Old vs. New - which monster is more inspiring?

Good morning everyone and welcome to another Splinterlands Strategy Analysis.

Today we have an interesting match since there are two cards with the same ability in play. One card is from the new Rebellion Soulbound Edition, and the other is from the Untamed Edition: Janni Rebel and Demented Shark, both providing Inspire (+1 Melee).

https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sm_Xh69yOLPX6DORv9NCjK8

We’re looking at a Reverse Speed and Rise of the Common Ruleset, with amazing 59 Mana – so almost limitless. It’s a Novice Wild Tournament.

My first teambuild looked almost like my opponents – but then I scratched everything and went for Life-Splinter instead. I chose the Imperial Knight as tank and Junker as Reach. Then I placed Janni Rebel in the middle since it’s bonus to attack is a key element in my strategy, so I wanted it protected. The Sand Worm is an awesome monster for high Mana/low speed battles, as is the Stitch Leech. I placed the Crystalsmith in the and since I wasn’t really counting on healing, but more on destruction. I could've gone for another sneak or opportunity monster.

The enemy made had a nice set-up, too, but the damage was too distracted. One Sneak, one opportunity that most likely attack different monsters. The shark in the middle just as Janni Rebel – but useless since he wouldn’t attack before the Overseer was killed. Point for the Janni Rebel. Seamonster is a perfect pick for this kind of match, and overseer as a tank is quite nice, too.

Extra info: My line-up in water splinter before erasing it was: Sea Monster, Grimbardum Fighter, Demented Shark, Feasting Seaweed, Deeplurker, Sandworm. Not sure if I had won that way.

Round 1: My extra armor prevents me from loosing a monster (thanks to the enemy dividing between Sneak and Opportunity), and I’m able to kill the enemy Sandworm which is a big, big plus for me. Most armor gets shredded on both sides, but not much health is lost yet.

Round 2: Having the lower speed monsters works in my favor again. The Riverboat Captain gets swallowed by the Sandworm, and the Deeplurker gets hit by the Leech and will be next in line to get some from the Worm. Luckily, their Seamonster brings my Knight down to 2 health, so instead of taking out the Leech, the Deeplurker takes out the Knight. Bad thing – he gets a trample for that. But the Junker receives a heal from the surprisingly still standing Crystalsmith.

Round 3: The Junker brings down the Overseer in the first move. He then gets bashed in by the Seamonster who tramples on Janni Rebel’s Armor – good thing to have that shield up! The Deeplurker becomes wormfood, and the leech destroys the Shark’s armor. The Shark now does it’s first two damage! Which gets instantly nulled by healing. Meanwhile, the Janni Rebel counts 6 damage.

Round 4: The Seamonster gets one more attack on the Janni rebel, but the Shark finds the same destiny as most of its peers so far – eaten by Sandworm.

Round 5: A last attempt by the Seamonster, killing the Janni Rebel and trampling the Sandworms Armor – what will happen now that my team lost the Inspiration?

Round 6: This time my monsters get first attack, and they still have enough power to kill the monster. And again – it’s the Sandworm. He’ll sleep well tonight, with a really full belly.

In this particular setting the Janni Rebel is definitely more effective than the Demented Shark, since it does magic damage and can attack from anywhere. When Mana is not the issue, it finds it’s way quite often into my melee teams, since it can provide a total of +5 melee attack (if the rest is melee).

What do you think, which Inspire-Provider is the best right now?

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Please feel free to comment remarks on strategy and your own battle links or post for me to review and learn. Thank you!