Coach Chat: Pick your team based on the ruleset (or, I'm reayd, Coach!)

Today, I want you to let me take on the role of the coach, as I discuss something that has taken me a long time to learn in Splinterlands - and that is the strategy of picking a team based off of the rulesets. Now, my typical strategy is this: pick my go-to splinter, and load up my go-to team. Sure, I do alright with this approach and I win more than I lose, but, there must be a better way - and that way is playing the right splinter for the right battle and picking the right summoner. Right?

Now, I confess, I do like playing in Earth. My favourite summoner is of course Sacred Llama, but my most used summoner is Obsidian. I rarely play Mylor Crowling, but I'm learning about why he's worth the time. The truth is, I don't own this card - and it's been months since I rented him last, but I actually picked him up yesterday at Level 3 when I had the earth splinter pop up as my daily focus.

Join me, as we get him off the bench, and give him a whirl. To start, let's look at the card:

Now, there's not a lot to this guy. He's 3 mana which is pretty standard, but he has something that no other summoner has. That 'thorns' skill. This is a key skill because it will give all your cards THORNS. When an opponent hits you, you will take +2 of their armour or health. It's genius! Basically, your opponent, by hitting you, kills themselves!!

Now for my rental, I picked this card up at Level 3. This meant I had access to my Level 2 Legendary cards, and leveled up lower deck. My obsidian is Level 3, so basically, it unlocked cards that I'm very familiar with.

Now the truth is, that this guy isn't cheap to rent. And, the way prices have shot up, perhaps I was very lucky (it is also mid-brawl) - but I was able to pick him up for 34 DEC for the day at Level 3 That's a bargain in anyone's language! Truth is though, while 175 DEC is a lot - given the potential that he'll let you unlock in daily chests, you're still likely to break even, even by spending a few hundred a day.

So as I was playing today, I was alternating between Mylor and Obsidian in my FOCUS battles - but then I had the perfect ruleset for Mylor pop - and, in my most commanding and encouraging coach voice, I moved him from the bench into the big match!

Would you have a look at it? A SUPERSNEAK battle is awesome for mylor, what it does it allow every account in your team to gain the SNEAK ability. When you encounter this ruleset, the 'normal' thing to do is play a deep melee line-up. My opponent had a match history of playing WATER - Melee, so I knew I was on to a winner with MYLOR. The option of playing EVEN mana number cards was also a win, as I knew exactly who I wanted on this journey: Mycelic Infantry!

And here is the man of the hour - he's actually one of the stars of my normal line-up. I use him so much, in fact, I made a point of purchasing him in the gold edition!

The reason this card is so necessary is because he has some amazing stats:
+4 melee. Check.
+3 armour. Check.
+8 health. Check.
+1 speed. Yea OK, this sucks.
But - his skill, SHIELD - is where he makes up for any shortcomings with speed. You see, the SHIELD skill means when he is hit with melee or arrows, he'll only take half damage. This is great news in a Mylor battle, as it means he'll need a heck of a lot more hits to be taken down!

And of course, I gave him some backup. Take a look at my back-line.

0 Mana fiend. His entire role in this line-up is to die first, and in doing so, to take armour or health off an opponent with his thorns.

5 Mana Bicerotops. This was a good inclusion in the line-up, having armour and health will give him good longevity, while he should get one or two sneak hits in himself. He's a dangerous card because it will take a couple of hits to drop him.

6 Mana Goblin Pyschic. This guy had one function - if my opponent played a magic card, it would take my tank. If that were to happen, I wanted to be able to heal him. 6 mana is a lot for a 4 health card, and I may have been better with a longer line-up and more health to use to THORN my opponent, but this choice was all about prioritising my Mycelic Infantry who was going to have the biggest impact on this battle.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for, the main event. Here's a replay of the match in its entirety. Enjoy the action, sports fans.

As the battle gets underway, at the start of Round 1 you can see I'm in a position where I'm out-muscled. My opponent has played the INSPIRE shark, and all his melee attackers have gained +1 attack. This means he will get through my line-up quicker than I'd hoped, but he's not playing any magic, which gave me the hope that this would all play into my advantage. I also start to see something great about playing GOBLIN PYSCHIC - he will ignore my opponent's armour, and take some cheap kills at the front.

Through Round 1, both sides took on some casualties. We both lost two accounts. This was fine in my case, as my thorns were able to hurt my opponents and take their armour and my rear guards were simply that, rear guards. My great win in this battle was removing his first two cards, this exposed his demented shark with the INSPIRE ability. That ability would be his key to victory, by taking it - it would well and truly put me back in the position as the unbackable favourite.

At the start of Round 3, I had done what I needed to do - and that was drop his DEMENTED SHARK. In this round I also lost my GOBLIN PYSCHIC.

And then, between my thorns and my MYCELIC's amazing +4 melee damage, this battle became a walk-in-the-park. His Gargoyla simply didn't have another attack to be able to dint my Mycelic - and then it was Mycelic vs Chicken - and that final match up was delicious!

Evaluation:

• I rarely use Mylor, but I regularly lose to him. It was great to have the shoe on the other foot. I have come to learn just how useful he is, particularly when vs'ing melee teams - if for no other reason than it robs the armour they might have and makes them sitting ducks. It's also useful to be able to hurt an opponent without actually attacking! That's what they call efficiency.
• In the future I can't afford to buy this card to Level 3, but I certainly would rent him again. At the cost of a few cents, he is certainly an amazing investment, as the battle wins you gain with him well and truly cover his rental costs.
• And finally, I have learned to play the ruleset, not my favourite team! A necessary reminder if I'm to improve in this game!

Don't forget, you can click here and sign up with my affiliate link.

#splinterlands #spt #play2earn
#oneup #hivegaming #battle
#pimp #neoxian #archon #palnet
#proofofbrain