Before delving into this week's community challenge, let's check out how the auction for the first (of 100) Heloise the Hollow cards ended. Bidding was entertaining and even I placed two bids just for the lolz (since I knew I would be outbid by our whales)
So, as you can see from the table above the #1 copy of Heloise the Hollow goes to HouseWifeFTW The Burninator! Gz, HouseWife! I don't know how you manage to keep up with so many choirs around the house and also casually win auctions in Splinterlands. I hope you'll share your secret with us at some point... ;-)
The community challenge this week requires the players to write about their favorite strategies, how they work, and what cards are most essential for them to work. This week I will showcase my favorite way to tackle the Going the Distance ruleset (Only units with ranged attacks may be used)
So, in the core of this favorite strategy of mine are 3 cards - Astral Entity as a Summoner and Queen of Crows, and Venari Marksrat as core Monsters to my strategy. I try to always use the Venari Marksrat to buff the Monster in the 2nd position. The line-up is always supplement by one or more of the following Monsters:
I use Lira the Dark and Supply Runner buff the team with additional Speed so Dodge starts working even better, and they are also pretty good cards in general due to their stats and abilities. If I include Drybone Raider, then it is always placed in the 2nd spot so it can get buffed by the Venari Marksrat. I always also try to include the Dhampir Stalker in the line-up so if I happen to be in a mirror situation, I can guarantee that he can hit the Monsters with every single shot he fires. I also enjoy playing Raa but he's a big dude with that 12 mana price tag so he can't make it every time. And Soul Strangler also gets included from time to time along with some of the rest of the ranged Monsters.
Now that you have some impression of what this strategy involves, let's have a look at a battle I won using it yesterday..
<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>BATTLE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>
- The line-up of the Battle and the Ruleset:
The rulesets for this battle are 'Tis But Scratches (all Monsters receive the Cripple ability at the start of the battle), Are You Not Entertained? (Players may play one additional Gladiator Card per battle) and Going the Distance (only Monsters with ranged attacks may be used). The mana budget is 53 which is pretty good so I will be able to fit in a few Monsters with bigger mana requirements. The available elements are Fire, Earth and Death. I've decided to go with the Death Element in order to showcase the strategy, of course.
I'm using the Venari Marksrat to buff my 2nd position Monster. I am interested in its main ability - Martyr (When this Monster dies, adjacent Monsters get +1 to all stats). It's place is obvious - in the middle of the pack so if it dies - it can buff the Monsters adjacent to it. It has only 4 health (at level 3) so that's generally not too hard to happen.
The 2nd spot goes to the Drybone Raider. It is a cool Dual Attack Monsters with Double Strike which means that it hits not once, not twice, not three times but four times every round!. Maxed out at level 4 it has Double Strike (Monster attacks twice each round), Shatter (Target's armor is destroyed when hit by an attack from Monsters with Shatter) and finally Cripple (Each time an enemy is hit by a Monster with Cripple it loses one max health).
The Queen of Crows is a Rare Monster. At level 1 she has 2 Ranged Attack, 2 Speed, 0 Armor and 11 Health but most importantly she starts off with one of her abilities - Close Range (Monsters with the Close Range ability can perform ranged attacks from the first position). At level 3 she gains her 2nd ability - Headwinds (reduces the Ranged attack of all enemy Monsters). At level 5 she gains her 3rd ability - Slow (reduces the Speed of all enemy Monsters), which makes her a very playable Monster at this point in higher mana battles. At level 7 she gains her 4th ability - Return Fire (when hit with a Ranged attack, Monsters with Return Fire will return reduced damage back to their attacker). Finally, maxed out at level 8 she has 3 Ranged Attack, 3 Speed, 0 Armor and 13 Health. She is a really solid Ranged De-buffer for sure especially for battles where only Ranged Attack Monsters can be used.
4th in the line-up is Lira The Dark. It is a great Legendary as far as I am concerned and I include it often in my Death Splinter line-ups as long as the mana cap allows it. Opportunity (Monsters with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy Monster with the lowest health) and Swiftness are two abilities you should never leave home without.
In the 5th spot I've got the Dhampir Stalker. It is a 7-mana Ranged Attacker with 5 Ranged Damage, 4 Speed and 7 Health at max level. It has True Strike (This Unit's attacks cannot miss) and Deathblow (This Unit does 2x damage if its target is the only Unit left on the enemy team). I like including it in line-ups when I suspect my opponent with go with a lot of fast Monsters or employ Dodge/Blind.
Last in the line-up is a card I don't use that often as I don't have her maxed but even more so because she's a gladiator card and gladiator cards are used a lot more infrequently in Modern especially. But since this time the ruleset allows her use, here she is - Liza Fox. She's a rare card with 4 Ranged Attack, 4 Speed and 8 health and at level 6 she has Blood Lust (every time this Monster defeats an opponent, it gets +1 to all stats) and Stun (when a Monster with stun hits a target, there is a 50% chance that the target will skip its next turn).
It is time for a quick round by round analysis:
- The Summoner I have chosen, as you already know is Astral Entity. I have build my usual line-up for the amount of mana available for this battle and my opponent seems to have an idea very similar to mine even though we do differ in some of the Monster choices we have made so let's see how this battle goes.
- After one round of exchanging blows both of us have managed to take down the enemy Venari Marksrats and boost our Drybone Raiders. My Drybone Raider is a bit ahead in health.
- Round 3 begins and you can see I have gained a pretty good advantage on the battlefield. I'm feeling very good about the outcome of the battle right now.
- Well, all that is left for me is to finish off the remainder of the enemy team and claim victory.
Well, that was definitely a fun way to showcase one of my favorite strategies right now in the game. Stayed tuned for more fun battles next week.
Over and Out,
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