First up, i wish you all the best for 2022! 
Spineback Turtle
Spineback Turtles live around the edges of the Dark Water, in the inner seas of ΛZMΛRÉ. They can breathe air, but the incredibly harsh climate of the Water Splinter makes the recesses of the deep more comfortable. They are generally gentle creatures, but when roused to battle,they are shockingly difficult to destroy.
Normal Foil
- Edition: Alpha / Beta
- Rarity: Common
- Element: Water
- CP: 30 / 15
- Cost: $8.95 / $4.00
Gold Foil
- Edition: Alpha / Beta
- Rarity: Common
- Element: Water
- CP: 1500 / 750
- Cost: $300 / $75.40
The Spineback Turtle is a tank card with defense and a nice portion of health. My strategy is to use this card in low mana games, because fr higher mana games (24+) my choice would go to Serpent of Eld (Dodge ability) or the new Diemonshark (Trample) who have higher attack and health stats, but also cost 7 and 8 mana respectively.
Pro's
- Medium mana cost
- 2 Defense
- 6 Health
Con's
- Only 1 attack
- Low Speed
This card was part of the base card set, but is removed by the Chaos Legion update, so now you will need to purchase or rent it. Which i think you should, because it has higher health (2 more) than its Chaos Legion replacement Cruel Sethropod, for only 1 more mana point.
The Battle
Tactics
For this game i tried to get as much defense on my tank as possible. Because of my use of the spineback turtle, i had more mana to spent. In combination with the Deeplurker and Pelacor Bandit for attacking the back monsters, and the combination of the Ice Pixie and Venari Wavesmith for magic attack and some extra defense, i think this would be a great card combination for this game.
Teams And Ruleset
The ruleset of this battle:
Mana Cap: 24
Splinters: All
Normal Ruleset
My Team
Splinter: Water
Summoner: Kelya Frendul, Buff: +1 Speed, +1 Defense
Tank: Spineback Turtle (Shield)
2nd Line: Pelacor Bandit (Sneak, Flying)
3rd Line: Deeplurker (Oppurtunity)
4th Line: Ice Pixie (Flying)
5th Line: Venari Wavesmith (Protect)
Opponent's Team
Splinter: Water
Summoner: Kelya Frendul, Buff: +1 Speed, +1 Defense
Tank: Diemonshark (Trample)
2nd Line: Deeplurker (Oppurtunity)
3rd Line: Merdaali Guardian (Tank Heal)
4th Line: Ice Pixie (Flying)
5th Line: Hardy Stonefish
Round 1
The first round consist of 14 attacks. Lucky for me, the choice of adding Venari Wavesmith turned out good. My opponent took down 2 of my 5 defense of the Spineback Turtle. Afterward the Deeplurker started attacking my Ice pixie, which i could hold of because of the defense. The same goes for my Deeplurker. Unfortunately the Merdaali Guardian healed the magic damage done to the opponents tank.
Round 2
Luckely for me, my opponent missed the attack on my Ice Pixie leaving me with all of my monsters. My Deeplurker took out my opponents Ice Pixie, and removed the defense on the Hardy Stonefish leaving it vulnerable in the next round. So without any loses, all of my monsters entered the 3 round.
Round 3
In the third round, my hopes where to take down the Hardy Stonefish and starting an attack on the Merdaali Guardian taking down the heal ability of my opponent. This happend, and also the defense of the Guardian was taken down. Unfortunately my Ice Pixie got taken down by the Deeplurker.
Round 4
In round 4, my tank got taken down by my opponent without doing damage. But my opponents Merdaali Guardian also went down, removing any healing. Now my Pelacor Bandit went into tank position with 3 defense and Flying.
Round 5
In this round the flying ability worked out, making my opponents Deeplurker miss his target. Afterwards all my monsters attacked the Diemonshark.
Round 6
In this round the Deeplurker again missed target, leaving me with 3 monsters to attack the Diemonshark. By the end of the round, the Diemonshark was left with 1 health, but also my Pelacor Bandit with only 2 health. Now it was just a matter of taking down the Diemonshark first, and then starting attack on the last monster.
Round 7
Here my Pelacor Bandit took the fall, after which the Diemonshark got taken down by my Venari Wavesmith. This left my with the Deeplurker and Venari Wavesmith to enter the 8th round against my opponents Deeplurker.
Round 8 & 9
In round 8 & 9, it was a battle of the Deeplurkers, where mine took the fall. But my opponents was left with only 1 health, and this is how we entered the final round, Deeplurker against Venari Wavesmith.
Round 10
This would the final round, because it only had 1 outcome, a win for me. If the Deeplurker had first attack (because both monster had 3 speed), it would take down only the defense of my monster. And if my Venari Wavesmith had first attack, it would take down the last health of my opponent. And the latter happend.
Conclusion
The tactic worked out great, showing that a small mana tank can be well played in a water deck. Leaving a lot of room to add more monsters than when you add one big tank like the Diemonshark.
I hope you enjoyed my entry for this weeks battle, and hope to see you in the next!
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