[Splinterlands] Executed by Radiated Brute!!!

This is my entry to the Splinterlands Share Your Battle featuring the RADIATED BRUTE. If you want to join in this challenge, you can check this link. Alright, let's start first with the monster's lore, then deep dive into its compatible summoners, monster's stats & abilities, and the highlighted battle.

RADIATED BRUTE

The spreading blight on the continent of Praetoria twisted both the land and its people.

Plants and animals were the first to become corrupted. Fungus sprouted from vegetation and gave them sentience. Animals grew extra limbs, heads, and grew to extraordinary sizes.

Then the people fell ill. Some thought it was from the plague brought about by Doctor Blight. Others thought perhaps it was from the poisonous gases that seeped from the fissures near the volcano.

Whatever it was, those who survived the sickness were changed. They mutated, grew stronger, and were filled with an uncontrollable rage. Some were unable to control that rage and went on murderous rampages. Others fought to maintain their sanity long enough to protect their family, friends, and neighbors from themselves. They fled into the Jade Thicket, where they became as feral as the wild animals of the continent.

The people of Praetoria referred to them as Radiated Brutes.

RADIATED BRUTE is one of the newest additions in the Fire Splinter from the Chaos Legion release. It is always included when you are going for a Fire Splinter since it can act as your pseudo tank. As a monsters with REACH ability, you can position it right behind the main tank, dealing damage while acting as secondary tank in case your frontline monster gets executed.

STATS and ABILITIES

At its initial level, it has a 2 melee attack, 4 speed, and 6 HP with the Reach ability. This is already a good combination of stats for a 5 mana card.

At level 6, it gains a Enrage ability, increasing its melee damage and speed when it absorbs damage from enemy attack. This will make it more deadly when the Enrage is triggered.

At max level, it has 4 melee damage, 4 speed and 6 Health.

Abilities:

Ability	Description
	Reach - Melee attack monsters with the Reach ability can attack from the second position on the team. Monsters with this skill are normally considered as pseudo-tank or acting as the secondary tank when your main tank gets taken down. With the Reach ability, they can still attack even at the second position. This makes them better secondary tank than melee monsters without Reach or other abilities that let's them attack even at the backline.
	Enrage - Has increased Melee attack and Speed when damage. Monsters with this skill gains additional damage and speed when being hit or damage. This effect will be remove when their Health returns to max HP (normally happens when they are healed by other monster or summoner.)

SUMMONER COMPATIBILITY

• TARSA increases the melee damage and health of all friendly monsters by 1. TARSA has a 4 mana cap requirment, higher by 1 compare with the previous Summoners included in the Starter pack. An increased melee damage and health will be beneficial to RADIATED BRUTE. The additional damage will also impacts the increases damage it receive when it triggers Enrage effect.
• MALRIC INFERNO increases the melee damage of all friendly monsters by 1. Compare with TARSA, it only requires 3 mana cap to be deployed. There would be instances that you may prefer MALRIC INFERNO versus TARSA especially for SILENCED SUMMONERS or if the mana restriction is very low. But most of the time, you would go for TARSA as the 1 mana for a plus 1 Health to all friendly monsters has a big effect.
• PYRE increases the Speed of all friendly monsters by 1. If you value speed more than the melee damage or additional health, then you could use PYRE as your summoner. Battle ruleset which gives all monsters the BLAST ability or Opportunity ability, then it is better to go for Speed in order to have the attack order advantage.
• DARIA DRAGONSCALE increases the melee damage of all friendly monsters. Using DARIA DRAGONSCALE as your Summoner, allows you to choose monsters from the Dragon splinter as well. This increases the available monsters to complete your line-up. In a high mana cap battle, Dragons have better selection of high mana monsters compare with the other Splinters.
• PLADO EMBERSTORM is a 5 mana Fire Summoner which increases the Melee damage and Speed of all friendly monsters and decreases the Health of all enemy monster by 1. It's a bit pricier compare with the previous Summoners but the additional effect is worth it.
• YODIN ZAKU, currently the best Summoner for Fire Splinter for high mana battles. It requires 7 mana to be deployed. It increases the Ranged damage and Health of all friendly monsters by 1 and also giving the BLAST ability to all friendly monster. Although the plus 1 ranged damage will not help melee monster, the BLAST ability is very helpful in almost any match.

