Every week there is a Splinterlands challenge to share a battle using a specific card and on this week's post it is the Venari Knifer card. I also encourage Splinterlands players to partake in the challenge because you get to try different strategies and earn some crypto in the process.
Featured Monster: Venari Knifer
Venari Knifer is an earth splinter card that costs 6 mana. It starts with the thorns ability and later learns the backfire ability at level 6. The Thorns ability is very useful as it deals damage when it gets hit by a melee attack and backfire will deal damage if the opponent misses the card. The stats themselves are great as it has high speed, decent attack, and decent health.
I don't use this card too often but I do like to use it as a monster in the very last spot of my lineup due to the thorns ability. My current version of the card is level 1 and I think the only downside to this card is that it can't attack from anywhere.
Rule set, Battle and Plan
The ruleset this time is armored up. This rule set means that every single monster gets an extra +2 armor. So in a way, you are at a disadvantage for playing melee or ranged monsters. There is 36 mana available and you can use any splinters except for death.
The summoner I choose to use this time is Wizard of Eastwood. This summoner removes two armor from all enemies and works well with the current rule set. At the same time, it is also my highest level summoner in the earth deck.
My plan is just to have a void magic tank as my opponent might use magic monsters to avoid the rule set buff. There is no backup tank this time but I have an array of monsters that can attack from anywhere with some support monsters to keep my Unicorn Mustang alive. Venari Knifer is in the last spot for thorns and my support monsters will give me 2 extra shields and heals.
Round 1
At the first glance of my opponent's lineup, my plan for having magic hit me has failed. I still think I have a chance to win as my opponent has two sneak monsters but I am not that optimistic because his magic monster has snipe and his summoner decreases my attack.
Round 2
The end of the first round is not looking great for me because I haven't done much damage to my opponent. The only good thing is that a few of my opponent's monsters should die next round, but that snipe monster with bloodlust will be deadly against me.
Round 3
Both me and my opponent has lost 2 cards so this mach could go either way. However, I don't think this looks good for me because of that bloodlust magic card.
Round 4
With this, my loss is guaranteed. There is just no way for me to recover from what I have left. The magic card will take out my vulture and I will die due to the thorns from my double attack.
As I expected, I lost this match and there wasn't much I could do because my opponent did not use a magic build like I thought he would. The magic gladius snipe monster was my downfall.
Conclusion
The battle this time around did not go as I expected. The -1 attack from my enemies summoner was deadly and that magic snipe gladius card was too much for me to overcome. I believe my lineup was fine and I thought my opponent would opt for more magic cards to avoid the rule set. My Venari Knifer did do its job quite well as it was able to tank a lot of the sneak damage. While it didn't live long enough to tank everything, it did kill off one card and left the sandworm near dead. So the thorns ability of this card is amazing.
My summoner did a great job and I used melee cards knowing that I would remove that armor. It would give me more chances for my bloodlust monster to finish off cards and eventually overpower my opponent. I just wasn't expecting the magic snipe monster to take out my support monsters. I think my opponent's lineup is quite strong and I don't think I like fighting that magic snipe gladius card.
You can see my entire match here.
What did you think of my match? Was there anything you would have done differently? I think it is quite interesting to see how different players use the same card.
