2025 Battle Of The Day 33 + 34 + 35/365

Thanks for checking out my #Splinterlands Battle of the Day #BOTD for your reading and watching enjoyment. All hail the #ageofthebattlemage!

I've been a bit naughty and strayed away most of the week. February snatched up all my time and didn't leave any time to write about the sweet strategy of my battles. But today I'm making up ground with THREE! exciting battles the @sps.dao biggest Modern purse of the season -- the Mount Mox Modern Diamond Invitational Gold Foil event. My featured card that brought home the bacon is none other than the villain herself -- Venka, The Vile.

Venka played a large part in winning all three battles, albeit in different roles against different summoners. All three battles came against some of the top accounts in Splinterlands; interestingly, none tried to use Venka against me. Onto the action...

BATTLE LINK -- February 2nd, 2025 -- Day 33 of 365 vs. @bubke

It wouldn't be a high-stakes gold foil event without the ever-present Bubke from Immortal Gods. Our 43-mana battle had three rulesets: Unprotected, What Doesn't Kill You, and Manuveurs. Fire was the only element excluded from the battle.

Predictably, Bubke chose Tofu as their summoner with both Life and Earth available. He supported Olivia with Iziar and double resurrect triggers to bolster her attack power with martyr three times. The plan might have worked if it wasn't for Venka trampling over with enraged attack damage!

Putting Olivia after a taunt monster is flirting with danger because a trampling attacker comes after her next. And that is exactly what happened in this battle. Venka took a big chunk of health from Iziar in Round 1 and Olivia returned the favor since Venka had the lowest health of any monster on my team.

But just like the battle condition says, "what doesn't kill you" only makes you stronger. Olivia dealt three damage to Venka in Round 1, not enough to kill her, but just enough to enrage Venka's melee attack up to 11 power! When Venka attacked Iziar in Round 2 for 11 damage, it killed the taunt monster and trampled over to kill Olivia too.

Just like that, Bubke's main threat was erased from the battlefield. Admittedly, so was Venka. After taking three damage from Olivia in Round 1, the double thorns triggers got the best of Venka in Round 2. Nonetheless, Venka did her job, dealing 29 damage in two rounds of attacks and killing my opponent's key threat.

To counter potential forcefield plays in the front line, I like using Cryptic's expose tactic on fast attackers to try to remove the damage-reducing ability before Venka attacks. I even brought forcefield protection of my own with Oshannus as tank to counter a potential Venka from my opponent! But that threat never materialized.

My magic attackers cleaned up the rest of Bubke's attack forces. Oshannus led the lineup with forcefield and phased elite speed to evade all attack types. Then I brought the weapon training package of Baakjira, Daarg Deadblast, and Surveyor, which provided 9 magic attack along with three speed modifiers (1 swiftness and 2 slow). Combined with the slow from Cryptic, my lineup gave me four speed boosts while they only had one boost from Adelaide.

Once Venka took out Olivia with her suicide attack in Round 2, the rest of the battle was academic. Bubke could not punch through Oshannus and they lost their only opportunity attacker when Venka took out Olivia. My lineup would go on to finish the battle without any additional casualties as I cruised past Bubke on my way to a big SPS payday.

BATTLE LINK -- February 3rd, 2025 -- Day 34 of 365 vs. @xsuilx

Next up in the gauntlet is my guildmate and close Splinterlands buddy, XsiulX. I consider him one of the best players in the game, so I relish these opportunities against the friendliest of rivals. Our 45-mana battle had three rulesets: Deflection Field, Healed Out, and Lost Magic. The only element excluded was Dragon.

We both decided to play Cryptic for access to Death and Water, although we took decidedly different approaches to battle. Tofu is much less powerful when all monsters have reflection shield and suffer no threat of taking thorns damage.

Without magic attackers available, XsiulX played a speedy range weapon training strategy with Riftwing and Noa on either side of Zyriel at the back. He also brought two powerful opportunity attackers, Mastermind and Deeplurker, to pick off my weak monsters one by one. Finally, he placed Grim Smith up front as tank to provide a sturdy defense for his powerful backline attackers.

But Venka was literally created to chew through an opposing Grim Smith. The expose ability from Cryptic made it that much easier for Venka by removing the damage protection abilities from Grim Smith in time for Venka's second attack. Venka also made quick work of Riftwing in Round 3, trampling through Deeplurker and hitting for 14 attack damage with her oppress ability. Venka shrugged off the double-digit health Riftwing had gained from scavenge.

My speed play helped me run away with this battle, using Lira and Supply Runner for 2x swiftness to give me a decidedly faster team. Chaos Agent dodged Mastermind's first attack, luring the attention from both of XsiulX's opportunity monsters in Round 1. Up front, Commander Slade proved a tough target to hit in the no-magic battle. My speed advantage combined with dodge meant that Slade was dealing more backlash damage than it was taking from his attack. Incredible monster! It was the first maxed Rebellion reward card I paid to unlock and rent.

Luckily, my lighting fast attack did the business up front before XsiulX's opportunity attack could take out my weaker backline range monsters. Although they provide elite speed boosts, Lira and Runner are both very squishy without any armor and low health. On the other hand, when the expose ability gets going, everything in Venka's way becomes squishy too! Maybe next time Luis 😜

BATTLE LINK -- February 4th, 2025 -- Day 35 of 365 vs. @emp-warden

Finally, to seal up a Top 4 payday on the final day of battle in the Mount Mox event, a contest against another top leaderboard account, EMP Warden. The 23-mana battle had three rulesets: Shades of Gray, Weak Magic, and Deflection Field. The only element excluded was Dragon.

I was surprised to see Lorkus from my opponent, especially because he did not have a Level 7+ Moxian Rebel for the extra magic attack for his weapons trainers. Considering his whole strategy revolved around gaining a powerful magic attack from Lorkus, handicapping the lineup with an underpowered Rebel affecting half of his monsters is problematic.

The other problem is that his defense was very soft to Venka. Dr. Blight's weaken ability meant that his Refugee had only seven health so my Venka trampled right through to hit Grim Smith on the first attack of the battle. Despite my Refugee getting exhausted and Grim Smith leveraging life leech to survive Venka's second attack, it was still no match for my featured legendary monster who did what she does best -- erase the troublesome Rebellion rare promo!

Kelya did her thing, boosting my team speed and ensuring Venka struck first in each round. Uraeus also put in work, serving as a deadly assassin picking off backline monsters with ease. This battle didn't feel particularly close, but I won't complain about an easy W in this highly competitive premier tournament event.

When the event was all said and done, my buddy XsiulX held off my late charge and won the event outright with a very impressive 17-3 mark. I slipped into second place on my own with a 16-4 mark and took home a sweet 4321 SPS payday! That's a great rate of return compared to Ranked play for an 80% record over 20 battles against the top accounts and players in the Splinterverse. Hopefully, I'll see you back here again soon!

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@ducecrypto
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