FEATURED BATTLE

Battle Condition
Rule #1	Fog of War - Monsters lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities.
Rule #2	Lost Legendaries - Legendary Monsters may not be used in battles.
Mana Cap	48
Allowed Splinter	Fire, Water, Life, Death and Earth

MY LINE-UP

CARDS	Description
	TARSA provides additional 1 Melee damage and 1 Health to all your monsters.
	GARGOYA LION has a Flying ability and Void ability. Flying ability increases its chance to evade hit from non-flying monsters. While the Void ability reduces the damage from magic monsters. I used this as a tank since I am preparing against a Magic line-up since both Earth and Water Splinter are available.
	RADIATED BRUTE, our featured monster, has a high melee damage with Reach ability. Since Sneak and Snipe abilities are removed from this battle because of the ruleset, only Reach and Opportunity abilities can be used by melee monster to attack from the backline. This is a good opportunity to used this card since our attack options are also limited.
	DISINTEGRATOR has a Demoralize ability which can reduce the melee attack of enemy. This debuff will help our monster to survive longer against melee line-up. It also has the Trample ability which allows him to attack again after killing an enemy target. It is place at the 3rd position to act as the pseudo-tank as well.
	LAVA LAUNCHER is a 9 mana ranged monster with Close Range ability. With the Close Range ability, it can still attack even when place at the first position.
	SUPPLY RUNNER is a ranged monster with Swift ability. This is a Speed buff which is good to increase our evade chance and as well as allows our monster to attack first.
	DJINN INFERNI is a Magic monster with Giant Killer ability. Giant Killer ability allows monster to deal double damage againts monsters that cost 10 or more mana. With the 48 mana cap, it has a high chance of deploying monsters with high mana requirement. Although most 10 or more mana are Legendary cards, Legendary cards are not allowed in this match due to battle rules.

ROUND 1

At the start of round 1, we were able to eliminate enemy's main tank "Bone Golem" while also losing our monster "Gargoya Lion". Both this monster has VOID ability to somehow counter magic damage though it didn't happen since most of our attacks are melee and ranged.

ROUND 2

At the end of round 2, we eliminated two monsters from enemy side, "Disintegrator" and "Goblin Chariot" while losing Radiated Brute in the same round. The good thing here is that we still have two monsters that can attack even when place at the first position while our enemy was left with only ranged monsters without the Close Range ability. This means that enemy monster at the front will not attack.

ROUND 3

In round 3, we were able to take down enemy's "Supply Runner" while being unharmed. Enemy is left with two monsters still but only one of them can attack.

ROUND 4

This was the end of the matched.

Check this link to watch the full battle replay:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_460c366bdc763a1d0f23d720353367fd&ref=jpleron

SUMMARY

Did your strategy work?

• My strategy is to counter melee and magic attacks with the help of Demoralize and Void ability while increasing my monster's melee attack, and the additional health for sustain. My opponent uses also Thaddius Brood and Bone Golem to counter a magic lineup since Water and Earth Splinter are availabe. I also place a lot of monters that are capable to attack when put in the first position while my opponent only put a 2 monsters as tank. Both of us uses Disintegrator as support and pseudo-tank.
• My prediction maybe wrong in terms of enemy using magic line-up but I still managed to won that matched since I prepared not only for magic but also for melee damage.

What will you try differently next time?

• Given the same battle ruleset, I may opted to use Tusk the Wide as my main tank since it also has the Void ability but with double the health compare to Gargoya Lion. Living Lava is also a good tank since my opponent focuses on melee and ranged monsters, although since there is a high chance to deploy a magic lineup, I will still prefer to go with tanks that can absorb more magic damage.

MONSTER COMPARISON

• FINEAS RAGE is one of the closest monster we can use for comparison with RADIATED BRUTE as both monsters are from the Fire Splinter with REACH ability.
  FINEAS RAGE would be good for high mana battle since it has a higher mana requirement and a higher health. But for low or medium matches, RADIATED BRUTE will be a good option

vs

VERDICT | Is RADIATED BRUTE a good card?

• Definitely, Radiated Brute is one of the must have cards in the Fire Splinter. It has a mediocre damage but the Reach ability makes him perfect for secondary tank position.

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