Introduction
Hi everyone! Welcome to another installment of The Jedo's Splinterlands Brawl Report. This post will explain how I approach my battles in Tier 4 Brawls while representing TeamPH. Keep in mind this is a Wild Gold Fray where cards are limited to Advanced Level caps. I will walk you through my thought process in deciding which Summoners and Monsters to select in different combinations of Rulesets and Mana Caps. Now, I am not an expert player by any means and I will have some misplays from time to time. Any comments or suggestions that could help me improve my decision making and rules analyses are welcome and will be very much appreciated! Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a new player in the game, I would like to hear from you! We can all be better together! Let's get into it!
Clarification
The following brawl results are from the previous brawl cycle that ended around five days ago. At the time of writing, another brawl is currently in progress and will end in under 4 hours. I will be publishing another article reporting those results but for now, please enjoy this article and please don't hesitate to let me know your thoughts!
Battle 1 vs @steven-patrick
I was scheduled to work in the office this week and I needed to wake up earlier than usual to get ready for my flight. I debated on putting in my Brawl matches before I leave or just opt to do them later after I land. Considering I am used to playing using my computer and that I have struggled with playing on mobile in the past, I convinced myself to enter the brawl arena and get all my games in before I leave for the week.
My first Battle was against steven-patrick. Mana Cap was at 43 and the only elements available were Life and Death. Ruleset were Super Sneak (all melee monsters have the Sneak ability), Counterspell (all units have Magic Reflect), and Armored Up (all units get +2 Armor).
I selected Tofu as my Summoner even though I was not able to maximize its ability to choose from 2 different Splinters (Earth was not available). I wanted to include Shieldbearer in my lineup and somehow provide him with some healing - either Tank Heal or Triage. Because all units have Magic Reflect, I assumed my opponent will avoid utilizing Magic Attack monsters in his lineup. The Shield ability on my Shieldbearer would be helpful vs Melee and Ranged attacks. Tofu's Triage would be useful, too, I thought to myself. And Thorns? I hoped my opponent went with a melee team.
I chose Mantaroth to be my tank upfront. Olivia of the Brook stood guard behind Mantaroth. Other units in my backline were Spirit Hoarder, Dr. Blight, and Venari Crystalsmith, in that order. Shieldbearer was placed in the 6th position to absorb all the damage while being sustained by double Triage abilities. Crystalsmith supported Mantaroth for frontline sustain.
As soon as the battle started, I realized I had made a mistake. Counterspell was part of the ruleset and that my magical units will take on reflected damage. Olivia (the Sneak ruleset took precedence over her Opportunity) was also hurting herself from attacking Cursed Windeku due to Thorns! When I play Modern Ranked, I use a max level Olivia that has a built-in Reflection Shield. I totally forgot she does not have that ability at level 5 (Gold League Fray). Paying attention to the little details in this game can dictate the course of the battle!
My opponent selected Octavia Shadowmeld, a reward card summoner, and was able to summon 2 gladiator units for this battle. His tank, Xulax Nightwind, has a built-in Thorns ability, similar to Cursed Windeku. He was also able to play Liza Fox in his backline. Liza is another strong choice for a gladiator. She can deal massive Ranged damage and if both Xulax and Liza are left unchecked, they can go crazy with their Bloodlust abilities, further boosting their own stats and becoming more powerful with every monster they eliminate.
Tofu's Thorns greatly helped me in this battle. Xulax's shield and health quickly diminished from Thorns and Mantaroth dealt the finishing blow to Xulax. My Spirit Hoarder died from the reflected damage, and so did Olivia, both from reflected magic and Thorns. My opponent's Chaos Animator had Amplify and did one additional damage for every reflected damage dealt to my units.
Mantaroth eventually powered through the rest of my opponents lineup, with Shieldbearer causing a distraction so that my tank could survive. It was barely past 3 in the morning and I got my first win. Phew.
Battle 1 link HERE
Battle 2 vs @legendaryunicorn
For Battle 2, I was paired against LegendaryUnicorn from the Legendary Unicorns guild. I looked up if there were any other unicorns in this guild - there's one other. Twenty-four Mana Cap with Holy Protection (Divine Shield for all units) and Target Practice (Snipe ability applied to ranged and magic monsters). No Water and no Dragon Splinters. I tried to be creative with the max mana limitation and ended up picking Mylor as my summoner. I chose Lord Arianthus as my primary tank and Failed Summoner as secondary, while also acting as a Snipe target. Multiple sneak cards would quickly remove my opponent's Divine Shields and make his team vulnerable to attacks backline, specifically his last unit. I thought Uraeus, Katrelba, and Elven Cutthroat, along with Acid Shooter as a filler card to my lineup, could provide another win for me early in the morning.
