Social Media Challenge - Soak, Injure and Strike

Prelude
Good day to all, hope that you are doing well and battling often in Splinterlands. It is time again for another battle sharing on a match encounter that happened over the span of this week. Do also note that Conclave Arcana presale is coming to an end. So if you haven't start buying, don't wait any longer Today, the match that I will be showcasing a battle where I even out the damage impact on my front line with a taunt due to ruleset having no healing and have something ready to pounce on opponent's weakened cards at front line and gather a win.

Iziar has been one of my favourite taunt card with or without healing ruleset as she is tank and can soak up damage from magic, allowing tanks to survive a little longer.

Drybone Barbarian, a card that thrives even better when no healing due to enrage to give it crazy stats which is really good to injure other cards from the front.

Marisol Contuma, a card that grows with each kill and able to hit in front of tanks yet able to strike from 2nd position. This card will be the finisher and gets stronger with opponent that falls to his hands.

And these are the 3 cards that have been instrumental in the matchup that I will be share which fulfil the element of soaking damage, injuring the front line and finally striking to clear the card and grow bigger.

So let's get right into the match.

Battle Sharing

Reference Battle
Battle Link: https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_9b64243e3b68b3c26b98bbbf19e2e689?ref=vaynard86

Ruleset: Odd ones out, Four's a crowd and healed out.
Mana Limit: 60

Selection Analysis
We have 4 splinters available for selection - Fire, Life, Death and Dragon. For a matchup that can only use 4 cards, having 60 mana threshold is a luxury. And the tough one here in this combination of ruleset is the odd ones out which makes it a tough one to field sufficient strong cards. Typically, Dragon Splinter would have given us a good selection due to the cards in this splinter is generally bigger in cost and have great abilities etc. But for this case, I went for life splinter which has I had more odd mana established cards.

So here is my selection of the lineup. I've chosen to go with Franz Ruffmane because I wanted the extra armour and also the ability to call upon a Gladius card onto the battlefield. In terms of the tank, I have used Drybone Barbarian which has the enrage. A very strong card which enrages and strikes opponents hard, typically clearing armour and lowering opponent health significantly. Next is Marisol Contuma that has reach ability and blood lust. This card can hide under the protection of the tank and strike opponent from a safe position and it posses great stats. Next up will be Djinn Renova which give strengthen and everyone in the lineup gets extra health. Last in the lineup will be Iziar which is meant to deal some magic damage and at the same time channel some damage towards it to ease off impact from the front tank so that the tank can survive longer and do more damage.

On my opponent end, my opponent used Dragon splinter which attempts to have the bigger cards as I've mentioned earlier residing in Dragon cards. First in the line is Agor Longtail which has a double attack for melee and magic and at the same time having Void Armour and Taunt. This makes a perfect tank but being at first position, it doesn't full utilize the taunt as everything went towards it which I will explain more later after the match. Carnage Titan was called with the same intent to strike from 2nd position and what's more, this card has double strike which will hit me harder. Following which is Night Reaper which is fantastic against flying cards but thankfully I do not have any but 3 magic damage is not easy to handle as well. last but not least will be Runic Skyclaw which has a real big damage on it that can really inflict loads of damage.

In terms of raw power, my opponent's lineup looks really strong and can really land me some big damage. But my lineup is planned in a way to even out damage and then take out opponent's card one by one. Let's go right to the battle.

Round by Round Synopsis

Round 1 - A very friendly round 1 with minimal action but severe damage has been done throughout especially for me whom manage to bring down Agor Longtail to just 1 health considering the amount of big hits that my opponent can deliver.

Round 2 - Marisol took out Agor Longtail and gained blood lust. The spreading out of damage worked well as Drybone Barbarian and Iziar both still surviving. Though Drybone Barbarian had already taken alot more punishment from the melee cards.

Round 3 - Another round with Marisol clearing out Carnage Titan with one blow and continue growing bigger. Drybone Barbarian had served its duty and finally fallen.

Round 4, This round we manage to clear Night Reaper but Iziar also fell to Runic Skyclaw's attack. However, now we are handling a sitting duck which cannot attack at all as effectively we have won the match here.

Round 5-6, In these rounds, it was just shaving off the health of Runic Skyclaw till it falls, a battle well won!

Battle Summary
This is a battle of wits. While opponent did plan for a big massive output with a very strong lineup, I did have other plans and overcome my opponent with a little strategy of mine to spread out the damage so that 2 "tanks" can share the damage while having a big striker to land the kills. Opponent's Agor Longtail could have allowed an additional card to be fielded but having it taking all the damage at the front made it harder to survive longer and the backline will be exposed upon me clearing one by one while minimizing the damage on my front tank.

Wrap Up
Thank you all for dropping by the post and walking through with me the various strategies and gameplay that I wanted to share with the community so that everyone improve their gameplay. If you have good strategies on how I can even better my selection, do share with me in the comments.

See you next time!

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Till my next battle sharing, take care, stay safe and happy battling!

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