Hello to any of my readers and "Dear (weekly) Diary" 😜

Today's weekly Social Media Challenge is all about Tips for Beginners. I shall showcase one of my past battles to highlight one of the stats which lots of new players tend to overlook — SPEED! But we'll get to that later. First a quick look at what happened this week in the world of crypto.

BTC has once again showed it's strength as it topped $53k at one point this week! Even though it has gone down slightly to 52k, that's putting BTC closer to it's all time high with every passing week. Add in Coinbase's surge in pricing as it's earnings results soundly beat market expectations, we could soon be entering the crazy days from more than 2 years ago. 😱 Unfortunately, HIVE and SPS don't quite seem to be tracking the gains from the majors. However, the outlook sure looks better than before! 😁

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A brief introduction before I start though...

Good Day to all Splinterlands players! (and people of HIVE! 😜) I've made it a point to blog about my weekly progress and experiences in Splinterlands/HIVE in my "weekly diary". Splinterlands & HIVE are what I'd consider to be my entry point into the World of Crypto, and I intend to use this as a means to look back on the path I've taken in the years ahead.⏳⏳⏳

This is now the 117th consecutive week writing in my Diary (of sorts) detailing my Splinterlands Journey ever since I started this game. I talk about what has gone on my personal Splinterlands playing experience, my weekly Guild Brawl Reports, and also any Splinterlands ingame news. 🎉🥳🎊

No week goes by in Splinterlands without some news event happening though. And here's my pick of some of the most interesting ones in my opinion. 📰📰📰

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🗺️🧳✈️Updates on my Splinterlands Journey🗺️🧳✈️

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This week's Social Media Challenge is all about sharing some tips for beginners, so that is what I'll do instead. Usually, nothing really special really happens in my daily Splinterlands daily grind, so let's hope this is more interesting for reading?... let's get down to it! 🤣

Most people tend to only focus on the attack power or defensive abilities of a card. They tend to ignore the Speed stat. Afterall, if my cards are that strong, why does it matter whether it attacks first or not? All that matters is that it kills the opponent when it finally gets to attack right? Well, this is where most beginners will be dreadfully wrong! Take a look at my showcase battle below to get an idea of the power of speed when it comes to dodging physical attacks! 😉

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My quest for more Gold Foil Legendary cards from my rewards chests continues on ("Greed is Good!" 😈). It's a 0.008% chance, at base level, to pull a legendary gold foil, in case you were wondering 😉. Here's to more jackpot strikes in the future (i hope) 🤞🏻🍀🤞🏻🍀🤞🏻🍀.

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⚔️🛡️My Battle Showcase🛡️⚔️

Let me present a battle I fought recently in which I used the Quix the Devious. My opponent used Thaddius Brood with the DEATH splinter as his main pick, while I also used the DEATH splinter together with a DRAGON splinter card. At first glance, it looked like it would be an even match, with our levels being similar. The difference lay in our Attack Types, with the opponent choosing to focus on ranged and melee whilst I picked mostly Magic Attacks. This would prove to be my opponent's undoing as you'll soon see. Victory or defeat would lie in the small details. 😱

I would say that the Quix the Devious was DEFINITELY the MVP of this match having single-handedly turned the tide of battle. It's TANK HEAL ability allowed it to keep my entire team alive against all the odds! 🏆🏆🏆

As you can see, my opponent used the Shadowy Presence as his tank, which was a VERY good choice, being a tanky unit that costs only 1 mana. His Riftwing was the secondary tank, with the Scavenger ability generally making it tankier if more units died. He used an Undead Priest to further debuff my team reducing all my units Health by 2 in total 😱! The Uraeus was his Sneak DPS to take out any vulnerable units, entirely bypassing the front tanks, whilst his Haunted Spider and Soul Strangler would provide the range DPS to take down the frontline.

The battle started out looking like it was already his game. His lineup looked like it was made to counter mine - What chance could I possibly have? 😱

However, the unexpected happened and my Main and Rear Tanks dodged EVERY SINGLE attack that was thrown at it.

One of the key points in this game was the fact that my dual speed debuff from Quix and the Ooze, together with the Flying abilities and high speeds of both front and rear tanks, rendered all of the opponent's physical attacks a complete non factor! He couldn't land a single blow and the battle ended with my team slowly whittling down his forces until I won with ZERO casualties!

This was truly an eye opener!

Slowly, but surely, the damage and cripple wore down the opponent's team and the battle was won! Even though it looked like the battle looked even at the start, my superior team selection proved to be the edge I needed to eventually overpower my opponent. 💪🏻

💭🧐💭Ending Thoughts💭🧐💭

I definitely can appreciate Quix the Devious and it's strengths. This is one of those cards which are very strong if surrounded with the proper team. The role it brings to the battlefield will give a player the edge in squeezing out every tiny advantage to get the win. 👍🏻 It's abilities, in the right situation, can lead to an unbreakable tank which will keep the rest of your vulnerable army safe no matter the situation.

For any players looking to try out Quix the Devious, I hope this article has given you some insight into its potential. 😉

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🤑💰🍕Added Bonus of PIZZA Token🤑💰🍕

_{I will use my staked 🍕PIZZA🍕 to share a slice of 🍕PIZZA🍕 with anyone in the comments who also FOLLOWS & REBLOGS my post in the interests of spreading the Word of Pizza 🤣🤣🤣
Just let me know if you've done that so I can easily keep track. 👍
Any fellow 🍕PIZZA🍕 connoisseurs who !PIZZA me will also receive 🍕PIZZA🍕 back from me. 😊}

📣🍕SHOUTOUT to HivePizza📣🍕

_{The guys over at PIZZA DISCORD have been very helpful throughout my Splinterlands journey. I strongly recommend that you guys check it out if you haven't already done so.
PIZZA is an active gaming and creative arts crypto community on the HIVE blockchain. Popular games on HIVE like SPLINTERLANDS, RISING STAR, EXODE, HASHKINGS, WOO, BANG!DEFENSE have their own PIZZA communities here.}

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_{Don't miss out more events that are always being organised. Join the PIZZA DISCORD. Even if you aren't interested in the 💰🍕🎁GIVEAWAYS & AIRDROPS💰🍕🎁, there is a vibrant and friendly community there awaiting you.}

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_{Here's to wishing everyone all the best for the upcoming week 🎉🍀.}

_{To any new players who wish to explore the world of Splinterlands, do feel free to sign up with my REFERRAL LINK😊.}