Hello all, I want to share one of my battle in Modern Format Silver League which I think a bit interesting and I name this battle as the battle of anticipation. Somehow my opponent and I were more interested to anticipated opponents moves rather than to kill our opponents

Initially I was looking for a battle for my weekly Splinterlands Social Media Challenge. I always participate in this Splinterlands Social media challenge because this is how I get support from Splinterlands in HBD which I can convert them to DEC, SPS or ingame NFT cards.

It's been a while since my last post about Rift Watcher Card. That time I wanted to point out Rune Slinger, a Life Element monster from Rift Watcher Edition as the main theme. As you can see below, he is a range attacker, you can say an archer like most of the people do. I like this guy however most of people do not think that way, they think nothing special about him so his price is quite low in the market.

Seeing he has Stun Ability, I think I will seek some battles which have **HEAVY HITTERS** ruleset (All Monsters have the Knock Out ability). The Idea is very simple, exploiting that Stun Ability. I can imagine that Runeslinger moves first, stuns opponent's tank, then his team mate kill the tank in that turn with the help of Knock Out abilities (Does double damage when attacking an enemy that is stunned) given by the ruleset. That meta seemed legit, so I set my mind on this and started to look for this ruleset.

BATTLE PREPARATION

Finally 3 days ago I found the battle I had been looking for

• HEAVY HITTERS ~ All Monsters have the Knock Out ability
• 24 MANA

This was quite good for RuneSlinger to play in, I would be using a 6 monster team which meant I had to rely on some small mana monster. This game allowed all elements to be used, so it meant all possibilities were opened and I had to prepare against any kind of attacks, either Melee, Range and Magic.

So here was my simple lineup:

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LET'S THE BATTLE BEGIN!!

battle link : https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_ff4c313a193c072e5b84b7e98dba7ba7&ref=dewabrata

This was a Modern Format Silver League Rank Battle. Overall Both team shared same strength. My opponent used Ilthain, and anti range Summoner who controlled speed and I used Quix the Devious, an anti range Dragon Summoner who controlled speed. Both were similar but not the same so this would not became a zero sum game.

This somehow became BATTLE of ANTICIPATION where both of us anticipated each other.

1. His main damage dealers were Stitch Leech and Uraeus, double sneak attackers however I had anticipated that by having Naga Assassin on my backline.
2. My main attack were Rune Slinger and Venari Crystalsmith, both were ranges, however they had anticipated that by having return fire abilities from Ilthain.
3. They had 2 mages as backup, however my tank had Magic Reflect ability.
4. My attack came straight forward frontally, they had their 2 healers on back.
5. Both of us tried to control the speed, both having summoner who modified speed and Time mage as an extra speed debuffer.

SO HOW THIS WOULD GO?

Round 1 - The Early Death of Spirit Hoarder

• This battle started by each parties buffed and debuffed monsters. Both side tried to control speed here in order to move first.
• My opponent came with 6 melee damage, 3 magic damage and a range damage. Combined all with a total 10 magic damage.
• My team had 2 Melee Damage, 5 range damage and 2 magic damage. Combined all became 9 damage per turn.
• Our fire power was even, However they were two things we needed to count in. They had return fire abilities, which made all my range attacks would be returned. the second one was Armor, they had some armor meanwhile my team had none.
• The only thing I could rely was SPEED. Overall my team was faster than theirs.

• First move was made by our Time mage, his first then mine next. Both got hit back due to magic reflect ability, one step closer to own death.
• My Celestial Harpy made the first kill. Her victim was Spirit Hoarder. THanks to my Pelacor Conjurer hitting back Spirit Hoarder magic attack, his wound attracted Harpy to strike him first which led to his death.
• Naga Assassion performed superbly in this round. She dodges both Uraeus and Stitch Leech sneak attacks, wounding them back with 2 damage.

Round 2- The Fall of Blinding Reflector

• This was the same with what happened on first round, our Time mage made the initial moves again, his first then mine next. Both got hit back due to magic reflect ability, one step closer to own death.
• This time my Runeslinger showed his class, killing opponent main tank Blinding Reflector. Two down from their side
• Their Uraeus this time managed to hit my Naga, she got killed because she was wounder twice from Return Fire ability.
• on the last move, again my Harpy made a kill. She ended Stitch Leech journey here.

