Splinterlands Social Media Challenge - Let's use Fire to beat Death in Frontier format

1 day ago

Hello all Splinters,

This is my entry for the Splinterlands Social Media Challenge

I already shared several times in the previous posts that I mainly play in the Frontier format recently.

In the last few months, I haven't played SPL as often as I used to. The key point is that I no longer feel the joy when playing the game, even with SPS rewards. The game is moving in the direction of "money over skill", in which rich players who can afford to buy the strong cards always win the battle, especially in Modern and Wild formats. However, the Frontier format is more fun even without the rewards. I can face players (hope they're not the bot from SPL to enhance the matching process) with the same card level, and I need to find the right strategy to win the battle, instead of using overpowered cards to hammer the opponent.

When I play in this format, I lose a lot of battles against the Death Splinters, even though I tried several Splinters like Water, Light, Earth, and even Death.

A medium mana battle cap. I chose Water Splinter and lost the battle

A high mana battle cap. I chose Earth Splinter and used strongest monsters in my deck and I still lost the battle

Another lost battle with Water Splinter against Death Splinter

One more lost battle with Earth Splinter in a high mana cap battle

I also lost the battle when I used Death Splinter to against Death Splinter

Same result with Life Splinter

Then I started asking myself why I kept losing these battles.

Firstly, let's take a look at the common Death Splinter team lineup

Summoner		Thalgrimore - he reduces all the opponent monsters' health points by 1
1st position		Nim Guard Captain - he has *Void* skill, and it is super useful when he faces Water Splinter, which mainly comes with magic monsters
2nd position		Little Sister - she is little, but she has *Life Leech* that makes her stronger each time she hits 1 monster
3rd position		Sorrow Harvester - she can also reduce 1 max health of all opponent monsters
4th position		Vengeful Monk - he is a Neutral monster, and he is very useful when he goes with the above team.

Please note that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions are only for reference. We can always shake them around to suit the ruleset. However, the purpose of this team is the same

Lower down all max health of all opponent monsters as much as possible (reduce 2 max health in this case)
The tanker with Void and 3 armors is strong against magic monsters and can take some melee/ranged attacks
Vengeful Monk with Opportunites skill will take down the lowest-health monster, which is already reduced by 2. Normally, he can take down 1 monster in 1 round.

To counter this team, I need to find a team lineup with high health point tanker. He needs to survive after several attacks from Little Sister and Sorrow Harvester. Another point, I need a team with high speed and able to attack the backline to kill Little Sister and Sorrow Harvester as early as possible.

Then I found Fire Splinter team can meet these requirements. Since I started playing Splinterlands in 2021, my Fire Splinter is not as strong as other Splinters, so I tried to avoid Fire Splinters where it's possible. And it becomes my bad habit when I play Frontier format. I don't use Fire Splinter when I have other Splinter choices.

After realizing it, I did a trial with Fire Splinter. Here is my team lineup

Summoner		Barthalamas - he adds 1 more speed to all my monsters. That helps my team be able to attack earlier.
1st position		Frankarsgard - a high-health tanker as my expectation.
2nd position		Vengeful Monk - I need his *Opportunities* skill to kill the backline monsters
3rd position		Echelon - another monster with *Opportunities*
4th position		Ember Roast Sow - another monster with Sneak skill to attack the backline monsters