Splinterlands Social Media - Tie Breaker

Hey!

Welcome to this Social Media Challenge, where I’ll be sharing this battle trick I developed to confront some tough situations against stronger cards or sometimes equal cards that led the battle to stagnate.

But before that, let me share with you my rewards from my first purchase done with the new Splinterlands token, Glint. I bought ten “Initiate Draws”, which is one batch, which give me one card each, so ten cards. Since Initiate is the lowest tier, I only get one card per draw and the worse odds for Gold Foil and Rarity, but I wanted to check out how it works.

There are five different tiers, with different chances and every time you purchase a whole batch, the price rises, being reset by the end of the season. You can also buy Merits, Potions, Energy and Titles with Glint, but these last ones are going to be out of stock pretty soon, by the look of it. The good thing is that you’re certain you’re getting a card, unlike chests, where they could either be amazing or not.

Anyways, major change… let’s see what happens down the road. Me, I’m glad I can make use of all those potions hoarded from the Reward chests. I would say though, that I would like titles to be delivered through accomplishments in the game, rather than bought, something similar to a trophy system, to give you some north to follow in game, rather than buying the next thing, which you can keep having, anyways.

Tie Breaker

So, a situation that kept happening to me, and probably it happens to you too, is when Magic is the most desirable kind of attack to use for both players in a battle and, because of that we assemble our teams to both, inflict damage but also defend yourself from it, anticipating your opponent’s team.

The formula would be: tank with Void, generally Oshannus, second tank, tank healer and extra attackers. The problem arises when both players do this, creating a situation where neither of them can take down the other, leading the battle to fatigue or just making it too long.

In anticipation to that, I first made sure to use the Captain Boat or Flagulon Reine, who have a Blast attack, so you can damage the back line, but then players started using both Oshannus and Baakjira, both with Void, or Triage so my Blast was nullified.

Snipers? Similar situation… is not a sure thing because you can use the Mandarin, the Hoarder or Daarg to heal the backline with Triage, or even control damage with Taunt. Affliction? Useless against Water nowadays, since you can use the Nymph to cleanse it, or even better, use Anasth Soothsayer, who at level two cleanses and applies healing.

Merdhampir

The post itself is about the Cripple ability, but so far, I can only apply it effectively with the Merdhampir, since he is from the Water Splinter, where this situation happens to me the most, so he is the main character of this story.

And as I said, everything is about the Cripple effect. When a Monster is hit by a card with Cripple, it loses one max Health and the curious thing is that this effect cannot be reversed by Cleanse, unlike Affliction, Slow or Blind, so you can count on this negative condition to last.

The tie is generated when both tanks cannot be taken down because they are protected by Void and healers, so at the end of each round they end up with no damage. However, if they are hit by a crippling Monster, their max health goes down, and in consequence, also their healed amount goes down and what it was a strong tank, with the capacity to heal four points per round, ends up being a weak card, which only heals two points and can be taken down much more easily.

Now particularly, the Merdhampir itself, is a Common Reward Monster from the Chaos edition, so it’s quite cheap, besides his stats are quite ordinary, however his Crippling ability gave me a great solution against a situation where you’re against a wall of healers. Remember though, that the Merdhampir gets Cripple at level four, so check your Water/Dragon Summoner.

Other Modern cards with Cripple, who attack the tank are Grund at max level, and the Runeslinger at level seven, besides Dallan, Summoner from the Death Splinter. Except for Dallan, I don’t see it easy to use any of the other two, from an economic point of view, that’s also another reason to like the Merdhampir.

• Battle #1: this example is perfect… Baakjira as a tank, backed by two healers. He has eleven points of health, so he recovers six points per round. Because of his Void, I only inflict five points of damage. At the same time, my opponent doesn’t generate enough power to kill my tank either. Under other circumstances this battle goes to fatigur, which is a coin flip, however, the Merdhampir Crippling effect saves us time, turning the enemy tank from an impossible wall, to a mere obstacle.

• Battle #2: similar situation against an Earth lineup. Less Mana available, not necessarily a tie, but the Goblin’s affliction was potentially dangerous, leaving me with no tank, because of my inability to heal.

• Battle #3: the amount of Speed generated in this battle due to the Enrage effect present in the battlefield, because of the ruleset, didn’t allow the Merdhampir to work his magic effectively, leading the battle to fatigue. However, he was able to connect some hits, harvesting some health points, thanks to his Life Leech ability. And that is a side perk of this Monster… if the battle goes to fatigue for some reason, this card works as another sort of tank, because of all the health he is able to amass.

This is it, hope you find this tactic useful and thank you for reading! My referral link, just in case…

Thanks for stopping by!