SHARE YOUR BATTLE Weekly Challenge! ANIMATED CORPSE

Hello Beautiful people! Hope your week is going well!

Today, I bring to you Animated Corpse as part of the @splinterlands, weekly #play2earn share your battle challenge.

To be frank this card is disliked by many players as it is slow as heck with only +2 melee. However, in a reverse speed low mana rule-set it might come in handy as a tank or meat shield.

To demonstrate this cards effectiveness or perhaps glaring weaknesses, I will share a battle with you.

Animated Corpse is from Alpha and Beta versions of @splinterlands and it's a common death monster.

At level 1, Animated Corpse has a mana count of 4 with +6 health. Its low mana count and relatively high health make it a solid meat shield in a reverse speed low mana rule set. Why reverse speed you may ask? Well it has an atrocious speed count of 1. And its melee attack is only +2.

Now do you see why this card is hated by many? lol.

Show me the Stats

At level one as we've already discussed animated corpse is slow as heck and does not provide much of an attack. I mean it makes sense, the thing is a zombie. Individually, this card is rather weak but if there were thousands of them like in a zombie apocalypse than that would be another story haha.

However, starting at level 4 it does start to bring more to the table with its reduced damage from magic attacks. But other than that as you continue to level up health, speed and melee only improve marginally. To be honest you're better off leveling up other cards and leaving this one alone.

In summary this card is rather ineffective unless used in very specific rule sets. Mainly at low mana, reverse speed where Animated Corpse can certainly be a wonderful addition to your lineup.

Battle and Lineup

The Battle was a mana cap of 28 with no modifications to the standard gameplay rules and mechanics.

With that said below is the lineup I went with.

1.Djinn Chwala :

Since we are forced to use Animated Corpse, I went with a Drake of Arnak as my summoner to provide an extra shield. Animated corpse has a decent health count but is slow and has no protection.

Having chosen a dragon as my splinter I went with Djinn Chwala as my tank. Its +5 shield and +9 health combined with thorns makes it a very solid tank.

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2. Animated Corpse:

Since I didn't use Animated Corpse as a tank, I debated to either put him at number 2 spot or number 6. I ended up going with number 2 hoping to use him as meat shield in case my opponent got through Djinn. Sometimes its difficult to decide where to position Animated Corpse giving his statistical constraints. Either way I went position number two, not much use for him given the rule set.

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3. Creeping Ooze:

Given that Animated corpse is slow as heck, I put in Creeping Ooze to help slow down my opponent.

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4. Uraeus:

While Djinn keeps busy defending the front line. I put Uraeus in for its sneak so I could attack my opponents back line. Also, its extra shield always comes in handy.

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5. Venari Bonesmith:

Given the relative weakness of Animated Corpse I put in Venari Bonesmith hoping to get good use of his life leech ability. I put him at position five hoping he would survive any attacks.

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6. Twisted Jester:

You can never go wrong with Twisted Jester. His plus 2 snipe always comes in handy. This is one of the most useful cards out there. I debated to have Animated corpse protect him from the back but I opted for protection up front as Twisted Jester continued to snipe should he survive.

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My adversary went with Life splinter summoner Mother Khala and monsters Shieldbearer, Silvershield Knight, Feral Spirit, Elven Cutthroat, and Cave slug. They're strategy was heavy melee atack combined with sneak, inspire and opportunity.

Battle

Round 1

Even though my opponent had the speed advantage, we got off to a good start. As Twisted Jester attacked first thanks to Creeping Ooze. However, my team took some damage as my opponent was able to use sneak and opportunity effectively. Nevertheless, Venarai Bonesmith gained +1 health and surprisingly Animated Corpse survived round one with no damage lol.

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Round 2

At this point the battle is pretty even for both sides. Each team taking some damage.

Once again Twister Jester attacked first but unfortunately he was quickly taken out by Feral Spirit. But no need to worry as shortly thereafter Uraes took out Shielbearer. A big win for our side.

Our opponent continued with the sneak and opportunity attack taking out creeping ooze and attacking Venari Bonesmith. However, extra shield and life leech neutralized their attack.

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Round 3

Having taken out their tank, we were one step closer to victory.

Feral Spirit opened up the round by attacking first since Creeping ooze was no longer around. Venari Bonesmith took damage but life leech once again came in handy.

Lastly, my opponent continued its sneak and opportunity attack however Cave slug missed when attacking Uraeus. Proving costly.

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Round 4

Round 4 opened with feral spirit taking out Venari Bonesmith. However we quickly got rid of Silvershield knight weakening the opponents Sneak and opportunity attack by minus 1 as inspire was no longer available. From this point on victory was pretty much ours.

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Round 5

This round was a quick one as both teams attacked but no monster was taken out. Djinn Chwala did miss with the attack but it would prove to be negligible as the next round was not so kind to our opponent.

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Round 6

This round started off with our side having a considerable health advantage as our opponent spent most of the early rounds picking off our backline with sneak and opportunity attacks.

Funny enough super slow Animated corpse began the last round relatively unscathed. While Djinn Chwala finished off our opponents one by one with thorns.

Questions and Answers

Did my strategy work? What will I try differently next time?

My strategy of going with Djinn Chwala as my tank with shield protection from my summoner was a solid choice. It helped neutralize their opportunity and sneak attacks. Creeping ooze proved to be a pivotal monster as it slowed their attack giving us enough breathing room to survive each successive round as we attacked and finish off their tanks.

Next time I would of probably have put Animated Corpse last, but how was I suppose to know my opponent was going to come at me with heavy inspired opportunity and sneak attack?

Either way we came home victorious in a close but satisfying victory.

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Do I like the Animated Corpse? Why or why not?

I don't mind Animated Corpse as a meat shield. However, its limiting stats make it a difficult monster to use. Its not very versatile. However, in reverse speed, low mana rule sets, it can be a useful monster.

With that said, would I ever level up the monster to get the reduced magic attack ability? Probably not. But no matter what Splinterlands is always fun to play.

This concludes my battle challenge. I hope you enjoyed it and were able to learn a little bit more about Animated Corpse and see how it stacks up against the rest of the competition.

If you enjoyed my write up and want to talk stategy you can find me @hive.pizza in our Discord.

Thank you, have a wonderful day!