Another Dragon Week! - Battling with Reward Set Dragon Team

2 years ago

INTRO

Hello Guys, Welcome to Another Week Battling the Ultimate Dragons. The Weekly Share Your Battle Challenge hosted by the Splinterlands Team gives us Players the Chance to Battle, Share and Earn more, So Check Out this Challenge if You aren't already competing.
This Week I'm gonna be Sharing my Dragon Battle with you Guys, and I always have fun with Dragons, maybe Because they are Rarer, But I hope You have Fun too! Let's Begin.

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Reward Cards, Dragon Week, Who Cares

So, It hasn't been up to two months since we last Battled the Dragon Elemental and now it is Here Again, the Last time I can remember was around the Last Week of November. Now that I have a Better Understanding of Splinterlands Card Editions since I've been writing About them and Trying to Restock My Collection, I decided to Battle with Reward Edition Dragon Cards for this Challenge.

In the External Market, when Searching for Dragon Cards you will see that, Dragon Cards across all Editions are Few, Usually not above about 20 varieties in Count. I also noticed that - Older Splinterlands Card Sets (Such as Alpha, Beta, Untamed, and Dice) have More Expensive Dragon Cards, yet there weren't many to choose from.

So I decided to Look at Reward Edition and was Impressed by the Number of Cheap Dragon Cards Available. All I wanted to do was rent some Cards that could make up a Regular Team, i.e Most Dragon Monsters in the Lineup, maybe with 5 or 6 monsters. Well, Reward Edition was Perfect for this and I was able to Rent the Following Monsters for Some Dec Tokens.

Monsters Rented -:

Djinn Chwala
Gloridax Soldier
Serpentine Mystic
Dhampir Infiltrator
Manticore
Fire Spitter

Is Water, Earth More Powerful than Dragon Cards

Dragon Cards are Rare and Very Powerful, but as I Rented All these Cards and Started to Battle - At first It was Like, I was Only Gonna be Facing a Water Elemental Opponent, and I kept being Crushed. The Major Reason for this was Because Djinn Oshannaus was in the Lineup - Literally, Everyone Was Using this Legendary Magic Tank.

I wanted a Winning Match Afterall, So if you know How Dragon Works - You Should Know that You can Combine the Dragon Element with the Remaining Available Ones (From Water, Death, Earth, Fire, and Life.) Surely, there has got to be a Combination that Could Defeat this Monstrosity of a Lineup is What I was thinking.

But don't let this Fool you, there are more Powerful Dragon Cards from Other Editions that would Crush the Ultimate Water Team (Ofc, with Djinn Oshannaus in the Lineup), but This Time, I just wanted to keep it going with My Reward Collection.

Funny enough, Every Battle that I Lost Revealed what was Wrong, Why I Lost and Maybe the Best Options to Counter that;

To Highlight, the (2) Main Reasons I was being Overpowered by many Water, Earth team I Faced were:

A Tank Heal Monster (Merdalli Guardian, Goblin Psychic) on the Enemy Lineup
A Decrease in my Monsters Speed (by -1) using Creeping Ooze
and Likewise, Increase in Enemy Monsters with Kelya Frendul(For Water Teams).

So, I had to Counter these Two Battle Tactics, and See If I could change the Results!

So, the Conclusion for me was this:

A Dragon Team without extremely powerful Monsters that costs as high as 11 - 14 Mana still requires essential support and I discovered the best way to support them was by Introducing a Tank Healer & a Speed Decreasing Monster.

The Battle that I'm about to share reveals the relevance of these two Card combos with the Dragon Element!

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Battling Dragons with a Healer & Oozzer

`Battle Details:`

In my Battle, I'm Facing a Death Elemental Team with just a Few Gold Cards in the Lineup, It's a Pretty Average Mana Cap Battle so I didn't get to use all my Dragon Cards in the Lineup. I actually preferred this Arrangement more, because it helped me understand the individual Dragon Cards Strengths on my team. For a Low Mana Battle with just a few Monsters, it lasted a lot of rounds!. Lastly, I'm combining the Dragon Element with Water, getting me some Healer!.

`Battle Lineup:`

Check out my Battle Lineup (Attaching my Favourite Earth Monsters to Mycelic Infantry consisting of Only Magic Attackers.)

Monster/Summoner Cards	Comments
I get started Using Drake of Arnak, the Only Available Dragon Summorner available for free. It also complemented the Tactic of distributing shield to all Monsters to protect Initial Health.
	Manticore is originally a Reach Ability Monster, i.e He Should be attacking from the Second Position in Lineup, but he could still attack from the First Position. He comes with +6 Health & Flying Ability, so He could fit in for a Tank.
This is the Strategic Advantage I was Looking for, Creeping Ooze will decrease the Speed of Enemy Monsters, `making them miss some hits`. As long as he could be Well protected to last a While in Battle, Mine lasted till the very end!
	Similar Strategy goes for Merdaali Guardian - `Protect Her Well, so she can Protect Tank Well` XD.
This Monster takes up the Rear Position but with Only +1 Shield and +4 Health, I was Depending on his Special Abilities - `Flying & Shield` to Lessen the Hits Received, and a Good job was done on these.

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`Battle Walkthrough:`

First and Foremost, it's worth noting that the Battle Lasted for a Full 17 Rounds even though there was a Small number of Monsters lined up from both Teams. This was due to Positionaing, ``Perks, and How many Monsters were able to Attack
Creeping Ooze effect was of a great deal in Battle, Slowing down the enemy Lineup Considerably. Already with slow Monsters, it made them even slower, One Rear Position Monster with +1 Original Speed Could not even make an Attack.
Only One Monster was the main attacker from my team (Manticore), with the Enemy having three Attackers, but with the way things were Placed, ONE of those attacker's melee was reduced completely to Zero by the Ability Shield in Gloridax Soldier, The Second was Missing a Lot because of Reduced Speed, and the Third Attack was on the Tank Monster, and every Round, Being Healed by the Healer.
The Battle Continued this way, up until Rounds 6 & 7 which was to define the Next Phase because One of two things Could Happen - The Rear Position Monster (Gloridax) was just on +1 Health after taking lots of Hits and could be Destroyed Soon, BUT, If I manage to Take out the Enemy's Tank on time, The Monster Targeting Gloridax will halt its Attack and begin facing Tank. Well, the latter happened, and no doubt this was a Battle-Defining Moment.
And this was how things continued - Manticore Getting Hit, Being Healed, But Dealing back Damage, the Enemy Monster Dying, Manticore still Standing!. This Battle Demonstrates Healer & Creeper to their full capabilities.
The Positioning and Length of time that both Strategic Monsters remained in the Lineup was the Highlight of this Battle, I think that fighting in a Lower Mana Cap Battle really helped to Protect them both. With no Snipe & Opportunity Monsters - it worked out splendidly!. In a Higher Mana Cap Battle, my Strategy was to Combine Dragons with Water team and Include both Merdaali Guardian & Deep Lurker.