Splinterlands is a complex game, and it allows for various different cards and strategies. Each fight is different as there are various different rulesets applied, and this can give specific cards an advantage depending on how you use them. In this post, I talk about a great battle where I won because I used Drybone Barbarian.
Featured cards
Drybone Barbarian is a life splinter that costs 9 mana. It starts with enrage. Leveling this card gives this card retaliate at level 35 and knock out at level 9.
I think this card is very strong, but it's quite slow. The enrage can boost its speed a bit, but without any armor, it can die quite easily. This is a situational card, but I like it because of the big damage. When enraged, it can deal 8 damage per turn. It's high-risk, high-reward.
Rule Set, Battle, and Plan
The rulesets this time are Counterspell, Beefcakes, and High Hive. This means that all monsters must have at least 5 health, up to 5 monsters can be used, and all monsters gain the magic reflect ability. There is also 19 mana available, and I can use fire or life splinter.
This is an interesting ruleset because the beefcakes and high-five limit the cards that we can use when we consider the mana cap. My gold foil cards aren't that high level, so I am at a disadvantage in this fight. At the same time, counterspell makes it so that magic monsters are at a disadvantage. So, melee and ranged monsters seem to be the best choices.
| Splinter | Mana Cost | Position | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franz Ruffmane | 6 | Summoner | +1 armor |
| Drybone Barbarian | 9 | 1st | Enrage |
| Venari Crystalsmith | 4 | 2nd | Tank Heal |
| Total Mana: | 19 |
My summoner is Franz Ruffmane for its +1 armor. My tank is Drybone Barbarian, and my other monster is Venari Crystalsmith with tank heal
The focus of this lineup is just to have Drybone Barbarian deal massive damage, and have Venari Crystalsmith keep it alive as long as possible. The damage from Drybone Barbarian will add up, and I believe that in this match, my opponent should go down fast due to the low mana cap.
Round 1
At first glance, I think that this match is my win. My opponent may have quite a bit of damage, but Drybone Barbarian will only get stronger after being enraged by the ranged monster in the back. This means that it won't miss any attacks against my opponent's tank, and I will win once that monster is dead. My healer will keep my Drybone Barbarian long enough for that to happen.
After enough attacks, I won the match as expected. It did take longer than expected due to the misses after my opponent's tank went down. The high speed caused my Drybone Barbarian to miss.
Conclusion
The battle this time went exactly how I planned it. The low mana cap on this fight meant that my opponent would either use tons of low mana monsters, or some high mana cards. Low mana monsters are less likely due to that beefcakes ruleset. With the high mana cards, my opponent is limited to a few monsters and my Drybone Barbarian wiped the floor with them. My opponent couldn't do much once my Drybone Barbarian started hitting with enrage. It's too bad that it didn't have Enrage when dealing with that ranged monster, as I missed quite a few attacks there. This is a powerful card, but its too bad I can't use it anywhere except for Brawl for now.
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.
