Odd Ones Out

Splinterlands luck avoided me this week; I hadn’t run into this ruleset since Monday. I thought I wouldn’t be able to cover it this time. However, two battles I underwent earlier this morning saved the week. I might have done some magic to call them, listening to Bowie’s "Space Oddity." Just like Major Tom is somewhere out there, not far from his home planet, yet floating in the most peculiar way in his tin can towards infinity far beyond the reach of ground control, even monsters are beyond your reach under this ruleset. Oh, so much for the poetic entrée, let’s get to the bloodbath, as that’s what Splinterlands is all about. And this battle was just that.

I often side with the Life Splinter when things get uneven (and you cannot rely on even monsters). I feel this fraction offers several great odd monsters. I naturally assemble my pack around Franz Ruffmane. The Gladiators I have are too good to be just left aside. A funny fact – I see Franz as a German guy, and as such, he doesn’t fit Bowie’s song.

I expected to face an Obsidian-led set of magic strikers, so my first two cards reflect that. Gargoya Scrapper was my decoy-tank. It’s just a cannon-fodder monster that can’t do much. Yet its Void ability allows it to block several magic attackers.

Imperial Knight was the real anti-magic tank of my set. With Void Armor and self-healing, this knight can stand for several rounds, especially when backed by other healers or creatures with Repair.

I can hardly imagine a battle without at least one Martyr. Venari Marksrat is a universal monster that usually serves its purpose well – dies and buffs. All of that for only 3 mana points – what a bargain!

Here comes my power monster. Captain Katie, the dreaded Gladiator, sniping her foes, getting buffed with every enemy down. She is often the one who secures my victory.

The strength of the Life Splinter lies in healers, and I couldn’t lead my pack into battle without one. Meriput Magician fits this shoe.

I still had one mana point spare. Since I thought I might also face a sneaker, I spent the last point on Chaos Agent. Without weapons training, this monster is useless, except for blocking one or even two attacks when buffed by Franz.

The Battle

I was proven wrong – my set clashed with the brute force of Fire. Fortunately, my strategy was flexible enough to handle this surprise. Besides, I had the better cards in this one. My opponent drafted quite a random set with little synergy – their cards were not particularly weak, but they didn’t work well together. Besides, they split the offensive power among four different targets (the front monster focused on my front monster, Torch Vizier is an opportunist, Tenyii Striker a sneaker, and Lava Spider a sniper), which only works if your monsters have Blast.

Chasing too many rabbits hardly ever works in Splinterlands, and that was demonstrated in the first round, where I only lost my most useless card, Chaos Agent. As my opponent’s monsters kept targeting various cards of mine, I built a strong position within the second and third rounds and got my Gladiator buffed. From then on, the battle turned into a slaughter, ending with my decisive victory.

See the full battle here!

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