So, here on Publish0x, I've been wondering how to introduce Splinterlands to my readers in a more fun way than just sort of shilling it at you. I've not been posting as frequently because I was trying to figure out a better way to engage my users, and I really wanted to engage you guys on Splinterlands because it's my favorite game thus far on the blockchain!
I came across this weekly battle contest for Splinterlands, and it was clear that this was the answer. Every week, Splinterlands has a chosen monster which you make a battle about, and you share that battle with others.
So this week, we had this fierce little guy(s): Electric Eels
ooh girl, shock me like an electric eel. Turn me on with your electric feel.
A super cool card, I want to take a second to just appreciate the design influences here, with its undulating, lightning-like appearance, and viviid blue lightning swirling around it in a similar, undulating pattern. On the card, you never get to see their tails or underside, so this was a nice surprise to see their tails have these draconic, reddish tufts of fur/fins!
Here's a picture of the card for reference
As you can see, in Splinterlands, each creature has a Mana Cost, an Attack (Either Melee, Ranged, or Magic!), a Speed, and a Health stat. (Some also have an Armor stat above Health but our little eel here clearly has no armor.) They also have 1-4 abilities shown as icons below the card. This icon right here is called Reach, and it means that this little guy can be placed in the 2nd position and just yoinks right by the 1st guy and hits the enemy in the face with his eely appendages.
He's relatively fast for a Water creature, and by using him, I am locked into a Water Summoner and a team of Water (and Neutral!) creatures.
At 4 Cost, they are a Water creature with the following stats at Level 1: 1 Melee, 3 Speed, 5 Health, making them a relatively fast attacker for the Water splinter! Their Reach ability makes me think they will likely be best in the 2nd slot, as a fast attacker to support the rest of my water team. This instant shot of damage will likely take out any Enraged Chickens who happen to think they can take this card on!
I don't actually have this bad boy, so I went ahead and rented it to test out, and give it a try for 5 days, which cost about 3.7 DEC! To give you guys an idea, I earn about 5-7 DEC per battle I win. So this is extremely cheap to play with. The new rental system is wonderful and absolutely ideal for new players to quickly feel powerful and test out new cards!
As you can see, I got a pretty tough set of modifications: +2 Armor, and Earthquake (this deals 2 melee damage to all units except Flying each turn) with 14 Mana to spend on creatures. 14 MANA! A Summoner costs 2-4 mana, so between that and my Electric Eels, I only had about 7 Mana to use for anything else!
My Lineup: I call it: "Flying off the seat of my Pants"
I thought my team was pretty clever, using Vara Selacia to snare the enemy, preventing them from using flying units to escape the Earthquake. I then started with Chicken, to cushion the first blows, followed by Electric Eels, Albatross, both Pixies, and Creeping Ooze to protect from back attacks.
Since this isn't on Hive, and there are probably more people who don't know what Splinterlands is, I will explain these cards a bit:
- Enraged Chicken is a 0 Cost card with 1 HP, he's basically a meat shield. But gosh is he a glorious meat shield. Look at how angry he is. That meat shield is one day going to become the most powerful creature in existence. I chose him as my starter to protect from 1 attack
- Electric Eels, as you saw, has Reach, I didn't have enough mana to use a regular attacker, and since there was Armor, which protects from melee attacks, I decided to just use him as a quick snipe on what I assumed would be their chicken as well.
- Albatross is a 1 HP creature with flying, making him another meat shield who would survive the Earthquake, allowing him to be a last line of defense for my Pixies
- Ice Pixie has 1 Magic, 1 HP, and 2 Speed, with Flying, and costs 2 Mana
- Enchanted Pixie has the same stats, but 3 Speed instead and 3 Mana. Together, they were my main attacking power.
- Finally, I ended with Creeping Ooze, who slows every enemy by 1 Speed until he's defeated. I placed him in the back in anticipation for a card with sneak, which causes them to attack the back of your line up first.
I realized, only after utilizing Vara, that my gold Vara was only level 2, and so the Electric Eels were a lower level than I had planned. Oops! I do think that, even if I had used a summoner with Level 3 or 4, Vara was the better choice in this situation, as my Alric is level 1. I also think that the extra 1 Melee damage and 1 Health would not have made any difference in this specific situation, only making me lose slightly less.
My Opponent's Lineup
My opponent's choice of Contessa had pretty much no affect on the battle, however I was no match for Phantom Soldier and Fallen Specter, a legendary and an epic I have never actually seen before.
The Phantom Soldier is a $4 Epic with 2 Magic, 3 Speed, 8 Health, and Flying at 8 cost. Honestly, this was probably the absolute best card I can think of to play in this situation. Tanky, Flying, Magic, it hits all the boxes to counter the modifications that were set for our battle. I might have to snag this card at some point...
Spooky, Tanky, Flying, and Magical. He hits everybox
Fallen Specter is a $43 Legendary with 1 Magic, 6 Speed, 1 Health, and Flying, at 2 cost. I do not feel bad for losing to this thing. This one card is worth as much as my entire collection I think.
This thing is worth more than my whole collection T.T
A Quick Reflection
I think I would have won if I had used any character with Sneak, but I was not expecting this kind of play unfortunately... but hindsight 20/20.
With a Sneak Attack, his 1 HP Legendary would have been absolutely wrecked, and I think I narrowly would have won with just Ice Pixie still alive.
You can check out the original post, as seen on Hive here. It would mean a lot to me if you upvoted this, as it's my first ever post on Hive and I really had no idea what I'm doing! If you're a regular Hive user and you actually see this: Is there a way to center posts and images on Hive? I would love to hear how in the comment section!!!
Thanks for checking out my post, if for some reason you aren't playing Splinterlands, you absolutely should here: https://splinterlands.com?ref=jakkal, by using my referral link, when you purchase the $10 Spellbook, we will both receive a free card which could be worth anywhere from 4 cents to nearly $100! If you have any questions about how to get started, or just want advice on anything please don't hesitate to comment with questions!
If you'd like to participate in this weekly challenge too, it took me forever to find the original link for the mission as a newbie, so here's where you can find the original post: https://hive.blog/splinterlands/@splinterlands/share-your-battle-weekly-challenge-electric-eels
I'll have a more traditional post on Splinterlands soon, but I wanted to try out a (hopefully) more engaging way to get you guys to try out these different projects and games. It's always my goal to provide you guys with any opportunities, games, NFT experiences, etc. that I find. Let me know what you guys like to see and be sure to like and follow if you're always looking for new opportunities and entry points into NFTs and crypto, especially ones involving gaming.
