Splinterlands Share Your Battle Weekly Challenge - Elven Cutthroat

about 3 years ago

Introduction
Hi again everyone, it's me once again participating in the Splinterlands SHARE YOUR BATTLE Weekly Challenge. During this week, the focus is one of those cards which is commonly used in battles, at least in the early days of Splinterlands.... ELVEN CUTTHROAT.

The Card

Elven Cutthroat is a common neutral card from the Beta pack. It has the Sneak ability and at level 10, it has a health of 5 and a speed of 6.

Having been playing since the Beta days of Splinterlands, I can say that this monster is a popular addition to the early lineups given its speed (3) and low mana cost (3) and its SNEAK ability.

Pros and Cons

As I mentioned above, Elven Cutthroat is a go-to card back in the days and even today, with the additions of new cards with different abilities, it can be a useful addition to the team. Given its neutral status, it can be mixed with other Splinters that will complement the whole nature of the team. For example, it is a popular addition to the Life Splinter team with Silvershield Knight in it, because of the INSPIRE ability (which adds +1 Melee attack to friendly monsters). In saying that, I also see it being added to Water Splinter with Demented Shark in it (also because of the INSPIRE ability).

It benefits more during the Equalizer ruleset. Being a low health monster, it gains more health from whatever card has the highest number of health in the battle. It also benefits when a friendly monster has the PROTECT ability, which gives it +2 armor.

The main disadvantage of this monster is its low health, making it an outright target for monsters with OPPORTUNITY ability. It can also easily be killed by Magic monsters, even if it gets extra armor from other friendly monsters or a buff from its summoner like Tyrus Paladium.

With the growing number of cards and expanding range of abilities and rulesets, putting Elven Cutthroat into a lineup can sometimes be a bit tricky.

General Strategy

As I've mentioned, Elven Cutthroat is a versatile monsters given its neutral character. You can pair it with other Splinters especially those lineups with provide extra armor, or increases its Melee attack. I myself usually use it only on a Fire Splinter lineup and pair it with other Melee-attack monsters. With the popularity of Water Splinters and increased Magic damage from Alric Stormbringer, I usually hesitate to use it when I anticipate that my opponent will likely use a Water Splinter lineup.

The Match

As mentioned, when I think of using Elven Cutthroat, even with buffs from other cards, my first question is, will my opponent use a Water Splinter lineup?

With the LOST MAGIC ruleset, I am sure there is no, or very little possibility that my opponent will deploy a Water Splinter team. I initially thought it will use a Death Splinter lineup, which will debuff my Melee attack monsters, so I need to use Fire Splinter and Malric Inferno to at least neutralized the effect of the debuff.

The Lineup

Summoner Malric Inferno

Slot 1 - Cerberus
Slot 2 - Giant Roc
Slot 3 - Serpentine Spy
Slot 4 - Kobold Miner
Slot 5 - Elven Cutthroat
Slot 6 - Furious Chicken

Explanation of the lineup
With the Equalizer ruleset, I know this will be an interesting match as I don't plan to use monsters with so high health. Moreso, I know that my lineup will certainly benefit from that rule as I plan to use monsters with low health, including Elven Cutthroat.

I chose the Fire Splinter since I think I can deploy as much monster as possible given the mana allowance but at the same time take advantage of the Equalizer ruleset. Also, the other rule, Lost Magic, gave me a thought that my opponent is not likely to use the Water Splinter (where many magic monsters are).

For my summoner, I use Malric Inferno for the +1 Melee attack, as Melee will be my main (and only mode) of damage. I kept my fingers crossed that my opponent won't use Mylor Crowling. For my tank monster, I deployed Cerberus, which I think is good for its 3 damage and its healing ability. My second position goes to Giant Roc, in order to provide additional attacks to the opponent's tank monster. The next three monsters at the back are deployed to provide damage to the back monsters of my opponents. The SNEAK monsters (Kobold Miner and Elven Cutthroat) will target the last monster in the opposing side while Serpentine Spy will finish off those monsters that have the least health. More importantly, my last monster is the Furious Chicken. With its increased health (because of the ruleset), it is a good sacrificial lamb (or chicken, lol) for SNEAK and OPPORTUNITY monsters from the other team.

At the initial look, I am certain that I will win the challenge. We have a quite similar lineup but I can say that I have the advantage in terms of how my opponent positioned his monsters. Having a ranged monster in the second position is not ideal as it will not be able to attack when the tank monster dies. I think I will only worry with how its Serpentine Spy chooses its next attack.

Let's see how it panned out.