Hello, hello, hello Splinterfiends,

We’re back with another battle of the week. This time, Splinterlands decided on of the life archers – Pelacor Arbalest.

If you want to be part of this challenge, you can check the article here.

But let’s get into it.

Introcution: Pelacor Arbalest

As you can see below, I have the Pelacor Arbalest maxed out for Gold. As the Arbalest is a rare monster, I had to purchase 60 BCX to level 6. He has two archery damage, three speed, five life, the flying ability as well as double strike. A pretty powerful monster if you ask me. The two summoners for life I can use are general sloan with +1 ranged attack or Grandmaster Rathe with an extra shield, void armor and amplify. The extra shield is the ability I would consider most valuable in context of backline monsters as Pelacor Arbalest.

If you play in silver, you absolutely want the flying ability at level 5. It will give you a better chance to evade attacks and the earthquake ruleset is no problem for the Arbalest.

He gets a third ranged damage point at level 7 but loses a health point instead, which he gets back at max level. A good trade-off at level 7, but maxing out cards is a long ways to go for me. I want to first max the CL and RW deck for gold, before I get to diamond/champion levels.

Ruleset, Mana, Splinter

Why did I chose the Pelacor Arbalest in this battle?
Well, that is a good question. I like the white team, even if many neglect life and General Sloan especially.
The rulesets may have something to do with my decision. Equalizer and Lost Legendaries were the two rulesets and the white team has some very good monsters but they usually are cannon fodder due to their low health. Venary Crystalsmith and Time Mage are two of those, but the Arbalest with 5 health points is no real meat shield as well. I knew, I would get at least 9 HP with my Hero of Beyond plus the Strengthen from Djinn Renova, so I could stack my backline with those monsters, I like. That is, what I did.

44 Mana were sufficient to put good cards on the battlefield, even though I couldn’t play with the legendary monsters.

Water was the only splinter not on the board, so I was pretty sure, the enemy’s monsters didn’t have an additional shield. If water would have been one of the playable splinters, I may have decided on another splinter myself.

Line-Ups

I explained my reasoning for my lineup in the section above. The only card I didn’t mention was Gargoya Lion. I had to choose between the lion and Chaos Knight and decided on the lion due to his void.

My enemy went with the dragon splinter and with Quix as summoner. Chaos Knight as tank and Twilight Basilisk as second tank were good choices and Djinn Renova, the Arbalest as well and Crystalsmith were mere mirrors of my lineup. His last monster was Prismologist, even with Forcefield. Had I decided on a sneak-heavy lineup, I would have had a problem.

Round 1

But let’s see, which strategy was the superior.
Looking at both lineups, I could not anticipate, who of us would leave the battlefield as victor.

After the first round I could have made a bet against myself, as it seemed, I’d loose pretty badly.
After all buffs, I attacked first with the time mage and Crystalsmith, but then his monsters got to Gargoya Lion. The last attack was from Prismologist and as the card has the blast ability, not only had I lost my tank in the first round, Djinn Renova lost two HP as well. The enemies tank (Chaos Knight) only had 1 HP left, but he was there nonetheless.

Round 2

Luckily Time Mage could again attack first and killed the Knight in shining armor but after that, my luck ran out. The enemy team killed Djinn Renova although my Crystalsmith tried to heal my makeshift tank and the blast from Prismologist was nasty for time mage. I not only lost Djinn Renova, but his strengthen (+1 HP for all team monsters) as well.
To top it off, I couldn’t even hit Twilight Basilisk with Hero of Beyond. It was clear to me, I would lose the battle.

Round 3

In the third round I killed the Basilisk with Time Mage and my Crystalsmith, who also could heal Hero of Beyond back to 6 HP, but it was futile, because his monsters destroyed my tank and the Prismologist tore Time Mage into pieces. I was left with my Pelacor Arbalest as tank, who couldn’t attack anymore and my Crystalsmith.

My opponent had Djinn Renova as tank left as well as his Arbalest, Crystalsmith and the nasty Prismologist.

Round 4 and 5

My defeat was a mere formality at this point. Pelacor Arbalest was quickly killed in round 4 and as the Crystalsmith was an archery monster, it couldn’t attack anymore in round 5, before being killed itself.
I think, without the stun in the first round from Basilisk, I could have had a chance, but I lost. Plain and simple. His strategy was superior. The Pelacor Arbalest was a good choice in his line-up.

Well, folks, that is all. There is value in defeats as well, that is why I chose a battle, I didn’t win.
Next week, I try my best to showcase a glorious victory.
Have a great week.