Splinterlands Social Media Challenge!

Before showcasing this week's battle let's have a peek into the most interesting stuff happening this week, namely the Heloise the Hollow and the first GF copy of her, whose auction is up right now:

So, as you can see, with 13 hours remaining the current highest bid for the GF copy is sitting at 5.11M DEC! HouseWifeFTW, who also won the 1st copy of the regular foil, seems determined to get himself another nr. 1 print, however, I don't think the rest of the bidders have given up quite yet. I can see the bidding increase in intensity as the final minutes (minute even) of the auction approach.

And just as I was writing the text above, we've got ourselves a new leader - no other than Azircon ;-) who has just taken the lead by bidding 10,000 more than HouseWifeFTW. Note that Azircon is using Credits so he's paying 20% more than what he would pay if he was using DEC. This is so since DEC is accepted at $1.00 for 1,000 in the site but on the market the going price is 20% below peg or 1,000 for $0.80.

Anddd, while I was writing the lines above, Neal McSpadden has decided to get back the lead outbidding Azircon by 30,000 DEC. You definitely don't need to participate in these auctions to get enjoyment out of them. Watching big sea mammals splash on SPL cards is definitely fun, especially since all the proceeds are going to the DAO.

Now let's have a look at one of the Monsters in the set and how he is used in battle. The Monster is one of the new Life Monsters I have found myself using more often than not ever since Rebellion came out - Silverblade Fighter.

Now before we get into the stats discussion of the Silverblade Fighter, let's have a sneak peek into his LORE.

So, basically, the Silverblade Fighters are what's left after the Order of the Silver Blade was vanquished by the Chaos Legion, and are doing their best to resist the oppressors.

Alright, we've got some idea of who the Silverblade Fighter is, after glancing at his lore. Let us have a look at his stats and abilities at different key levels now.

The Silverblade Fighter is a Rare Monster. At level 1 he has 1 Melee Attack, 3 Speed, 6 Armor and 5 Health and he starts off with Flank (At the beginning of battle, if this Unit is in the first position, the unit in the second position gains Reach) ability which is his signature one. It is, of course, really, really useful if you want to put a Melee Monster without Reach in the off-tank spot.
At level 2 he gains a 2nd ability - Void Armor (Magic attacks hit this Monster's armor before its Health) and 1 Health Point for a total of 6.
At level 6 he gains his third at final ability - Protect (All friendly Monsters gain +2 Armor).
Finally, maxed out at level 8 he has 3 Melee Attack, 4 Speed, 7 Armor and 6 Health.

Now that we know what the card does (or doesn't do) at the different levels of play, let us have a look at the battle I have chosen to showcase.

<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>BATTLE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>

The line-up of the Battle and the Ruleset:

The rulesets for this battle are Equalizer (The initial Health of all Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base Health), Tis but Scratches (All Monsters have the Cripple (Each time an enemy is hit by a Monster with Cripple it loses one max health) ability) and Are You Not Entertained? (One additional Gladiator card may be used in battles) ability. The mana budget is 43 which is about average so I will not be able to splurge on chunkier Monsters. All Elements are available but Fire. I'll go with the Life Element.

I have placed the protagonist of this post in the tanking spot due to his Flank ability as previously discussed. I do that so I can protect my second attacker from any debuffs which could be placed on it and which would definitely reduce its potential to inflict damage to the opposing tanks.

The off-tank for the line-up is Mantoroth. He's a pretty beefy boy with 4 Armor and 11 Health at the cost of 11 Mana which makes him susceptible to Giant Killer (does double damage against targets that cost 10 or more mana). He also has 3 Melee Attack and 2 Speed. In terms of abilities - at max level he has the following ones (in order of appearance): - Shield (reduced damage from Melee and Ranged attacks), ARMORED STRIKE (Any unit with this ability gains an ADDITIONAL Melee attack using its Armor stat. This allows characters to improvise with deadly force, using their gauntlets, shields, helmets, or perhaps physical attributes (spikes, hard shells, etc) as weapons!), True Strike (this Monster's attacks cannot miss), Repair (restores some armor to the friendly Monster whose armor has taken the most damage) , Blast (does additional damage to Monsters adjacent to the target Monster). He is definitely shaping up to be a pretty interesting card, especially with the New Ability - Armored Strike and the fact that he is a Neutral Card, so he can be included in any Element.

