Hello again, my coffee loving friends. Champion League is the highest league rank in Splinterlands. To get into this rank, not only powerful units and summoners are required but also your knowledge of the different abilities, rule sets and good prediction are required. If you lack in one of this area, I am very sure you won't reach this league.
My highest league rating was 3760. This battle was 3400 rating which is Diamond 1. I really like Wild Ranked Format since you can use units and summoners from all set ever released. I saved some of my old games since it allows me to go back to that glorious time when I can just jump in and out of the Wild Ranked Format without paying the Wild Ticket that never existed before.
In this battle, I will show you an effective way of controlling your enemy's action so you won't need to fall for their tricks. Let me show you my thought process and why I chose each of the monsters and summoner in this battle and how they complement each other's strength as well as their weaknesses.
RULE SETS
 | Active:  Fire,  Water,  Life, Inactive:  Earth,  Death,  Dragon |
|---|---|
 | Explosive Weaponry: All Units have the Blast ability. |
 | Weak Magic: Magic attacks hit Armor before reducing Health. |
 | Aim True: Melee and Ranged attacks always hit their target. |
Click here to see the lists of all the rule sets
STRATEGY
I had my The Kraken to Taunt and let my enemies attack him. Since there's enemies would also have Blast, I need to have a second tank at the back of The Kraken to absorb the Blast attacks. Runemancer Rye is very good at this job due to her high attack combiend with Life Leech that furthermore increases her health and acts like a minor heal. Even with this combination, I am not confident so I added a reserve tank in the form of Phantom of the Abyss. He both has Demoralize and Headwinds assisting my tanks by reducing the enemy's melee and range attacks while dealing his own. After that, I have three healers, two is reserved for the front, The Kraken, while one is for the one taking the Blast damage. This lineup is very hard to play against if given the chance but I will tell you one secret.
Alternative Strategy: To counter such monstrocities of a lineup, you only need to use someone with Scattershot. Scattershot attacks a unit at random and is not influenced by Taunt allowing that unit to attack the back row as your main tank absorbs the other attacks. Just make sure that your Scattershot units will have high damage in order to pierce the back row since my Repair will just nurse their armor back to safety.
CARD POSITIONING
In this battle, I used the summoner, Bortus and units, The Kraken, Runemanceer Rye, Phantom of the Abyss, Spirit Hoarder, Crustacean King and Merdaali Guardian .
Quick Stats
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Level 8: Rare Summoner. Allows level 10 common, level 8 rare, level 6 epic and level 4 legendary.  -1 Magic: Decrease all enemy unit's magic attacks by 1. |
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     Taunt - Demoralize - Enrage - Retaliate - Blast - |
   Flying - Life Leech - Fury - Blast |
  Flying - Dodge - Demoralize - Headwinds - Blast - |
| 1. Level 4: The Kraken is the best tank in the game back then but it still is until now in my opinion. He is extremely oppressive and punishing against melee teams due to the combination of high attack, Taunt, Retaliate and Demoralize. Seeing that the three available elements are Fire, Water and Life, all has a lot of strong melee units, I decided to use him in this battle to cover that. Even if my enemy decided to use range or magic attacks, The Kraken's high health can still accommodate for that making him a really strong tank to play in this game. | 2. Level 3: Like I mentioned, the main purpose of Runemancer Rye is to block the Blast attacks. Both her Life Leech and healing from the back row are really good at solving this issue making her a good second front line when all of your enemies have Blast ability. If you don't want Runemancer Rye, you can use a unit with Reflection Shield like Water Caller or Tide Biter. | 3. Level 4: Although Phantom of the Abyss have decent health, he isn't a good tank. He's more like a damage dealer and support with his high magic attack alongside the Demoralize and Headwinds to reduce melee and range attacks of my enemies. Blast damage from magic attacks also give a magic-like effect in which the Blast attack also passes through armor and doesn't miss. |
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   Triage - Dispel - Blind - Blast |
  Tank Heal - Protect - Blast |
 Tank Heal - Repair - - Blast |
| 4. Level 4: I had two options here. Either use Spirit Hoarder or Angelic Mandarin. The advantage of Angelic Mandarin is that not only he has Triage like Spirit Hoarder, he also has Silence ability to reduce enemy's magic attacks. I used Spirit Hoarder instead because I predicted that it would be a higher chance that the enemy would use melee or range units instead of magic. If so, Blind will be really strong increasing The Kraken's chance of avoiding both melee and range attacks. | 5. Level 6: We cannot always expect enemies to respond to our predictions so Crustacean King's Protect is my way of providing a backup plan in case the enemy became unpredicted. If enemies used a lot of Scattershot units, Tha Kraken's taunt won't be able to stop it. If the unit has Scattershot and range attack, then I would have extra armor for my backline units that would take the damage. Repair also works on the back line so it would help delaying the death of my back line units until The Kraken, Runemancer Rye and Phantom of the Abyss breaks through. | 6. Level 8: Lastly, Merdaali Guardian is the best unit alongside The Kraken. The extra health increases the amount of heal he gets by 1. She has Tank Heal and Repair to solidify my defenses. Even if she doesn't have any attacks, Merdaali Guardian is a must whenever I uses The Kraken due to the amount of support she can provide. |
BATTLE REPLAY
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_e81e3e0fd3d55c8b0f8850eebff75f7f
Due to the huge number of rounds in this battle, it would be better for you to see the full battle instead by clicking on this link below:
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_e81e3e0fd3d55c8b0f8850eebff75f7f
Final Thoughts
This battle highlights a strategy on how to control your opponent's actions and avoid their traps such as using Sneaks with Blast. I showed my choices of monsters and summoner and explained how they work together to give you more vision on how I do my battles.
Whether you aim to improve or simply enjoy a trip down memory lane, this analysis offers valuable insights into navigating high level play that can also be used in any league like Bronze or Silver.
Champion League is the pinnacle of Splinterlands where it demands not just to have strong units and summoners but also mastery over abilities, rule sets and sharp predictions. Without balancing all of these aspects, climbing to this rank is near impossible. The advantage though is all the knowledge you got during your climb will not leave you. The experience you got is there for you as long as you play this game and that experience is invaluable in achieving the ratings you desire.
If you have suggested combos or questions, feel free to comment it down below.
If you are planning to play and is inspired by my post, please consider using my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=kpgamingch
I do not own any of the photos in this post. All credits goes to:
- Splinterlands
- Peakmonsters
- Canva
- Giphy
Thanks for sharing! - @yonilkar
