Hello #splinterlands fans! star-shroud here from @shield-of-glory guild, with another installment of our Brawls of Steel report. As always, we cover topics such as brawl results from the top guilds, thoughts on brawl strategy, potential improvements for the brawl format and, most importantly, GLADIUS cards!
BRAWL RESUTS FROM TOP GUILDS
The latest round of brawls from the top guilds involved another flood of dominating performances, last minute nail-biters and even some high-profile upsets!
The competition in our brawl was particularly fierce. KNIGHT'S UNITED took home first with an impressive performance. PEAKMONSTERS [VIKINGS] squeaked out the second spot, only 6 points higher than SHIELD OF GLORY in third. TEAM POSSIBLE took home fourth place and ZZPZA rounded out the top 5. IMMORTAL ARMY came in a disappointing eighth place with a surprisingly weak performance.
In another brawl, current #5 guild THE GUILD OF NEOXIAN turned in a dominating performance against LEGENDARY WHELPS who came in a distant second. Three different PEAKMOMNSTERS guilds came in the third, fourth and fifth spots, respectively.
With the #2, #3, #4 and #5 guilds locked in the brawls above, current #1 guild IMMORTAL GODS had the run of its group. IMMORTAL GODS dominated the competition and came in first place. LEGENDARY DRAGONS, TEAM POSSIBLE POWER, THE ANTI SOCIAL CLUB and TEAM KR filled out the remaining top 5.
TOP BRAWL BATTLES
Many brawls continue to be dominated by the effect of ultra-powerful GLADIUS cards. For those who are new to brawls or Splinterlands in general, Gladius is a unique set of Splinterlands cards that (for now at least 😉) can only be used in brawl battles between guilds. They cannot be traded, delegated or sold and are said to therefore be "soul-bound" to their particular player. These card have impressive statistics and abilities and the only way to get them is to play brawls and win "merits" which can be used to purchase Gladius booster packs. One ability all Gladius cards have in common is Bloodlust. Every time a monster with Bloodlust defeats an opponent, it gets +1 to all stats (-1 to speed in the Reverse Speed ruleset).
For example, SHIELD OF GLORY brawler champion-slayer played a great match against mrwadas from the KINGS OF KOMBAT guild. The Fray 5 spot (bronze/chaos legion only) was a mid-level 36 mana battle with KNOCK-OUT and EXPLOSIVE WEAPONRY (Blast) ruleset. Life, Earth and Dragon were the available splinters. Champion-slayer choose Quix the Devious as summoner, Xenith Monk as tank and Void Dragon in the back. Gladius Captain Katie went all crazy with her magic snipe attack and BLOODLUSTED 5x TIMES! Void Dragon thwarted Gladius Katrelba 'double-strike sneak' Gobson, dodging repeated attacks throughout the battle. The full battle can be view on the Hive blockchain here.
Gladius Captain Katie made the last 5x KILLS in a row, bloodlusting to a magic attack of +8 😆
SHIELD OF GLORY brawler ducecrypto played a tough match again jigstrike from the KNIGHTS UNITED guild. The Fray 14 spot (bronze/GoldFoil/modern) saw a mid-to-high 42 mana cap with LITTLE LEAGE and TARGET PRACTICE rulesets. jigstrike's Gladius Betrol Gobson made all the difference, going wild with a deadly combination of opportunity and bloodlust, and ultimately wining a final showdown with Dr. Blight. The full battle can be view on the Hive blockchain here.
Gladius Betrol Gobson took over this battle, bloodlusting 5x TIMES to a melee of +7 and speed of +9
On the other hand, in a matchup between azircon of SHIELD OF GLORY and nitekichi from TEAM POSSIBLE, there were no Gladius cards played. This Fray 16 spot (silver/GoldFoil/modern) saw a low 13 mana cap with REVERSE SPEED and LITTLE LEAGUE rulesets. All splinters were available except for Earth. azircon used Death summor Owtser Rotwell, while nitekichi used Fire Summoner Tarsa. Both played Dr. Blight in the back. Ultimately though, Owster's magic reflect made the difference in an otherwise close match. The full battle can be view on the Hive blockchain here.
SHIELD OF GLORY'S top brawler (by W/L%) steemitromney had another solid performance this week, but did lose a particularly tough battle against junokeo from TEAM POSSIBLE. This Fray 10 spot (silver/modetn) saw a mid-level 36 mana cap with AIM TRUE as the ruleset. Water and Death were the available splinters. steemitromney played Mimosa as summoner, chain golem in the tank position and Gladius Liza Foxx in the backline. junokeo played Lir Deepswimmer, summoned wave brood to the tank position and Gladius Relanor Cleaver in the reach position. Lir's Return fire made the difference here against steemitromeny's range-heavy back-line. Interestingly, Relanor Cleaver bloodlusted only one time, and that was from a return fire kill. There, we see proof that kills caused by defensive damage (thorns, return fire, magic reflect, etc.) activate the bloodlust ability. The full battle can be view on the Hive blockchain here.
