Hello Battlemages!
This week it's the turn to one of my favorite cards when I started playing Splinterlands: the Mycelic Infantry.
The Mycelic Infantry is a Rare Earth monster that costs 8 mana.
At level 1, he comes with 3 Melee Damage, 1 Speed, 3 Armor and 7 Health. The archetype of tanks: slow and beefy. But it takes his advantage at his ability: Shield, which reduce by half all melee damages he takes.
He also gets Giant Killer at level 5.
And he becomes Enraged at level 8, that is a good upgrade, increasing speed and damage when hurt.
His drawback is the lack of synergy with a relevant Summoner. If you play Earth, your opponent might too, and in a mirror match with Obsidian, the magic attacks will reduce this tank to nothing pretty quickly. He would do OK though with more balanced opponents (Water, Death, Life) while he definitely preys on Fire.
The battle
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_d34d303a6942c069b1a55fa0ba73b01a&ref=engilhramn
The battle is played in Modern Silver. It is opened to literally all splinters, with a mana cap of 23, under the rule set Super Sneak and Taking Side. So Neutral monsters are not allowed and all melee units have the Sneak ability.
The lineup
With the lowish mana cap, I expect the opponent to take advantage of the SUper Sneak and to play mostly melee units.
Summoner: Mylor Crowling is expensive to rent, I usually don't rent him except at the beginning of the season, when he's cheaper, and it's auto-win with certain rule sets.
First position: for sure I want Mycelic Infantry in the lineup. An argument could be made to place him at the back to cut all the sneaky attacks. But I guessed Mylor would take care of them anyway
I have 12 mana left for the team, and I just want beefy/tanky monsters to hold long enough for the duo Mylor/Mycelic Infantry to be a thorn in the foot.
In addition, I realized once the battle began that my rented Queen Mycelia had expired, so I had to do without.
So I went with:
Lichen beast: for the health and the Enrage ability. I could have placed it more in the back though, just to activate Enrage, but not too much so that it does survive and make use of it
Vampire Bat: because 4 health for 3 mana, plus Flying.
Hill Giant: the real Earth little tank
and Mycelic Morphoid: for the 1 mana free hit
My opponent went with Tarsa, I guessed right. He even went full Sneak, with:
Venari Heatsmith as tank (I don't see it having a lot of playtime, and definitely not as the main tank)
Tenyii Striker: he's a real striker
Radiated Scorcher: 1 mana
Exploding Rats: that's a good one to use with Sneak/Opportunity rulesets
Antoid Platoon: putting the Shield ability on the back
and a free Scorch Fiend
It's almost like the team was constructed from back to front, you could easily reverse it in a more standard rule set!
Round 1
Well, a Fire-Tarsa melee team is never here for the laugh and they did take down 3 of my monsters in the first round! On the other side, my Thorns eliminated the Exploding Rats and the Fiend. Now, I just need to hold on long enough.
Round 2
Well, well, the Lichen Beast was taken down, taking with him the Radiated Scorcher. I'm left with the Mycelic Infantry, and he will have to withstand the Tenyii Striker and Antoid Platoon. It might not be the easy win that I thought.
Round 3
Thanks to the Shield, the armor took everything this round. It should be ok.
Round 4
One last hit for the Tenyii Striker, then the Antoid Platoon won't last much longer. The Mycelic Infantry finished the battle with 3 points of Health
Takeaway
Ok, a Tarsa/Mylor battle, agreed it's not exciting, it's usually an easy win. Yet I wonder about the use of a Venari Heatsmith. 3 mana to do nothing take a couple of hits, I find it a bit expensive.
I don't know, a Scavo Hireling, a Spirit Hoarder, they at least do something.
Also, even with Mylor, if the Mycelic Infantry didn't have the Shield ability, he would have been done for. But let's be honest: the MVP is Mylor. Who needs to attack when you hurt the opponent so much by taking hits?
See you around on the battlefield!
