One Man's Battle With Dragons

As a player with Silver III Collection Power, I get a little more excited any time I can sneak some dragons into a battle. For this particular battle, the ruleset included Earthquake and Fog of War. The battle allowed 48 Mana worth of cards and all Splinters with the exception of Water were available.

The high mana limit allows for some experimentation and this was the first time I tried an exclusively Flying back line in an earthquake match. The Life Splinter gave me two important role players which will be discussed later.

SUMMONER

To get things started, I selected Quix, the Devious as my summoner, opening the door for my Dragons. Quix applies a -1 to the opponent’s Ranged Attacks and Speed. Both of these reductions were relevant in this matchup against a Death splinter team using Thaddius as the summoner. The opposing team had 3 Ranged Attack monsters, two of which got reduced by my summoner. Additionally, the opponent selected 3 monsters with 3 speed, a pair of 2 speed and a 1. In total, my summoner weakened five opposing monsters, and two of them got slower along with losing an attack damage. The speed reduction allowed 3 of my 6 attacks to hit before any return fire. The other three attacks were toss-ups with their three fastest monsters.

MONSTERS

I started out my team with one of my first and favorite purchases in Splinterlands, Djinn Chwala. This particular dragon has a little bit of everything and serves as an extremely effective tank. What is not to like about 3 attack, 5 armor over 9 health and to top things off, Thorns? Melee monsters have to chip at the armor, making little impact, while slowly damaging themselves, removing their own armor or holy protection while on the attack. There are very few high-mana matches when dragons are available that I don’t want Djinn Chwala in the lead. The other Dragon on the team was a first-time use for me having pulled it from a pack last week. Zyvax Vuul is a Legendary 8-mana, 2 Ranged Attack/3 Speed/7 Health monster with Flying and Recharge abilities. The Recharge ability limits the monster’s attack to every-other turn but deals 3x damage. I will evaluate the results of the on/off attack turns as the battle plays out.

The rest of the team was filled in with other flying monsters that served specific rolls. The second position featured the Luminous Eagle with Reach ability along with Flying, giving a 2nd melee attack from the back line. Next in line was a Celestial Harpy which has Opportunity attack paired with Flying. She was my 3rd melee attacker and offered a chance to eliminate something small immediately or take a 3-health back row minion down into earthquake range, taking it out of the game after one round. I dropped a neutral into the 4th spot, starting off my run of Ranged Attackers. The Gargoya Devil is slinging 2 ranged attack with the bonus ability of Close Range, allowing this particular monster to slide into the tank position and still deliver Ranged Attacks. Next in line was Zyvax Vuul (previously discussed) and finally, a second Neutral, the single-Ranged Attack Tower Griffin. There’s nothing special here beyond the flying ability. My goal was to have a lineup of monsters that all had attack.

AND NOW FOR THE BATTLE

ROUND 1

The first round played out with each player registering 5 attacks. My Zyvax Vuul had the first action and charged for Round 2. The other two 3-speed minions recorded hits on the Cursed Windeku and the Gargoya Devil got the first attack of the 2-speed monsters taking the Cursed Windeku down to 4 health. Here’s where the Speed reducing worked against me. The next attack was from my Djinn Chwala which reduced the Cursed Windeku to 1 health. Because of the Opportunity attack on my Celestial Harpy, her subsequent attack ended up being a 1-for-1 trade, with the Cursed Windeku’s thorns eliminating my Harpy. Had the Cursed Windeku’s speed been higher than the Harpy (or the Cursed Windeku attacked as the faster of the 2-speed minions) it would have been taken out by the Djinn Chwala Thorns. This seems like a better deal however as it saved 2 damage that would have been dealt to Djinn Chwala had the Cursed Windeku attacked.

ROUND 2

Round 2 began with each team down one minion. The Earthquake damage hit 3 of the opponent’s remaining 5 minions and just one of mine. The ruleset damage allowed my charged up Zyvax Vuul’s 6 damage to eliminate the secondary tank in one shot. I lost Djinn Chwala later in the round and things ended up with 4 monsters per side.

ROUND 3

The 3rd round was another charging round for Zyvax Vuul, so I only had 3 possible attacks. Fortunately, of the 2 remaining 2-speed minions, mine went first and eliminated the first-position Riftwing, pulling a Ranged Attack minion into the first spot and denying its attack for this round. I lost my Luminous Eagle and the round ended with earthquake damage doing the dirty work for me and claiming 2 more opposing minions.

ROUND 4

The final round was mop-up work for my 3 remaining minions. My opponent had 3 health left on the board and a Ranged Attack minion in position 1. A quick 6-damage shot from my Recharged Dragon and the battle was over.

IN SUMMARY

I’m not sure whether the flying lineup was a solid, repeatable strategy or if it just worked out for me this time. The opposing lineup played right into my summoner’s reductions and gave me a decided advantage before the battle began. I’m grateful to have the rulesets to try out a very seldom-played Legendary monster and witness it perform when the opportunities arrived in the battle. I certainly enjoy playing with dragons and try to get them involved when it makes sense to do so. I don’t see very many dragons at the level I normally play, but in this instance, the Dragons won the day (at least this battle) for me.

In case you missed it earlier, here's another link to the battle.

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_a4d355aa004dfe4472853cd97dcfad7e&ref=schradz