QUORA TOWERSHEAD
It wouldn't be a great brawl report if we didn't devote at least some time to arguably the most powerful of all the GLADIUS cards: epic Earth double-attack, self-healing Gladius Quora Towershead. If you haven't experienced a Lama/Quora lineup yet, think of something like Lama/Kron on steroids.
As with last week, I found any chance I could to put these two cards into the arena. When I did, they stole the show, per usual. For example, take a look at this battle here where Quora kills all six opposing monsters, on her own, bloodlusting to an overpowering +9 magic attack, +9 melee attack, +10 speed and +25 health!
Perennial SHILED OF GLORY top performer xsuilx had an interesting Quora vs Quora showdown with rtron86 of IMMORTAL ARMY. Fray 9 (silver/chaos legion) saw a high mana 56 cap with ENRAGE and TAKING SIDES (no neutrals) battle rulesets. All splinters were available except Fire. It was a near mirror-match in card selection, however the card placement made all the difference here. Note the difference in taunt placement, where xsuilx's choice to put Mycelial Spawn in the back turned the entire tide of the battle. The full battle can be viewed on the bock chain here.
However, we also saw more proof this week that Quora is not completely unbeatable. SHIELD OF GLORY brawler sinistry faced off with dharanir from TEAM POSSIBLE in the Fray 7 spot (silver/wild). The match saw a mid-to-high 42 mana cap with OPPORTUNITY and TAKING SIDES (no neutrals) battle rulesets. dharanir played Obsidian as summoner and a threesome of powerful earth monsters: Kron, Flesh Golem & Quora. sinistry used Mimosa as summoner, a key move that denied kron, flesh golem and quora their heal ability. Even then, it took a storm of stun hits from Lord of Darkness to finish Quora off at the end. The full battle can be viewed on the Hive blockchain here.
SHIELD OF GLORY: BRAWL STATSTICS, TOP 5 & BOTTOM 5
As you know, our ever-evolving system for fray selection involves a guaranteed spot in the next brawl for the top 5 by W/L%, whereas the bottom 5 must sit out the next brawl. When there is a tie for a Top 5 or Bottom 5 spot, overall W/L% from all recorded brawls will break the tie. Players competing in a Gold Foil fray are immune from benching despite their W/L% on the previous brawl.
The top performers for SHIELD OF GLORY this week were xsuilx (8-1) and azircon (7-0) with the sweep! vugtis, sinistry and misterrogers rounded out the remaining top 5. These players are guaranteed a spot in the net brawl. Please post you preferred fray spot on the TAVERN CHAT before sign-ups begin for the next brawl.
The bottom 5 for SHIELD OF GLORY this week were greddyforce (2-7), bennettitalia (3-6), rogerkitkit (3-6), champion-slayer (5-4) and ironicghost (5-4). (The latter two losing in tie-breakers to star-shroud and anasazi based on overall W/L% for all recorded brawls). These members will sit out the next brawl, heal their wounds, analyze their strategies and cards, and come back stronger than ever the next time!
In looking at overall W/L% for all recorded brawls, steemitromney (80.00%) and xsuilx (75.71%) hold on to their first and second positions. With his 7-0 sweep this week, azircon (74.14%) jumped into the third spot!
As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next installment. We're going to keep improving our statistics so keep an eye of for that. We also have new content planned. And please leave comments below! 🙂 In the meantime, we'll be grinding, brawling, supporting each other on our path to glory!
Cool post... I like the graphic design 👍
And Quora is a killer for sure...
Thanks man! Glad you like the design 😃 I've been trying to improve it each time.
lots of work and dedication went into the post looks like. Very well done,
Thanks azircon! As always, any suggestions are welcome. Nice performance this week with the sweep!
Your attention to detail is getting better and better. I like the idea of giving brawl coverage to some of the other top guilds as well, so people can see what is going on. I saw that you stopped tagging individual accounts, instead choosing to bold their names. I actually like getting my IGN linked at least once, so I get a notification that I've been mentioned in the article. I only speak for myself clearly, but I think it is helpful to be tagged at least once in the section where your battle or fray is highlighted. Thanks for your hard work mate.
I agree, I liked tagging the people from each battle. But I got some feedback from the last two reports which was not to use the tagging feature as much. Maybe I went too much in the other direction?
!PIZZA
@ivandemier, sorry! You need more to stake more $PIZZA to use this command.
The minimum requirement is 20.0 PIZZA staked.
More $PIZZA is available from Hive-Engine or Tribaldex
Amazing post. Keep up the good work. I really like the pictures and the way you are presenting your idea. Excellent!