Share your Battles - (Ant) Mining for DEC?

Back again with another entry into the Splinterlands Share your Battle Challenge! This week's theme is Ant Miners!

The Card

This little guy is has 2 abilities. Scavenger (which gains +1 max hp each time a monster dies) and Shield (which reduces melee and ranged damage by 50%) which unlocks at level 6. The grunt worker has negligible attack and speed, but that doesn't make him useless by any stretch. Fire splinter comps tend to focus on speed and aggression, so this little grunt worker can carry the role of meat shield exceptionally well for only 2 mana. It is a nice counterbalance card to give those back line attackers more time to deal damage before getting hit. A nice synergy is that he gains the HP from fallen monsters, so as your backline monsters can pick off the enemy, the Ant Miner can gain sustain to keep taking more hits. Unfortunately for me, I don't have a max level of this guy yet but I wanted to take the one I do have out for a spin to see whether it is worth investing in.

The Ruleset

In this ruleset, it was a fire / melee only format, which severely limited the option for monsters that can be used. Also, the blast ability really makes it so those hits burn extra.

The Strategy

For me, in this format there are only so many option that are available. There is really only 1 option here. Outspeed and strike hard. Unfortunately for me, I don't have access to the summoner that gives extra speed, so I defaulted to the next best option available to me, one that makes each hit count more.

The Summoner

Malric is a rare summoner with 3 cost that has one ability. This ability is the same as the inspire ability, which grants +1 melee damage for all your melee monsters. In a format where only melee monsters can be used, this is generally a pretty good option.

1st Slot Serpentine Soldier - Frontline Protector

In a format where only melee can be used, the Serpentine Soldier is an amazing frontliner. With shield, the effective hp is doubled, and he has thorns to reflect back damage to each attacker as well. That doesn't even account for his awesome 6 base speed and the bonus 25% dodge chance. A staple card for the fire splinter.

2nd slot: Sacrificial Chicken

BBQ chicken! Basically just throwing the chicken out there to feed the ant miner some hp. With the blast format, he's basically dead to splash damage, but at least it can help prevent splash damage to monsters behind it. #chickenstrats

3rd Slot - The Shield

The purpose of the ant miners is basically to absorb hits while the monsters behind attack. Unfortunately for me, I don't have enough BCX to level mine up to get the shield ability, so his ability to eat hits is lower than a leveled version. T_T

4th and 5th Slot - The DPS

The last two slots were dedicated to the monsters in the backend to try and clean up the opponent's back line. Seperntine spy in particular has the opportunity ability which always attacks the lowest HP monster in the enemy lineup. This ability is extra nice in the blast format because it can often hit 3 monsters at a time with some well timed attacks (or bad placement by your opponent). I specifically chose these monsters because I assumed the opponent would use a Serpentine Soldier to be the frontliner, and really I don't want to be hitting that thing too much as the HP of these monsters is quite low and will die to the thorn damage.

Anyway, on to the battle

The Battle

Round 1:

Ruh oh! right off the bat, I know I'm screwed. As expected the opponent is rolling with Serpentine Soldier in the front, but with the combination of the Pyre Summoner, Flame Monkey and Creeping Ooze, I'm dealing with a 3 speed disadvantage here. I'm screwed!

Round 2:

The chicken does it's job and dies to the big hit splash damage, but after that it all falls apart. His higher speed allows for the first strike, and with the blast format, the backline falls immediately without even getting an attack off.

GG well played to my aptly named opponent, who takes the glory and the DEC.

Watch it yourself here!

The Wrap

Sadly I don't think I really did the Ant Miners their due in this battle, but really this all just came down to being outsped and out hit here. If my monsters were able to attack first then this battle pretty much turns around, but sadly I didn't really have the cards to attempt this strategy. Trying to tank out the hits failed miserably, and the ants went marching to their sad demise. Anyway, this one was interesting for me as it gave me an opportunity to try out a card I rarely use or think about. My overall thoughts on Ant Miners pretty much matched my expectation of a solid defensive utility card in a splinter that needs it, but I wasn't able to fill in the slots around to really make it shine. In the hands of the right player, I think these mighty ants can definitely see some good use.

My overall monster rating: 5/10.
Good utility for the cost, but really something to throw in at the end when you have some spare mana rather than a core piece to the fire splinter.