Share Your Battle: Time Mage!

Be a master of time and your Splinterlands space, sumon the Time Mage! (TARDIS not included.)

This week’s “Share Your Battle” feature is the Time Mage. This temporal theurgist is a member of the Chaos Legion starter deck and is a handy member of many bronze-league, light-splinter teams. Boasting the slow ability in its level-one configuration, the time mage reduces the speed of its opponents whole team which can be very advantageous. He who strikes first kills first, and the dead don’t strike back!

In addition to the aforementioned slow ability, the level-1 Time Mage sports a swift speed of 4, a magical attack of 1 and a 3-health, all for a 4-mana cost. The time mage doesn’t have any armor at level-1 and it never gains any. Speed is its game and it doesn’t weigh itself down with armor.

As shown on the progression chart below, at level-5 the Time Mage becomes a true master of time by gaining the rust ability which reduces the armor of all its opponents. If you think about it, this is quite a trick, as the Time Mage causes the enemies to move slower in time while causing the enemies’ armor to speed up in time and rust! (TARDIS still not included.)

We also see that as it levels up, the time mage gains magical attack and health. It occasionally gains speed but then gives it back in favor of more magic or its second ability. But in the end a fully maxed out Time Mage has a 3-damage magical attack, a speed of 5, no armor, a 4-health and the slow and rust abilities.

While working on a light-splinter daily quest in my “spell book only challenge”

account, I drew a 17-max-mana match with standard rules and all splinters allowed. Light teams can be solid in the mid-teens range in general bronze-league play, and considering my daily quest this seemed like an ideal time to break out the trusty Time Mage.

It is worth noting that my opponent had played all high-mana matches in their last five with a mix of splinters, so I really didn’t have any kind of read on what kind of team they might play.

My strategy for this match centers on two cards, the featured Time Mage and the armor-boosting Truthspeaker. My hope is that these two cards will work together, and while my slowed opponent is trying to work their way through my armor, I can work my way through them!

Considering the relatively low mana allowed in this match, Mother Khala seems like the natural choice for summoner. The plus one health bonus is always helpful and her low 3-mana cost only seals the deal for this match.

For my tank I place the Blinding Reflector. This well armored low cost card isn’t fast and it doesn’t hit hard but after bonuses, it will stand at 5-armor and 5-health. Hopefully, considering the match’s mana limit, it will be strong enough to serve as a speed bump to allow my team's true attackers to do their work. We can see that its ability to delay my opponent’s team is inline with my intended strategy.

In second position is this week's guest of honor, the Time Mage. I place this card here for two reasons. First, my only other sniper-target card is the Truthspeaker, and if I end up facing a Thadius-Brood-led death team which includes the magically sniping Death Elemental, it’s basically game over before it begins. Brood will negate my summoner’s health bonus with a debuff and the Truthspeaker will have just one health point and will fall to the quick Death Elemental in the beginning of the first round if it is placed before the Time Mage. The other reason I use the Time Mage as my secondary tank is that with its speed and my opponent burdened with a speed debuff the Time Mage can slip and attack or two and can hold the line as the tank if it comes to that.

Lining up third is the Truthspeaker. I want to place it in the middle of my pack to provide it maximum protection. My team’s whole strategy relies on keeping armored to keep alive.

My penultimate team member is the Stitch Leech. This card is my team’s true attacker. With the match’s limited mana, I prefer the sneaky Stitch Leech to the opportunistic Celestial Harpy for this role. While the Harpy is faster and flys, making it much harder to hit, it sports only a 1-powered melee attack. Using the Celestial Harpy as the team’s only attacker other than the Time Mage spells certain doom if I come up against a shield wielding foe!

Bringing up the rear and mainly playing sneak-guard is the Gargoya Scrapper. While this card has a chance to finish off my opponent if it ever advances all the way to the head of the class, it is really just present to protect my Leech from opposing sneaks.

Earth with Obsidian. This is looking really bad. While the match’s mana is low for an ideal Obsidian team, any all-magic assault is going to cut through my uparmored team like a knife through butter. I’m wishing a TARDIS had been included so I could go back and choose a different team!

Ouch! Now I am wishing I could lend my opponent the TARDIS. Using Obsidian as the summoner for a team with no magic attackers is simply a blunder. I have done it myself when changing the idea for my team on the fly. But it always hurts to just waste a precious mana point like that. And against my team it’s tragic. The 3-mana choice for earth is the Wizard of Eastwood who would have debuffed all my armor away, and led to my quick defeat.

But as it stands, I think I am looking at a sure win. On the one hand, my opponent’s sneak will at worst strip the armor off my Leech before it falls in round three. On the other hand, it will take his tank at least seven rounds to work through my front two, but being slower than my Mage, it will take seven points of magical damage first. He who strikes first kills first, and the dead don’t strike back. It seems there is no way my opponent can win this match.

Did I get it wrong though? See for yourself here.

Actually, I did get it wrong. I forgot to apply my plus one health bonus to my Scrapper. So there was no way I could lose the armor on my Leech before my opponent's sneak was sunk in round three.

Turns out the opponent’s Infantry were crack troops and never missed. And after taking out the opposing sneak, my Leech did little more than chip at their armor.

Be that as it may, speed does win and the first attack of round seven goes to the star of the show who ends the battle.

It’s a shame that my opponent gave away a point of mana and their summoner’s bonus by selecting the wrong summoner. I know I have done the same thing, so I can sympathize. Other than that, everything really broke their way. Their sneak struck first winning the 1-speed toss up with mine allowing them to take out my Gargoya. And their Infantry never missed against my faster Mage.

Still, the Time Mage’s speed was the factor that ensured a victory for me. And that is often the case which is why this card is the master of time. (TARDIS never included.)

Posted using Splintertalk