When I saw Tofu on the other side of the battlefield, I immediately thought the battle would be really interesting. It's another Thorns vs Thorns match! This time, what worried me was Venka's Oppress ability, considering I have two no-attack monsters as my tanks. Venka attacked first, removing my main tanks Divine Shield. Due to Thorns, this also caused Venka's Divine Shield to wear off, making Venka vulnerable to my attacks. Venka had another opportunity to attack but because of Arianthus' Shield, Venka was not able to "one-shot" my tank and just ended up taking Thorns damage. Venka's health dropped due to my monsters' sneak attacks from the previous round and my Cutthroat dealt the finishing blow to eliminate this Oppressive unit. The problem was that my units were also taking in damage from my opponent's Thorns. Every attack was comparable to a suicide mission and that's exactly what happened - both Katrelba and Cutthroat were eliminated from Thorns damage. Uraeus followed the rest of my team the round after. Dr. Blight never stopped dealing magic damage and applying poison to my units. LegendaryUnicorn took the win for Battle 2.
Battle 2 link HERE
Battle 3 vs @redhotchilis
Battle 3 was a match against RedHotChilis. Mana cap was 25 with Life and Death unavailable. Standard ruleset so anything goes. Here goes....... anything.
Continuing the trend based on prior battles, I selected Tofu as my summoner. With its 7 mana cost, I had to be really selective with the other units I wanted to play. Again, I chose Katrelba with her double Sneak attack as my weapon of choice. I played it safe by placing Fizbo adjacent to Katrelba in order to give her and Uraeus, my other sneak monster, Reflection Shield, in order to avoid Thorns damage in case my opponent plays any cards with that ability. Tactics-wise, I provided Katrelba with Triage and Scavenger.
This was fun battle. My opponent chose Quix as his summoner and paired Dragon with the Water Splinter. His Dhampir Infiltrator took on Thorns damage before getting eliminated by Katrelba, who feasted on the 6th position Fiend first, before attacking the Infiltrator. Bloodlust triggered twice boosting Katrelba's stats. The next round, Katrelba used both her attacks on the same unit, killing it on the second attack. Bloodlust triggered again.
In the next round, Katrelba attacked first killing 2 more units. Katrelba go BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR... Shoutout to Halfling Refugee for being a solid 1-mana tank and dealing the last hit to my opponents remaining unit for me to win the match. I thought the blood-thirsty Katrelba would take it but I guess she doesn't mind sharing the glory. We all win as a team.
Battle 3 link HERE
Battle 4 vs @foodiekingfarm
Halfway through my brawl battles, I realized I was taking too long to select teams and run the battles. If I wasn't in a rush, this would be fine, but I did not want to risk missing my flight. I still needed to be careful in analyzing, though, as every win in brawls matter for the success of the guild.
I came across FoodieKingFarm on the opposite end of the battlefield for Battle 4. 100-Mana match with only Dragon and Life available. Might Makes Right (at least 3 attack for my units), Healed Out (no healing), and Ferocity (all units have Fury - double damage to monsters with taunt) were the 3 randomized rulesets for this battle.
I selected Kitty as my summoner even though I know that there is no healing allowed in this battle. This is because I wanted to give my units Speed and True Strike. I placed Agor Longtail in front, forgetting that the Ferocity ruleset was active. I supported him with strong, heavy hitters in the backline in hopes of overwhelming my opponent while his units are distracted by the taunting Agor.
My opponent chose a low level summoner, limiting the levels of the monsters he can play with. had he chosen a higher level summoner that unlocks the max level allowed for his monsters in this Brawl Fray, would he have had the chance to win this game? Jedo took this one home.
Battle 4 link HERE
Battle 5 vs @tbone01
52 Mana Cap with only the Fire Splinter unavailable. I am going up agains TBone01. Rulesets are
Heavy Hitters (stunned monsters receive double damage), Unprotected (no armor for all unites), and Fog of War (no sneak, opportunity, or snipe). I guess I can't play Katrelba here.
I went with Lily Shieldpaw giving all my units Camouflage. The speedy Almo Cambio was selected to be my "dodge tank" and was also trained by Daarg Deadblast with some magic weaponry in order to deal some damage. I expected Chaos Dragon on the other side dealing Scattershot and Blast damage and that the double triage from Lily and Daarg would help my team survive.
Even though Almo got hit quite a few times, he did his thing avoiding most of the damage thrown his way with his Speed and his Phase ability and with the added bonus from my own Chaos Dragon's Blind. All damage my opponent was able to land was dealt with multiple heals and triages. The match took longer than I expected do to the evasive manuevers from my Almo and my opponents Void Dragon. My Chaos Dragon eventually dealt enough damage to thin out my opponents backline. I'm glad my Doctor Blight's Affliction hit, disallowing the opposing Void Dragon to be healed. Another win for the team.
