Social Media Challenge - Taking Down A Rock

Prelude
Good day to all, hope that you are doing well and battling often in Splinterlands. With the launch of Conclave Arcana, we are now moving into a new era of game play and for sure there will be new strategies to be formed. I am glad to still be able to play within the wild format for free for this season but I guess I cannot be contemplating too long and procrastinate on building my collection for Conclave Arcana. Hopefully as I first enter modern format I will not get slaughtered big time. But before that, I had an interesting matchup that happened this week where I really met a big rock of a tank and I really had a hard time taking it out.

The card that was so hard to take out is actually Mantaroth.

Especially in a match where magic cannot be used, this is so difficult to take down. In the match later, we will look at how after some effort, we manage to take it down.

So let's get right into the match.

Battle Sharing

Reference Battle
Battle Link: https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_5fbc734191c33b6dbcb4598a7e57d418?ref=vaynard86

Ruleset: Lost Magic
Mana Limit: 48

Selection Analysis
We have 5 splinters available for selection - Fire, Water, Earth, Death and Dragon. Almost everything is available in the match. I personally picked Dragon because I can call upon Djinn Chwala whom has thorns and will be viable in the match.

So here is my selection of the lineup. I've chosen to go with Quix, this is chosen because I can unlock Dragon cards and following through with water splinter to go along. Quix also serve as a negative buff to range attackers and at the same time, allow me to strike before my opponent do so. On the tank, as mentioned it will be Djinn Chwala whom will anchor and use the thorns ability to its fullest since the ruleset will end up with a higher percentage of melee attackers. To support Djinn Chwala, I used Carnage Titan to maximize the attack from 2nd position and this card can serve as an alternate tank upon Djinn Chwala fall due to its high armour. Lost magic will be range and melee heavy, to make my opponent cards more vulnerable to attacks, Noa the Just was selected to shave off 2 armour from them and to help me pick up vulnerable cards in the lineup with my next card, Deeplurker whom strikes the weakest card by opportunity. The next 2 cards are range cards with Swamp Spitter meant for repairing armour while Axemaster is there to further create damage pressure with its double strike.

On my opponent end, my opponent used Possibilus which is a difficult summoner to face due to it giving reach and trample. Opponent selected Mantaroth a tank which is huge one especially after boosting 2 more health to it. The nice thing about Possibilus is that you can put Coastal Sentry at 2nd position for it to do a big double strike. Similar to me, there is Deeplurker and Swamp Spitter for taking out cards and also repairing armour. However, opponent had healing and speed boost planned in its lineup with Meerdali Guardian and Clockwork Aide. Seems like fire power is focus on the front and keeping them alive.

Very different approach to the ruleset, a balance lineup vs a front heavy lineup with restoration. Let's see how thing go in the match.

Round by Round Synopsis

Round 1 - A very uneventful first round with all restoration being done to keep the front line healthy while some attacks landed on armour. However, one thing to note is that opponent Coastal Sentry will not be able to take another double thorns as it is left with not much health.

Round 2 - As predicted, Coastal Sentry fell at the start to thorns but only for my Djinn Chwala to fall as well after being struck hard and allowed Deeplurker to trample. Carnage Titan take over and we continue adding pressure to Mantaroth with hope to take it down.

Round 3 - This is worrying, Mantaroth is really like a rock and not seeing my damage on it while my backline is being slowly chipped off.

Round 4, Not good, hole at the back is breached and I lost my Swamp Spitter whom repairs the armour. Now I need to keep my lineup alive to push through.

Round 5, Finally there is a breakthrough, we manage to take down the rock and gain access to the next cards but we are not in a fantastic shape either. So now the race to victory is on.

Round 6, At last, with Deeplurker gone, all I need to face are front row range card and 2 attackless cards. Victory is in sight!

The next 2 rounds were just taking whatever that remain on the board and gaining the victory which was so hard to come with that big rock in the way.

Battle Summary
Didn't knew Mantaroth is such a tough nut to crack, really a very nice card but a level 1 cost 24 dollars right which is madness. Thankfully, I had the negative buffs prepared and also sufficient damage to push through and most importantly the thorns to help aid reduce the health of key attackers in opponent lineup. A nice win to remember!

Wrap Up
Thank you all for dropping by the post and walking through with me the various strategies and gameplay that I wanted to share with the community so that everyone improve their gameplay. If you have good strategies on how I can even better my selection, do share with me in the comments.

See you next time!

I am currently part of PIZZA, an active gaming and creative arts crypto community on the HIVE blockchain and part of PIZZA guild. Popular cryto games such as SPLINTERLANDS, RISING STAR and HASHKINGS are actively discussed in this community.

Many events are being organized from time to time. Join the PIZZA DISCORD. This is a place filled with 💰🍕🎁GIVEAWAYS & AIRDROPS💰🍕🎁 and most definitely consisting of a friendly community to be in.

Till my next battle sharing, take care, stay safe and happy battling!

If you are keen on playing Splinterlands, feel free to join me via this link: https://next.splinterlands.com/register?ref=vaynard86