The 3rd spot is for Commander Goff. He is a Legendary Monster. At level 1 he has 3 Ranged Attack, 5 Speed, 7 Armor and 8 Health and he starts off with the Dodge (Has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks) ability which makes him decent for a Monster in the last spot of a line-up. At level 2 he gains a 2nd ability - Inspire (Gives all friendly Monsters +1 Melee attack). This ability makes him useful for a bit more melee-heavy line-ups. At level 3 he gains 1 Speed point and 1 Health point but more importantly he gains his third ability - Divine Shield (The first time the Monster takes damage it is ignored). This gives him even more survivability in the backline. Finally, maxed out at level 4 he has 3 Ranged Attack, 5 Speed, 7 Armor and 8 Health. However, he also gains the most useful ability of them all - Resurrect (When a friendly Monster dies it is brought back to life with 1 Health. This ability can only trigger once per battle). Resurrect is an ability which is always useful and you can never go wrong with including a Monster who has it in your line-up.

4th in the line-up is one of my all-time favorite Life Monsters - the Venari Crystalsmith. She is a great support Monster and is really, really affordable due to the fact that she is a part of the Chaos Legion reward cards and as we know, all of the got severely overprinted. She is a ranged Monster with a decent amount of attack but she is included in most line-ups for her main ability - Tank Heal (Restores a portion of the Monster in the first position's health each round). Her 2nd and final ability is also pretty useful - Dispel (When this monster hits an enemy, it clears all positive status effects on that enemy).

The 5th spot goes to the Pelacor Arbalest. It is neither slow nor fast so it should basically perform the same way in both Reverse Speed and normal speed scenarios. It has Double Strike (monster attacks twice each round) and Flying (has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Monsters who do not have the Flying ability). It is one of the Ranged Attackers I use most often when playing with the Life Element.

Finally I decided to throw in another Tank healer in this setup since Gladiator cards are allowed, and that is Sola Ranjell. I've got just one bcx of her bur that's enough for me to be able to take advantage of her Tank Heal ability. She also has Bloodlust (Every time this Monster defeats an opponent, it gets +1 to all stats) as all the rest of the Gladiator cards but with her 1 Magic Attack, getting a killing blow is highly unlikely.

It is time for a quick round by round analysis:

The Summoner I am going with for the battle is General Sloan. Yeah, yeah, I know she is considered the weakest CL summoner and for a good reason for sure but I love playing her when the opponent is not prepared because you can really inflict a lot of pain to them. I specifically like playing her when Equalizer is one of the rulesets. My opponent has decided to go with Possibilus. Let's see how this goes.

After 1 round of exchanging blows I there are no casualties on either side, however, my Silverblade Fighter is close to dying.

Round 3 begins and while I have lost my Silverblade Fighter, I have managed to take down the enemy Wave Brood as well as their Arkemis the Bear which puts me at a definitely advantage at this point of the battle.

Round 4 - my advantage from the previous round has turned into a clear victory judging by the remaining forces on both sides of the board.

Round 5 - it seems that the enemy will not manage to take down my Mantaroth after all.

Round 6 - all that's left to do for my team is to kill off the last remaining enemy Monster - the Angelic Mandarin.

Silverblade Fighter is a nice Flank Rare Monster for the Life Element. He is currently being traded at $0.40 per bcx which makes him one of the more expensive rare cards of this set but it is still quite affordable and I think he is definitely worth picking up.

Over and Out,

Referral