Hello Splinterlands Summoners and welcome to another edition of Community Engagement Challenge! In today's post, I'll show a recent battle I had. I'll share how I decide which team to choose and each member of the team to meet the ruleset. I'll discuss how each team member plays a role and how they synergize with each other. Predicting the enemy team also comes into play as I have to counter what the enemy brings into battle.

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Featured Battle: Countering the Enemy

Things to Consider Before a Battle

In this battle, the first things I would consider are the ruleset, available Splinters and the max mana. In this case, the ruleset was Thick Skinned which gives all units the Shield ability thereby decreasing physical damage received. All splinters can be used except for Dragon and the max mana is fifty eight, allowing for a wide range of choices. The next thing to consider is predicting what the enemy cards will be played. I checked the enemy's recent battles and saw that he's spamming magic teams and using some Frontier cards. The ruleset works for the enemy since it doesn't decrease magic attacks.

Forming My Team

I formed my team based on the above considerations. First, I chose the Earth team where the archon decreases magic attacks immediately countering my enemy's magic. Second, I replaced my usual line up to include to magic attackers of my own. I usually use Thanalorian Blade and Bren Palesworn on positions four and five but this time the slots were taken by Silverleaf Warlock and Sorrow Harvester. Since the enemy has a sturdy tank, I decided to include a sneak attacker in my team with Grove Doomblade. Her five melee attack even with Thick Skinned will decimate the enemy back line. For my frontline, I used my usual two tank combo of Folen Flameye and Warborn Chieftain. Both are strong damage dealing tanks. I also included a Taunt unit in my team to draw attacks away from my tanks.

The Enemy Team

The enemy did not disappoint and chose the magic Water splinter as I expected. His tank is very beefy boasting of five armor and twelve health. It has the Flank ability allowing him to use a dual attack unit in second position. The Great Bear Druid takes second spot dealing melee and magic attacks per turn. In third position he had another beefy magic unit that can resurrect with 100% health when it gets defeated. In fourth, he had the epic Frontier unit, Saltwater Mage that can deal two magic damage. In fifth position, he has the most valuable Frontier legendary unit, Mystic Scaleweaver that deals two magic damage and also casts slow to my team. Luckily, I had the Silverleaf Warlock that counteracts this debilitation. In last position, he had Arcane Skinwalker. Placing this unit in the last position is a smart decision by my enemy. The Arcane Skinwalker was there to guard against sneak attackers with his four armor and five health.

The Battle

Attacks came from both directions as we both have our own sneak attackers. My frontliners dealth enough damage to eliminate the enemy tank in round two. The enemy is fighting back though and defeated my Taunt unit. On the other hand, my dual tank's attacks were strong even if their attacks were decreased by the Shield ability. They defeated whichever unit came to the frontline. Grove Doomblade was fun to watch with her high damage output and Execute ability given by the archon's Bloodline Dominion, she eliminated unarmored enemy rear units in one turn. While I won the battle, it was not easy as the enemy team fought back.

Link to Battle

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Final Thoughts

To summarize, my process when deciding to form teams in battle are:

1. Check the ruleset, max mana and available splinters.
2. Check the latest teams played by the enemy and try to predict his lineup.
3. Choose the splinter and individual members taking into account the roles and synergy they will bring into battle.

Once you have followed the above steps, the chances to win rise significantly especially when the enemy plays with the team you predicted. The key is paying attention to the above factors, having the correct cards that will be used in battle. The units need not be overpowered as you can see from my team. They only have to fill the role that you set them for. This is what makes Splinterlands a fun game to play, blending card collecting with strategic battles. Thank you for reading and see you in the next edition!