Good day everyone splinterlands community, today I will share another interesting battle in a modern format. This blog highlights the Grimbardun Smith synergy with Lily Shieldpaw the strategy to use mainly abilities with decent damage dealers to my team line-up, behind every great tank is the support that keeps it standing healing and repair for Grimbardun Smith to become an unbeatable tank. I used my main account for this match, and the rule sets are Keep Up Your Distance, Blood & Sunder, and Equal Opportunity with a 27-mana cap.
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Grimbardun Smith has Immunity, Void, Shield, and Repair, with stats of 1 Speed, 3 Armor, and 10 Health. Its best combo summoner would be Lily Shieldpaw, as the Camouflage ability protects the rest of the team, forcing all opponent attacks (melee, ranged, and magic) to focus on Grimbardun Smith in the first position. This makes it an ideal tank, with Immunity preventing negative status effects and Repair helping maintain its armor. To maximize its durability, pairing it with support units that provide healing and Repair will help it withstand damage throughout the battle. This unit is also quite effective in Noxious Fumes thanks to its Immunity ability and is best in Weapons Training by gaining attack stats from adjacent units.
Rule Sets synergies
Grimbardun Smith performs exceptionally well in rule sets like Reverse Speed, where its low speed allows it to strike earlier if it has been supported by Weapons Training ability, and Armored Up, which boosts its already strong armor for enhanced durability for Repair ability. In Noxious Fumes, its Immunity provides a significant advantage, allowing it to survive while other units succumb to poison. Keep Your Distance limits melee attacks, but Grimbardun Smith can still shine as a damage-absorbing tank, especially when supported by ranged and magic units. In Target Practice, its high health and armor make it an ideal second frontline to those range & magic attacks with Snipe ability. However, it’s vulnerable to the Expose ability, which can bypass its Immunity, Void, and Shield. In modern format, I think Cryptic Summoner is the only one it has for Expose ability so best to watch out for the opponent's history and check if the water element is active in the rule set.
Please also check that I share an expanded story of Forged Fate of Grimbardun Smiths the fate of Grimbars amid war Praetoria.
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Into the battle: https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_a6f5c481a920e1506e7277a67bb8b1c4
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I use a support strategy that slowly delivers damage to the opponent with the debuff and decent range damage for low cost in a 27-man cap. I deploy Lily Shielpaw as my summoner with the following line-up units Grimbardun Smith, Chaos Agent, Merdaali Guardian, Angelic Mandarin, Doctor Blight, and Kulu Swamphunter. The summoner I chose, Lily Shieldpaw, is a good counter for the Equal Opportunity rule set, which forces all units to target the enemy with the lowest health. Thanks to Lily’s Camouflage ability, all enemy attacks are redirected to my frontline tank, Grimbardun Smith. My strategy revolves around supporting Smith’s durability, even against Scattershot attacks that can randomly hit any position. To sustain my lineup, I rely on two sources of Triage healing from both my summoner and Angelic Mandarin, providing solid backline recovery.
While my opponent used Quix the Devious summoner, with a lineup consisting of Void Dragon, Argorax Magus, Venari Marksrat, Angelic Mandarin, Gem Meteor, and Doctor Blight and I think the opponent is aiming for a Martyr strategy to boost Argorax Magus and Angelic Mandarin. Both Gem Meteor and Argorax Magus have Scattershot, posing a threat to my support units. I hoped their attacks wouldn’t target my Merdaali Guardian & Angelic Mandarin support, giving my team enough time to eliminate these threats.
Well, expect the unexpected. My Doctor Blight was able to execute opponent Gem Meteor by applying poison...
In the second round, my Doctor Blight again was able to apply poison to Argarux Magus and execute making the opponent's strategy ineffective to my strategy.
The opponent was overwhelmed with buff/debuff abilities. Void Dragon, Angelic Mandarin, and Doctor Blight couldn’t break through or execute my Grimbardun Smith’s defenses. Ultimately, my strategy secured victory. However, if my opponent’s Scattershot landed lucky hits on my Angelic Mandarin or Merdaali Guardian, the outcome victory could’ve been different.
![23tkdcqae9Ad4ErdsvYSeXdTYNj3NRGxcY3vmoVB4wNn2bNWLemxDuo89vY9YVX4GenbL.png](https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/zactian/23tkdcqae9Ad4ErdsvYSeXdTYNj3NRGxcY3vmoVB4wNn2bNWLemxDuo89vY9aGzxTNLay.png)
A Big Thanks! for supporting me, being here, and coming this far. I hope this strategy can assist you with some of your battles with these rule sets.
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