Welcome to Owly Farm Gaming's post for Splinterlands' Weekly Battle Challenge: Flying Squid. If you haven't entered this challenge yet, get the low down from Splinterlands' blog post right here! Now, let's talk about the Flying Squid!
Lore
Although Flying Squid are not truly capable of flight, their moniker comes from their ability to launch themselves from the water and glide above the surface for long distances before resubmerging. These aggressive predators shoot ink into the eyes of their prey to blind them before attacking with their lengthy tentacles.
I've seen a lot of 'em whenever I do my daily Splinterlands grind. The Water splinter isn't really my current favorite (maybe you can change my mind) but if I had to use it, this bad boy will be one of the choices I'd pick up.
For a level 1 card, it has great stats. 2 Melee Attack Damage, 3 Speed. Fast and almost deadly. Slap on 8 hearts for health and Reach for its ability, and now you get one of the best 2nd position cards for both Modern and Wild formats!
This week's battle review features my Water team vs an intimidating Earth team. Check the full replay here.
Ruleset
Mana Cap: 99
Heavy Hitters: All Monsters have the Knock Out ability.
Holy Protection: All Monsters have the Divine Shield ability.
Splinters Available: All except for the Dragon Splinter.
With the 99 Mana Cap, you have the leisure of choosing any card you wish to play. I was not running on a Water focus during this time but figured to try it as I saw in the preview that my foe was using Obsidian a whole lot. I had doubts that my team would survive, given that this user is using higher level cards!
Team Composition
| Position | Card | Stats | Abilities |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Torhilo the Frozen | Level 1
4 Melee Attack 1 Speed 4 Defense 8 Health |
Void |
| 2nd | Flying Squid | Level 1
2 Melee Attack 3 Speed 8 Health |
Reach |
| 3rd | Djinn Oshannus | Level 1
2 Magic Attack 5 Speed 10 Health |
Void |
| 4th | Deeplurker | Level 1
3 Melee Attack 2 Speed 6 Health |
Opportunity |
| 5th | Sand Worm | Level 1
5 Melee Attack 1 Speed 5 Health |
Sneak |
| 6th | Nerissa Tridawn | Level 1
5 Melee Attack 1 Speed 5 Health |
N/A |
I decided to have 2 Void monsters to make sure I don't get too much magic damage, assuming that the enemy will continue with using the Earth splinter. The Deeplurker is there to look for any easy kills and I added the Sand Worm just in case frontal assault was going to be slow.
Enemy Team Composition
| Position | Card | Stats | Abilities |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Legionnaire Alvar | Level 1
2 Melee Attack 2 Speed 8 Defense 6 Health |
Void Armor |
| 2nd | Regal Peryton | Level 4
2 Magic Attack 6 Speed 6 Health |
Flying |
| 3rd | Goblin Psychic | Level 5
2 Magic Attack 1 Speed 5 Health |
Tank Heal
Affliction |
| 4th | Sand Worm | Level 2
5 Melee Attack 2 Speed 5 Health |
Sneak |
| 5th | Supply Runner | Level 5
2 Ranged Attack 4 Speed 5 Health |
Swiftness |
| 6th | Mycelic Slipspawn | Level 4
2 Magic Attack 3 Speed 11 Health |
Taunt
Forcefield |
The Legionnaire Alvar was hard to deal with and it took a lot to take him down, thanks to the Mycelic Slipspawn's taunt. Their team would also deal more damage first due to the Supply Runner's speed boost.
Match Breakdown
Round 1:
The Peryton strikes first at the Torhilo, leaving it vulnerable to further attacks. The latter along with the Flying Squid takes down half of Alvar's defenses but Torhilo is in danger of getting destroyed by the next round. The Mycelic Slipspawn is also almost down as it was getting all the damages from my monsters from the 3rd to 6th positions.
Round 2:
Torhilo can no longer sustain incoming damage, so does the enemy's Slipspawn. The Flying Squid starts taking damage as it replaces Torhilo. Sand Worm misses its attack on the Supply Runner.
Round 3:
Oshannus finally removes Alvar's defenses! The Flying Squid did its job as a tank, manages to take off some of Alvar's health but also takes the fall. Nerissa takes 5 melee damage from the enemy Sand Worm, the Supply Runner loses its Divine Shield, and we are left with a 4v4 battle. With Alvar getting destroyed, I feel more confident that the luck is by my side.
Round 4:
Oshannus loses its 1 defense as it gets hit by the Supply Runner. Nerissa and Deeplurker take down the Regal Peryton. Sand Worm takes care of the Supply Runner, slowing them down a bit more.
Round 5:
We're almost there! Oshannus and Deeplurker takes the Goblin Psychic down but the enemy Sand Worm bumps Oshannus' health down to 1. Our own Sand Worm removes the latter's Divine Shield. We know what's going to happen next...
Oshannus and Deeplurker eliminates the final enemy and we take the win!
Final Notes:
The Flying Squid did its job at the second position very well. Without it, it would have been harder to take the Legionnaire Alvar down and I could have lost the battle.
In retrospect, I wonder if replacing Nerissa with the Axemaster could have taken the Slipspawn faster. Or maybe I would try and use the Ruler of the Seas to easily take down the enemy's Divine Shields. Since the game had a 99 Mana Cap, I would have also tried using Lir Deepswimmer and see how would things go.
In general, this team felt pretty balanced to me when it came to dealing different kinds of damages to the enemy. As I had a limited number of cards to play with, winning with this lineup felt good! I'll continue to use the Flying Squid in my future battles along with Torhilo or Diemonshark as tanks.
I hope you enjoyed reading along this battle review and I'll see you around next week! Catch me and the rest of the gang on Twitch as well.
Cheers!
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