Have you ever made a wrong assumption when peeking at the Splinterlands battlefield? Perhaps you’re convinced you’ll win a skirmish or expect your monsters to be wiped out without eliminating a single foe. It happens to me quite often—I even skip some battles, thinking I have zero chance, only to be amazed later when the record shows I won. Here’s one such game. When the fog of war dispersed, I saw no chance for my army. Facing almost entirely golden set cards hardly ever ends well. However, all that glitters is not gold, as the Swan of Avon reminds us. These golden foil cards were not leveled up, so my monsters were still a match. The battle was epic, lasting eight rounds, and is worth analyzing. Here we go!
My Deck
I play with a gladiator whenever the mana cap allows it. To draft one, I chose Franz Ruffmane to lead my set. His armor buff for resurrected monsters is priceless.
Drybone Barbarian is a rather unconventional tank, but since all ranged and magic attacks target monsters in the rear rather than the frontline, I could afford to use this offensive monster as a tank.
My gladiator, Marisol Contuma, is an outstanding second-rower—perhaps one of the best in the game—thanks to her high speed and offensive potential. An easy choice.
You can hardly play a Born Again game without a martyr. Venari Marksrat in the third position, was there to sacrifice itself and buff its brothers in arms.
Or sisters in arms, since Janni Rebel is a girl. She isn’t the best monster in the game, but she inspired my melee monsters and later served as a secondary tank for ranged and magic strikers.
Prismologist works as artillery in this ruleset, bombarding the enemies from a distance. If only he were faster!
I placed War Pegasus in the last position to keep potential sneakers at bay and to have an armor cracker by my side.
My Opponent’s Deck
My opponent set aside all gladiators and picked an elite summoner instead. Eternal Tofu was not quite what I expected to face. The rest of the set was outstanding too, and most were in golden foil—I thought I was doomed from the start, as my keen offensive potential consisted of melee monsters who suffer from Tofu’s thorn buff.
Using Janni Rebel as a tank, followed by Uriel the Purifier, created a great combo—my only stroke of luck was that Uriel wasn’t leveled enough to self-heal. There was indeed a sneaker, as I had anticipated: Dumacke Exile. However, once he was buffed with Snare, I couldn’t hope War Pegasus would dodge any of his blows.
Djinn Renova and Time Meddler are fairly good magic strikers, each with useful ability. I would have switched their positions so that Time Meddler would be exposed to snipers instead of Djinn Renova. Adelade Brightwing, as the last monster of the deck, is rather weak compared to her peers, but her Repair ability often turns the tide. A powerful deck, indeed!
The Battle
The first round didn’t go well for me. Three front foes were protected by Divine Shield, and my melee monsters suffered from thorns. The only success was Marksrat’s sacrifices. In the second round, Marisol Contuma managed to slay my opponent’s tank, but Drybone Barbarian failed to hit Uriel when retaliating, and things still looked bleak. I managed to slay Djinn Renova, though.
The third and fourth rounds felt more equal, and the battle began to resemble a stalemate, with most monsters already reborn. Yet, from round five, it became clear that victory was mine—my opponent lost the last magic striker, and my sole melee warrior had enough armor to withstand the thorns. Besides, with my remaining magic striker still alive, it was only a matter of time before I could shoot down Uriel. That happened two rounds later, and after round eight, I could start celebrating.
See the full battle here!
