other than "melee" for "character that only hits things really hard with their bare hands or handheld weapons". Anyway. Also, we drew "Equal Opportunity" where any monster that can attack will target the monster with the lowest health. Good times!
Before I go on though, this is an important aspect to this story: I, as usual, got distracted while picking my team and by the time I got back to the screen, I had about 20 seconds. Sigh. Thanks a lot, short attention span. So although I'll be explaining my thoughts like I had fully thought this out, it was thinking through sheer panic. Okay, I'm ready to continue.
I went with summoner Mylor Crowling who gives all monsters the Thorns ability which does 2 damage back to melee opponents if they hit you. A real thorn in their side. Har har.
For the monsters, tanking for our team is good ol' Chain Golem. Besides "No Neutrals", he's always there when you need him to hit decently hard, good amount of health and shield, and all the defenses of a heavy bunker. And for what he does, not too much mana.
Next up is Elven Cutthroat. It's a weird pick for second position. But I was trying to go for a fairly fast backline and she hits for 3. A little light on health but I was hoping for a lot of evade action. 3 mana is a bargain for her when at max level for at least Gold League.
Moving on, I went with Cocatrice. Another usually strange pick in third position though Equal Opportunity makes this possible. And again, the theme I was going for was fast. And since nobody is better at the evade game than this mini dragon-chicken-eagle thing, he seemed to fit. 2 mana for him and that's dirt cheap.
Then I called up Goblin Thief. This sack-carrying, tip-toeing sneakster gets in and out quick and that's what I needed. 4 mana is not bad for him. Unfortunately, I'm sporting my low level gold foil version and it cost me. No spoilers because you already know how this ended. In a different universe, I won this because I had a level 8 and this post never existed. I was a tiny bit happier in that timeline. Sigh.
Playing anchor is Screeching Vulture, who I usually have a lot of love for. But I had a bad feeling about him getting picked off and I was right. I was hopeful with 4 speed and flying. But I just knew the opponent was going to come with a fast team too.
Speaking of, my opponent goes with summoner Malric Inferno along with some familiar faces. Hydra tanks for them which I'm jealous of envy with as that is a card I don't have. Super strong. Cerberus plays second position and second tank. Great pick and perfect for the rulesets. Cocatrice and Elven Cutthroat shows up on his side too, validating my picks. But he goes with Creeping Ooze which is an interesting pick. He really went to capitalize on speed. And to counter my Goblin Thief, he brings the Fire version with Kobold Miner. Again, Goblin Thief looks weak here due to his level as he is 4 mana and should have had superior stats and an additional shield breaking ability, not that the ability would have mattered. Darn my limited wallet!
So what's with that empty 6th space? Yup. A missing Furious Chicken. Sigh again. I ran out of time. I saw the 0 second mark go down and it would have taken me too long to do all the clicking required to get there and select him. Oh well. What difference could it make? As it turns out, probably a lot.
You can watch the battle for yourself to get a quicker rundown of the action. But the TL;DR for the battle is:
- Screeching Vulture vanishes immediately
- Thorns is putting in work
- Their team is really mainly killing itself with a little help from me
- I get some key misses but not enough
- Hydra is showing why it has legendary status and why you pay what you do for it
- Cerberus gets a nod for backup tank of the battle
- Final turns, I get Cerberus down to 1 health but of course he self-heals like a pro and barely takes me out.
I don't know for sure because I haven't taken the time to map it all out yet like Charlie does on his conspiracy theory wall, but I believe Furious Chicken playing meat shield in lead position would have saved Chain Golem from an additional hit and would have had enough life to squeak out the win vs Cerberus.
Strangely enough, the lesson in all this wasn't even to run the Chicken, but actually was "PAY ATTENTION, STUPID BRAIN!". I have this written on Post-It(TM) notes in multiple places in my house. Looks like my phone case needed one too.
Welp... alright, until next time!
...
JUST KIDDING! I was doing a giveaway, wasn't I?
Remember when I got 2 legendary pulls from the same bunch of daily quest loot chests? King-of-Rockets remembers. I remember it like it was my prior blog post...
So I was aiming for 10 comments to do the initial idea for the Giveaway. Then I decided to get really ambitious and asked for 25 or more comments to do the bonus giveaway. Turns out I got 47! What the heck?! Y'all sure do like giveaways so I'm going to try and do another one not too long from now. But before I reveal the winners, I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the love and the comments my post got. I know, giving away free stuff helps, but I still appreciate you dropping by. To quote a favorite lyric of mine: "So give me this award, and let's not make it the last". Makes no sense here really, but I love that song and it was worth a shot.
"And so, without further gilding the lily, and with no further ado, I give to you, The Seeker of Serenity..." the winners!
Congratulations to all the winners! I will be sending the cards to your in-game player account that you included in your comment entry.
Please be sure to come back for my next blog post where I'll be going over the Season that just past. Lots to unpack there as I stepped up my renting of cards out and I got some pretty good results out of my rewards. Probably my most lucrative Season yet!
Again, thanks so much for the support. Until next time!