(image made by me using splinterlands images)
First lets set the scene, were in modern, the active splinters are fire, earth, life and dragon. A high mana match with 64 available and the rule set is Equal Opportunity. If you don't have all the rule sets memorized this means all units will attack the unit with the lowest health, unless there is a unit with taunt, or a unit has wing breaker and there's something with wings.
For strategy in lower mana matches with this rule set I play some cheap low health units to draw fire so the beefier units can hold fast and do some damage before one of them is the focus of the opponents attacks. However, with it being such a high mana match I could loud my team up with expensive units.
I was initially tempted to bust out Elaise Pruitt as his +1 melee and + shield would help, but my life splinter game is kinda weak on it's own. So I went with Kaylia with the logic that execute and equal opportunity would have a pretty good chance of doing major damage. her -1 to opponents magic is also pretty sweet.
When picking units I looked at a mix between health and speed. I wanted as many of my units to go first as possible. Sadly the death splinter wasn't active or I would have for sure taken the Silverleaf warlock.
| Kaylia Silverleaf is probably my favorite of the new archons. Execute is always a useful ability and lower the enemies attack is always good. With super sneak I felt the execute ability would come in even more handy as my units would be targeting their units with the lowest health, meaning they'd be more likely to hit the 1-2 health threshold. |
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| I took the silverblade fighter as my tank for a few reasons. the Void armour means he can hold up against magic attacks longer than most. Flank means I can put another melee unit behind him and they can attack even if they don't have reach. The 6 mana cost means he's affordable in this match. He's also an elf so gets execute from my archon. Flank also means instead of attacking the lowest health unit, the second unit will attack the front line. |
| The halfling refugee is a solid card. Mine is level two so it actually has an attack of 3. Exhaust is annoying but they can take a hit and dish out damage pretty good. I use this card A LOT. In this round the single mana cost means I can summon some of my really expensive units. |
| Lord Thanalor with a hefty mana cost of 12, but with 3 magic attack, ten health and four speed he's worth it. With the archons execute ability that means he can dish out 6 damage in a turn. 6 magic damage which means that unless the unit he's attacking as void armour or void abilities he's doing massive damage to their health |
| I love this guy. He's chucking rocks at the enemy. With a solid attack, beefy health, blind and wing breacker and a decent speed of 3 he's a really strong card. The ten mana means he's not always an option but I love bringing him on the field when I can. I wasn't entirely sold on not putting him in the back but, with the rule set line order isn't as important as in other times.Plus I was pretty sure the folks behind him would get targeted first making changing the line order pointless. |
| The rune arcanist with only five health was gonna be one of the first to go down, but her weaken ability could be the difference between execute triggering for someone else or not. |
| And for the final position we have the silverleaf mage. Her taunt ability means everyone else gets a bit of breathing room while my opponents gets through her beefy ten health and 2 armour. Her 3 attack is also great. Her 11 mana cost means that I generally only use her during high mana matches like this. |
My opponent went with Bella, which is a solid choice as the deflection field means that counter measures don't work and all their Ulunda units get shield. Which would matter more if I didn't have Lord Thanalor. The use of a unit iwht Taunt is also smart, and a unit with headwind will hamper my ranged attacks. But we'll see how it goes.
With archon and unit abilities on my opponents units have + melee from the Janni rebel, which doesn't really help since they have no melee units. They're also blinded and weakened. None of their units have more then 6 health. Which is significant given the amount of damage Lord Thanalor can do.
Right out of the gate Lord Thanalor takes out the the Beluric Aegis. His first blow reduces their health to 1, triggering exacute which finishes it off.
Looking at my opponents units this means the Thunderous herald with 3 health is the next target. There's some damage, and lack of damage back and forth. With the combination of debuff + shield the Fenmore troll does no damage, and with shield the Silverleaf fighter does no damage to their frontline unit. And the silver leaf mage took a few hits, however, at the Rune arcanist does two magic damage, bringing the hearld down to 1, which triggers execute.
And then it's the end of round 1. I've eliminated two of their units without losing any of my own. Even after taking a round worth of hits the Silverleaf mage has 8 health left.
Round two begins with their front line being elminated by Lord Thanalor.
After trading blows back and forth for a bit my rune archanist takes out the Anachron bolter(great card it's on my list of cards I want). Which means the headwind debuff goes away. My silver leaf fighter has taken some hits and The silver leaf mage is down to 6 health.
With the headwind debuff down the silverleaf mages attack is back up to three, meaning that when she hits the Janni rebel, it triggers exacute and they go down.
Leaving only an archer, whose then elminated by Lord Thanalor.
The take away from this battle : Hard hitting units are always good but they can be even better when they get sneak and cat target units they can eliminate in a single round.