Splinterlands:A gritty, hard-fought battle;Facing the Mighty Archon,The Legendary Elowen Sylphie.

This was one battle I was 100% sure I’d lose the second I saw my opponent’s Archon,the legendary Elowen Sylphie with her terrifying abilities. But I was genuinely shocked at how dominant my assist tank, Abysmal Elemental turned out to be. Its innate Resurgence kicked in at the perfect moment, giving me that extra life and sustain I needed to outlast her two beasts and actually won the game.

Splinterlands is no walk in the park, but that's what amps up the excitement.A winning strategy weighs stats, abilities, rulesets, mana caps, and beyond. That's why you must factor them all into your deck building. Toss in strong cards to boost your setups, and push hard to rack up as many victories as possible! 🔥

Let me tell you why I was scared 😨 when I saw that my opponent archon was ELOWEN SYLPHIE.
Stacking three huge abilities (Resurgence, Trample, and Charge on her bloodline units) on top of each other.That’s what made the matchup look so scary at first. Some day I would do a write up on her and why those foxes are on top of her.

Elowen Sylphie is a Legendary Earth Archon (Summoner) from the Conclave Arcana set in Splinterlands.She's a 7-mana Earth summoner with a Human base bloodline, but her real power comes from Bloodline Dominion over Avian and Mundane Beast units. This allowed opponents summoned strong Avian/Beast monsters from any splinter (Water, Fire, Life, etc.) into an Earth deck,massive flexibility! Those units also automatically gain Charge, meaning melee attackers can strike from any position in the lineup. No more wasting turns on positioning,they just go ham right away.
On top of that, she grants Resurgence and Trample to up to two friendly units:

Resurgence: The unit resurrects once per battle with full health + armor. It clears all magic debuffs and reapplies any magic buffs it had.(It skips its turn after reviving, but still,full-health comeback is insane.)

Trample: After a melee attack kills a unit, it immediately attacks the next enemy in line. Chain-kill potential is huge.It's one of the strongest modern-format Archons for hybrid aggressive teams.

Elowen Sylphie doesn't take. She asks, and the forest answers.Let the Conclave Arcana learn what that means.

ABYSMAL ELEMENTAL

From the depths of the Elemental Plane of Water, abyssal elementals rise, formless beings of raw aquatic power. Jicarilla the Rime conjures them in waves, their bodies flooding the land, carving rivers through dry earth, and crushing anything in their path.

They feel no fear, no hunger, only the inexorable pull of Jicarilla’s command. As long as she holds dominion over the tides, they will rise, drown, and destroy any who stand between her and the secret of Praetoria.

The Battle

Rules and plan

The rules says

• You can only summon 5 units
• All Units have Return Fire (returns 50% of ranged damage to attackers rounded up), sometimes nicknamed Fire & Regret in the community.

The total cost of this battle was 27 mana.My Archon was Marlai Singariel for +1magic.My tank was Halfling Refugee for weary and my assist tank was the formidable Abysmal Elemental with its innate resurgence.My Other monsters were Tidal tsunamist and ** Mystic Scaleweaver** for its slow ability.

My opponent of course his Archon was Elowen Sylphie.He featured just two massive melee attack monsters,Mantaroth as the tank and Endless Ape as the assist tank,both with massive health.
Mantaroth is a minotaur, while Endless Ape is a mundane beast perfect bloodlines for Elowen to chose from.

ROUND 1
You can see both sides units,getting set for battle;

ROUND 2
A lot took place in this round 2 that has 12 episodes.
It was in the round you would see the real effect of scarvenge and resurgence ability on display.But by now Mantaroth,has taken a lot of damage and was even eliminated,but resurgence brought him back.
When he was eliminated,his assist tank Endless Ape received+1 to its health, because scarvenge was activated.In addition, the eliminated Mantaroth when revived,it dealth -1 to all units health, including is own unit.And he came back with all is abilities intact.Just go through the shots 👇.

Death Of Mantaroth

Scavenger Display by Endless Ape

Return Of Mantaroth Full Abilities Intact

Mantaroth giving -1 to all units due to resurgence

In this Round 2, episode 10, trample was activated and Endless Ape took out my tank and hitting my assist tank Abysmal elemental as well,that is what trample does when activated.It didn't end there scarvenge was also on display since my tank has been eliminated

Scarvenge

Round 3
Mantaroth did a trample on my assist tank thereby eliminating it and hitting my only melee monster Tidal tsunamist while Endless Ape was collecting +1 health due to scarvenge.

Endless Ape Scarvenging

But hold-on, Abysmal elemental has an innate resurgence ability thereby, coming fully intact with all its abilities.

Round 4

Final death of Mantaroth

Round 5
The whole process was repeated again but this time it was only by Endless Ape against 3 of my remaining monsters.

Round 7
Final hit on Endless Ape

Round 7
Game over 2 against 1

WATCH THE FIERCE BATTLE HERE

Conclusion;
As a newbie this was the fierciest battle I have ever faced,It was really scary and I am happy I won at the end.

I want to use this opportunity to explain the ruleset
It says;
All Units have Return Fire (returns 50% of ranged damage to attackers rounded up), sometimes nicknamed Fire & Regret in the #splinterlands community.

Official explanation of the rule
Every single monster on the battlefield (mine and Elowen’s) automatically gains the Return Fire ability.
When any unit takes ranged damage, it instantly reflects 50% of that damage back to the attacker (rounded up).
Example: If an enemy ranged monster hits you for 5 damage and you take 5, but the attacker immediately takes 3 damage back (5 ÷ 2 = 2.5 and rounded up to 3).

It is Important to note that;

This only triggers on pure ranged attacks.

• Melee attacks? Zero reflection.
• Magic attacks? Zero reflection.
  It does not affect your own team when you attack, only when you get hit by ranged.

Did it actually play out in this battle?
Nope,not even once. 🔥
Here’s why;My deck was

• Halfling Refugee, Melee attack.
• Abysmal Elemental,Magic attack.
• Tidal Tsunamist Melee attack (Sneak + Fury, but still melee).
• Mystic Scaleweaver,Magic attack (the Slow + magic damage dealer).

Elowen’s team (both safe):

• Mantaroth,Melee attack (Armored Strike + Trample)
• Endless Ape,Melee attack (Charge + Scavenger)
  Zero ranged attackers on either side = Return Fire never triggered at all.

The rule was technically there, but it was completely dead in this matchup,my magic lasers and melee brawlers just rolled straight through without any penalty.

Wow! Thank you 🙏 for reading and watching.Yours truly @zusi78, signing off.

Photo Credit:splinterlands