When we are talking about front monsters, they are not just about a tank. Some of them having deadly damage and ability that makes them a great damager. There is some that often comes on the battlefield

Diemonshark is the most commonly used cause he is affordable with 8 mana cost and having great stats and ability. With high armor and health, supported with the enrage and retaliate, it would scary anyone that is going to attack him, due to the high of counter potential. He also got the stampede to give extra attack after eliminating a monster

Next on the life element, there is also the melee with enrage and retaliate, which could eliminate many monster in 1 counter attack !

Next on fire element, there is Grum Flameblade that is very good as magic tanker with the void and void armor. Not just for tanking purpose, he is also great damager with high damage and the giant killer to give double damage against the monster with 10 or above mana. And he got bloodlust to keep improve his stats after each eliminating.

Next there is Grund, with the double strike ability to give massive damage for enemies. He can eliminate 2 enemies in 1 turn with those double damage.

Try Counter Them With Reducing Their Attack

What can we do to make them less harmfull ? There are several ability that can help us doing that.

First there is demoralize. It's effect will given to all enemies monsters, but only limited with just 1 point (except you got more monster with demoralize ability)

Next the new ability, enfeeble. It will reduce the target damage by 1 points after each succcesfull attack. Their attack can keep reduced until it reach 1 point

Last there is the halving ability, this ability instanly reduce enemies damage by half after a succesfull attack

Battle Example

I will give you a battle example of the use those abilities on the battlefield.
You can watch the battle on this link https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_b037d972d7a6971a7920c66baf818c02

I will also give the preview about it on this section.

Ruleset :

The ruleset is equal opportunity with just 4 monsters allowed and no buff from summoner. There is 54 mana cap to be used and 4 splinters except the fire and earth is available

And here is the formation of both team !

My enemy got that deadly front monsters, followed with double strike hitter, and 2 high magic damager. On my side, I got tank with taunt, then followed with the arkemist bear to give protect and halving ability, and then there is damager with double strike, and last there is the commander with the enfeeble ability.

How the Battle Goes

At 1st round, the diemonshark damage is reduced into 1, and he got another 1 from enrage ability

My enemy lost his diemonshark at 1st round while my team still complete

At 2nd round, you can see enemies double strike damager is also got his damage reduced into 1 !

Once again, my enemy lost his front monster while my team still complete

Now I lost my tank at 3rd round. Enfeeble effect are no use against magic now

Finally win the battle at 4th round and got some SPS

Conclussion

Front monsters are not just contains of tank, some of them also having deadly stats and ability which makes them a great damager. We can counter the front melee monsters with enfeeble and halving ability to reduce their damage and makes them less harmfull, especially against deadly ability such as retaliate and double strike.

Final Words