Battle 5 link HERE
Battle 6 vs @samolcue
Samolcue was my opponent for battle 6! 26 Mana Cap, and only the Death Splinter is inactive. Beefcakes, Reverse Speed, and Target Practice. Not sure what I should do here.
I decided I should go with Lily + Grimbardun Smith. I picked Daarg for additional Damage even though his Swiftness basically gave my opponents monsters a buff due to the Reverse Speed ruleset. Not much to say here except that I was overwhelmed by magic attacks. My opponent's summoner, Obsidian, increased his team's magic attacks. Goblin Psychic reduced my teams magic damage and Magi of Chaos, with its Oppress ability, dealt too much damage to my GBS. Jini Guise also had blind that help evade my backline ranged and magic attacks. I fell flat on my face here and took the loss. Good game.
Battle 6 link HERE
Battle 7 vs @stackin
Now this one was a good one! I faced Stackin this round oh boy, did we battle it out! 22 Mana Cap and only the Earth Splinter is inactive. Up to Eleven (Units have amplify) and Broken Arrows (no ranged attack monsters) are the rules of this battle. I chose Kelya as my summoner along with Opportunity monsters in Deeplurker and Isgald Vorst. I protected my backline with Chaos Agent and Kelp Initiate in case my opponent opts for a Sneak play. And in case he does, I was hoping I can race his team by attacking the lower health monsters first.
We had almost the same idea except he went full speed with Kitty and a combination of Sneak and Opportunity with his own Isgald Vorst, Pelacor Bandit, and Uraeus. True Strike from Kitty was a big factor in this match, rendering my Chaos Agent's Dodge useless. The bonus 2 Speed also meant there's a higher chance of my monsters missing their attacks.
My backline protection bought my offensive threats some time to deal some damage. Even though my monsters kept getting hit and were missing some of their attacks, my team was able to keep up while my Halfling Refugee held his own up in front. The Piercing ability from Isgald is extremely deadly, as displayed by the units on both sides of the battlefield. Towards the last round of the match, we were toe to toe. I feel like in the last round, had my units been hitting their marks, I would have won the match. Stackin's Isgald was just too fast to hit. Well played. Another loss for The Jedo.
Battle 7 link HERE
Battle 8 vs @the-wizardman4
My final battle for this brawl was against The-Wizardman4. Just for the heck of it, I also checked his guild, The Wizards, to see how many wizards are in there. There's.... a lot. I'm not disappointed.
Are You Not Entertained (1 additional gladiator card can be played), Counterspell (all units have Magic Reflect), and Stampede (units with trample can keep trampling) are the rulesets for this match. Mana Cap is 41, and Life is unavailable. I did not want to think about anything else except piggyback on the Stampede ruleset by giving my units Trample via Possibilus as my summoner.
My foe had the same idea bringing in Possibilus. Even though we had some differences in monster selection, the match seemed pretty even and I was unsure what the end result may be. I had Wavebrood in my backline as my taunt monster to cause distraction while my Diemonshark, Tatiana Blayde, and Isgald Vorst deals damage. Angelic Mandarin is there to sustain the Wavebrood with Triage and Merdaali Guardian to support my main tank with Tank Heal and Repair.
My taunt play worked! Diverting all damage to Wavebrood while I eliminated the opposing tank. Wavebrood eventually got wiped out, allowing my Angelic Mandarin heal other monsters in my backline. My opponent's Deeplurker ended up killing my Merdaali Guardian and did a secondary attack to my Isgald and left him poisoned. Things weren't looking good but Angelic Mandarin sustained Isgald, letting him survive another round. Tatiana Blayde got rid of the opposing Deeplurker using her ranged attack (Trample did not trigger as it is for melee attacks only). My opponent's Isgald performed another Trample after killing another one of my units but in the end, my remaining units have gotten strong enough to finish the match and add another point to my win column.
Battle 8 link HERE
Summary
The Brawl ended with me having 5 wins and 3 losses. I think I could have done better but sometimes you end up facing really formidable opponents. All this is part of the game. Overall, TeamPH took 5th place. Not very happy with this result considering our recent first place finishes before this brawl. I still would like to congratulate the top 3 guilds for this brawl cycle! We'll try harder next time!
Final Thoughts
As always, playing Brawls are so much fun! I understand that I have still so much to learn. Some of my wins might have been because of luck. Some might be actual good plays that other players can learn from. Either way, I hope you guys enjoyed this article and if you have questions, comments, or feedback for me, please let me know! Let's all learn and grow together and set each other up for success! Vonak! Together We Thrive, Kapamilya!
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