Round 3 - No More Threat

• Again our Time mage made the initial moves again, his first then mine next. Both got hit back due to magic reflect ability, one step closer to own death.
• Again my Runeslinger showed his class, killing their Uraeus
• His Time Mage was lucky, avoiding two of my attacks from Venari Crystalsmith and Celestial Harpy

Round 4 - The End

• There was anything they could do. My time mage killed his time mage. That left Venari Crystalsmith alone, a range monster on tank position
• my Venari Crystalsmith killed her. This was a funny round, Time Mage killed Time Mage and Venari Crystalsmith killed Venari Crystalsmith

My Team Performance

• Pelacor Conjurer : Survived until the end of battle
• Time Mage : Delivered 8 magic Damage, killed a monster
• Celestial Harpy : Delivered 4 Melee Damage, killed two monsters
• Venari Crystalsmith : Delivered 6 Range Damage, killed a monster
• Runeslinger : Delivered 8 Range Damage, killed two monsters
• Naga Assassin : Delivered 2 Range Damage, 4 backfire damage, killed none

All of my team performed outstandingly, none better than the other. I could not pick anyone as the MVP (most valuable player)

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BATTLE DISCUSSION

This started as a very intense battle which each of one canceled or anticipated each other tactics and plays... however it ended differently where my team somehow overpowered them in the middle. Let see part by part to find out where things go wrong

ILTHAIN VS QUIX THE DEVIOUS , Same Concept Different Taste

Both of these summoners actually share the same concept.

1. They try to control time/speed. Ilthain gives a speed buff for his team and Quix slows down opponent speed. In this term, Ilthain definitely better than Quix, because speed can grow without any limit meanwhile the slowest is 1 speed and you can not slow him/them anymore when they get to 1 speed. That's why I believe +1 speed has a better advantage here.
2. They shut down opponent range attackers. Quix will make all range damage -1 , however any range opponent who already have 1 range damage won't be reduced to 0. So in this part again I think Ilthain. Again Ilthain seems to be better than Quix in this term.

In general they both are equal. Summoner alone, Ilthain is better however Quix has an advantage as a Dragon Summoner, he can bring in his fellow Dragon Monsters. Dragons can change how your team meta, in this batte I showed how Naga Assassin shut down their sneak attackers.

BLINDING REFLECTOR VS PELACOR CONJURER. Battle of Small Tanks

Who is better, Blinding Reflector or Pelacor Conjurer? the answer is the same, it's get back to the condiiton who your opponent are. Against my team, Blinding Reflector + Ilthain was the perfect counter, however they still lost because some monsters behind screw up.

1. They slow sneak attackers, Stitch Leech and uraeus, could not deal with Naga Assassin who was alot faster. 1 speed vs 4 speed, that 30% chance of dodging
2. They did not have someone to repair the armor, instead of repairing armor, they brought a Triage support monster 😂. We will discuss this later

THE BEST LIFE ELEMENT SUPPORTS

I think this is the only similarity we had in that battle. Both of us seemed the combination of Time Mage and Venari Crystalsmith was the best pair of support we could get from Life Element.

-Both of them required less Mana, only 4, which gave more room for other monsters.
-Both delivered 2 damage per turn, which was good.
-Both had good speed, Time Mage was very fast and Venari Crystalsmith was not slow either.
-Both had the essential abilities, slow and tank heal.

This was the point where we got EQUAL

THE CULPRIT - SPIRIT HORDER

In my opinion, he was the culprit why in the end the team who should have been winning was slain badly. He was killed instantly in the first round, without contributing anything at all. Well, getting killed was not the sole reason why he became the culprit, from beginning I found it awkward why Spirit Hoarder got into his team

• He used Ilthain to get speed competitiveness, why would this slow dude got selected into his team?
• Ok this dude had Triage ability, awesome skill!! however who he wanted to heal anyway, all his teammates were small health monsters
• There are Dax Paragon and Truth Speaker who I think are a lot better choice to fill that position, not this Spirit Hoarder

WHY DID I WIN?

So in my opinion, it's nor RNG which made me win... There were two reason why I won in that battle:

1. He just picked one wrong monster and that gave him an invisible hole/gap which got wider as the battle progress. That's why despite showing great fight on the first two rounds, somehow his team lost flare and got plumed.
2. Ilthain is definitely better than Quix the Devious, that is for sure however a battle will be decided by team performance and this is why Ilthain can not win against Quix. Quix can bring dragon monsters, they will cover up the gap from the summoner and those dragon will settle the battle.

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Thank you for visiting my Social Media Challenge, don't forget to leave your comments and feedback below. There are credits in this post for these people:

• @splinterlands : for holding weekly social media challenge events
• carrieallen : for ultimate markdown tutorial
• thepeakstudio : for wonderful divider arts