Splinterlands | Magical and Mysterious Lands

With the explosion that Splinterlands witnessed in the wake of new players joining recently, the game and the game plan kept pushing us to new frontiers and new battle strategies. I have learned a lot from the recent battles and how the players put them into use. It is quite a refreshing thing on Splinterlands.

Lately, I have come across one more trend. While going through my daily quests or even a regular day’s play, I come across a few accounts one after the other with the same summoners, monsters, and gameplay. Even the placement of the monsters is the same. First, I thought they could be bots, but each account seems to be manned and not bots. How do I know that? Well, they seem to be taking breaks and other things that you would see a human player doing. So, yeah, they are players.

If they are players, how come so many of them have the same strategy and placements? Interestingly, I also encounter such a similar (actually same) game plan in quick successions. That’s one of the reasons I can take note of it. I can only surmise that it has to do something with these players belonging to the same family or are friends, or they have a WhatsApp (or discord) group where they discuss battle strategies. Anyway, it is pretty interesting to come across these players.

Let’s look at one of my recent battles in quick succession. But before that, let’s take a moment to know more about Splinterlands. That’s the place where you will find these players and the game plan. 😊

What Game is Splinterlands?

Splinterlands is a digital card game that allows you to collect, trade, battle, rent, and even earn from the cards. The game gives Play to Earn a whole different meaning. It is one of the most generous games that I have seen where cards, potions, Dark Energy Crystals (DEC. Cryptocurrency) are given out every day to thousands of players for just playing and winning daily quests. And there are tournaments that you can play or guilds that you can join.

Just to give you an idea of how lucky you can get in Splinterlands - read my story of getting cards worth $500 from buying a few packs worth $20 only.

Got Cards Worth $500 from $20 Packs

And this is just a tiny number. I have witnessed people getting uber-expensive cards in their pack and selling it for as high as $6500. This means the game has interested buyers for your cards too. In fact, there is a whole Splinterlands marketplace.

If this is not enough, then Splinterlands has just launched the governance token SPS, which is being airdropped to all Splinterlands players over the year. So, you are not late. Get on with the game and earn SPS today. SPS is listed on exchanges, too.

To join, scroll down quickly. 😊

The Curious Case of Same Game Plans

Getting back to our discussion on gamers and their game plans matching 100%, it would help if we could witness a few battles. That way, readers can get what I mean. I have two battles that happened one after the other, and both had everything the same about them.

Let me not bore you with poetry. How about a look at the battles? Let’s go.

Battle 1

Interestingly in both the battles, not only was the opponent having the same setup, I too had the same lineup. Why? Because both were 13 mana-battle and I did not see any reason to select a different lineup.

Once my opponent and I had our respective teams ready, it was time to rock and roll. Here is the lineup.

Note: The player is NHINHO

The opponent had chosen Fire Splinter while I went with Earth Splinter. Here is how the lineup appeared.

Summoner: Malric Inferno | Fire Splinter | Increases friendly melee monsters’ attack value by one.

Monsters:

Position 1: Living Lava | A melee attacker with an attack value of three. It also takes reduced attacks from the opponent’s melee and ranged attackers.

Position 2: Serpentine Spy | A melee attacker with an attack value of two. It is an opportunity monster and will attack the one with the lowest health.

That was a short lineup. Now, we head to my team.

Summoner: Mylor Crowling | Earth Splinter | Gives all friendly monsters the thorn ability.

Monsters:

Position 1: Furious Chicken | Non-attack monster

Position 2: Creeping Ooze | A non-attack monster. It reduces the speed of the opponent’s monsters by one.

Position 3: Flesh Golem | Melee attack monster with an attack value of two.

Position 4: Child of the Forest | Ranged attacker with an attack value of one.

Obviously, I was happy with the opponent’s melee attackers. Every time that they would attack, they would have thorns and therefore lose health. I should win easily. But I was wrong.

Let’s see why.

Heat of the Battle

A battle I thought would be a one-sided affair favoring me turned to favor the opponent.

The reason was apparent. The Child of the Forest’s attack did not make even a scratch on the Living Lava. So, it had to be the Flesh Golem to do the main work. But even the Flesh Golem would inflict just one attack value worth of attack each time (remember, Living Lava takes reduced attack). The only saving grace was the thorns.

Even with the thorns, three straight attacks from the Lava would finish up the Golem. And here’s where the miracle happened.

The Living Lava missed one attack. That was a significant advantage for me, as with the next attack and the counterattack (with thorns) made both the Golem and Living Lava perish at the same time. That just left the Child of the Forest.

And I won! 😊

Battle 2

This was the second battle and happened right after the first one. See the similarity between the lineup of the two matches.

The same setup, isn’t it? Yeah, you bet.

Note: The player is MARILYNTROYERo66. A different player. Or bot.

Let’s quickly go through both the lineups again.

Summoner: Malric Inferno | Fire Splinter | Increases friendly melee monsters’ attack value by one.

Monsters:

Position 1: Living Lava | A melee attacker with an attack value of three. It also takes reduced attacks from the opponent’s melee and ranged attackers.

Position 2: Serpentine Spy | A melee attacker with an attack value of two. It is an opportunity monster and will attack the one with the lowest health.

Now, we head to my team.

Summoner: Mylor Crowling | Earth Splinter | Gives all friendly monsters the thorn ability.

Monsters:

Position 1: Furious Chicken | Non-attack monster

Position 2: Creeping Ooze | A non-attack monster. It reduces the speed of the opponent’s monsters by one.

Position 3: Flesh Golem | Melee attack monster with an attack value of two.

Position 4: Child of the Forest | Ranged attacker with an attack value of one.

Heat of the Battle | For the Second Time

Intriguingly, the result was the same. I won. But I couldn’t have won without the same “miss” happening like in the previous battle. That was pretty hilarious.

Notice the miss? If the Living Lava had hit, then the Golem would have perished. That would have brought the Child of the Forest to the first position, where it would be a sitting duck. The Living Lava would destroy it in the next attack, and the opponent would win. But that was not the case.

The miss ensured that the Golem attacked and took away one health of the Living Lava. When the Lava struck again, the Golem would perish, but because of the thorns, the Lava would also perish. That would leave only the Child of the Forest standing. And I win!

See the eery similarity? Crazy, right?

And That’s It

This is just one example of back-to-back same setup battles that I have witnessed. I have come across battles against Death Splinter where the same setup was used consecutively for six matches against me. All were different players. I don’t know if a few of them were bots.

I wonder why this happens or even how this happens. Anyway, it is just a few of those curious things that happen around us. Do I bother too much about it? I don’t think so. I would find it intriguing, though.

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Image Courtesy: Splinterlands