Hi! It's been a while since I've done a weekly battle challenge, as I have been away for several weeks, but it's finally time to get back in the heat of things. This week's challenge isn't exactly exciting, with the card being Xenith Archer - a 2 mana rare neutral with little use in most cases.

It is a niche card that I just have at level 1, because I don't see much of a reason to upgrade it for silver, but still don't want to get reduced rewards in case I do end up using it. The lack of abilities or any important stat breakpoints before level 6 just makes me use it at its level one in some very specific scenarios, such as Reverse Speed with Sloan or Rise of the Commons with any summoner.

The Battle

This was a brawl battle at a Bronze level, with only Chaos Legion cards available - as those were the fray requirements that I played in. The main reason I could go for Xenith Archer, however, was the Rise of the Commons ruleset, which made it illegal to choose Igor Darkspear, which would otherwise be the primary choice for the battle.

With limited mana left, but also the ruleset and fray requirements being the way they were, including Xenith Archer was really a no-brainer - and its damage was fairly meaningful in this game!

You can find the battle HERE

Here's a screenshot for whoever doesn't feel like watching the whole thing!

The Team

The choice for this battle was fairly broad, but as always, there were limitations that altered it - in this case there were 4, instead of 3, due to it being a brawl battle:

• Ruleset: Rise of the Commons being the sole ruleset was a big reason for choosing Xenith Archer and it was also a big factor in what monsters were chosen in the end.
• Splinters: Dragon being out wasn't too relevant, as I didn't have Quix in my arsenal during the battle anyway, so it was essentially a free-for-all!
• Mana: The mana cap was 27. This is a standard mid-mana battle and usually makes for nearly full teams - it is also what made Xenith Archer a good choice.
• Brawl: The fray I was in required the use of only CL cards, as well as only cards up to Bronze level.

Frontline

With only Chaos Legion available and a mid mana cap being the limitation, there are really only two frontline choices for Kelya Frendul - the expensive and powerful Daemonshark, as well as the cheaper Xenith Monk. In all honesty, the reason I went with the Monk was the fact I was afraid of the enemy choosing Earth Splinter. Spending 8 mana on what is essentially 8 health against Magic, would have been pretty bad considering if there is a Regal Peryton, the Monk gets to heal once and has same effective health for half the mana.

The extra mana also opened up one of my favourite cards in Bronze CL, which is Flying Squid. High attack, high health, decent speed - all while having Reach as an ability. It deals tons of damage, but it can survive quite a bit as an off-tank against both magic and other damage.

Damage

This left me with a whooping 12 mana for the other part of my team, which I wanted to focus solely on doing as much damage as possible. Deeplurker is a no-brainer in Rise of the Commons, as it's only ever a bit weak against Water - with Mycelia out of the way and few monsters in CL having armor with low health.

My Ranged damage dealers ended up being Kulu Swimhunter as well as the main girl of this post - Xenith Archer. With 6 mana left, I could only ever hope to do 3 damage, so this combo was really easy to choose. Kulu is nice to protect against any sort of Sneak, while having these two means I get to also damage a potential Thorns or Void monster without worrying about lowering my damage or taking some in return.

Final Result of the Battle

The battle was victorious, so the team clearly wasn't that bad - in realisty, it is difficult to mess it up when there are so few choices. I don't think there is much I would change if I had to do it again, as I don't think this team was vulnerable to a lot of strategies.

Xenith Archer

Xenith Archer is a little bit of a boring monster. Low stats and mana cost means that it's only ever going to be used as a filler, while the complete lack of abilities makes it more difficult to use in interesting and niche situations.

To be honest, I am never too happy about using her - it is usually out of necessity when no better choices show themselves. As I mentioned earlier, it is only Rise of the Commons and Reverse Speed that are decent for her. As levels progress, she does not really get much stronger, as there are no new abilities and she caps out at only 2 attack. The clear upside is of course being Neutral, meaning that anyone can use her as a filler, especially Sloan would be happy to do so.

I find it difficult to find clear upsides other than those - and the downsides are way more numerous. That said, you can always find a use for her, which is something I love about SPL - every monster ends up being usable, due to the variety of rulesets in the game!

Closing Words

It's been a while since I participated, so I feel a little rusty writing these - but I can't wait for some of my absolute favourite cards to be included here, so that it is possible for me to be excited about the post! Xenith Archer proved to be a challenge and I was definitely lucky to get a battle so quick that let me use her.

Since it's a gaming-related post, here is a bunch of referral links of mine - if you're not playing any of the games I've written about, give them a try! I wouldn't write about bad games.. well, not without saying they're bad anyway. So, here they are:

RABONA - Join the football management game through my referral link to receive a large RBN bonus!

RISING STAR - Here's the referral link to Rising Star. Start your way to mega stardom now!

SPLINTERLANDS - Splinterlands is the poster child of the HIVE blockchain. Join now through my referral link to get some cards from me for a decent headstart!