Some battles feel simple at first but then surprise you with how strangely they play out. You might think a certain rule will change everything but then, the fight goes in a completely different direction. That’s the kind of interesting things we'll be looking at today where the expected twist didn’t really twist anything at all.
In this match, I went in fully prepared to take advantage of Reverse Speed, expecting the slower units to carry most of the weight. But after seeing how the battle played out, it turned out that my lineup’s magic synergy did most of the heavy lifting on its own and I didn't need to do anything special at all. It’s one of those moments in Splinterlands where you realize that even when you plan around a modifier, sometimes how well your team works together is good enough to conquer the difference. This battle was a good reminder that sometimes, a coherent lineup is still better than fully utilizing the modifier of that battle.

Battle Breakdown

Modifier in this Battle:

• Reverse Speed - Units with the lowest speed attack first and have the highest chance to evade attacks.

My Thoughts on Modifiers

• Reverse Speed Modifier is one of those rules that only matters if both players bring a lot of melee and range units. The idea is simple slower units are considered faster and can attack first which can flip the result of the battle. In this match, since magic units don’t miss their attacks, they don’t care about speed so the modifier had very low impact. This shows that Reverse Speed Modifier can be powerful but only if your and the enemy team is built around it otherwise strong magic teams can completely ignore it.

Team Composition

Archon: Marlai Singariel

• Marlai Singariel is a good archon for this lineup since every single one of my units have or will have extra magic damage. Her ability to boost magic attack makes the whole team feel more coherent which is very important in a setup like this.

Units Chosen

Unit 1: Ulundin Overseer

• Ulundin Overseer is a good tank with high health and armor that can hold the front long enough for my backline to do their work. He is also one of the main targets for Daarg Deadblast's Weapons Training and he works really good with Reverse Speed Modifier because he has 1 speed on all levels.

Unit 2: Daarg Deadblast

• Daarg Deadblast gives Weapons Training with magic damage to two nearby units which means two of my units that do not have any attacks suddenly become strong attackers. He is bad with Reverse Speed Modifier because of Swiftness but the Weapons Training with magic damage type still makes him very compatible with Marlai Singariel. The two units alongside him that would get Weapons Training will also benefit from Marlai Singariel's ability.

Unit 3: Grimbardun Smith

• Grimbardun Smith has low speed and no attack which normally is a weakness. Here, it becomes a strength because he also gets benefit from Weapons Training. That means he can now deal magic damage while still providing his usual tanky support for the team.

Unit 4: Captain Fellblade

• Captain Fellblade is a Sneak unit with magic attack and melee damage at the same time. This makes her hit multiple times from the backlines, once for magic damage and once for melee attack. Her double damage type gives my lineup more way to cut down the enemy backline while taking advantage Marlai Singariel's ability.

Unit 5: Saltwater Mage

• Saltwater Mage is a Sneak unit with magic attack which is my usual combo with Captain Fellblade. With both of them together in the same lineup, they can destroy backline units really fast. Even without too much abilities, she becomes useful with the help of Captain Fellblade and Marlai Singariel that can eliminate the enemy team from the back.

Unit 6: Shock Trooper

• Shock Trooper is a high magic damage unit that works really good with quick battles where you want to kill and win fast. On the down side, he is bad with long fights because of Electrified Debilitation which deals damage to your entire team each round so you need to end the game fast or your team dies along with Shock Trooper.

The Battle

Opening Rounds:
During this day, I was against a lot of high skilled enemies. While they may use archons from the Foundation, I encountered 2 maxed out ones which made me a little bit scared. I did not expect that I would have an easy one for this battle. Even looking at it from afar, I have a huge health advantage making the advantage I want from Reverse Speed unnecessary.

Mid-game:
With huge magic attacks coming from the front and at the back, my enemy's team started falling apart. Their units started to die one by one and even their main tank didn't last a turn. Even by the mid game, I am so sure I would win this one. Shock Trooper is good in this regard because the longer the battle drags on, the more I get hit by Electrified making me in a constant disadvantage even if I have huge health units in the front.

Final Rounds:
This is the last attack on Kicking Rok by Captain Fellblade. By this time, the enemy cannot do anything and I would win. I'm still amazed of how strong the combo of Saltwater Mage and Captain Fellblade is. The idea is very simple and yet very very effective. It's kind of hard to counter because we don't have a Taunt unit that also have Void ability unless you are going to use Fithe Bladestone as an Archon and then use Bera Dallin through his Bloodline Dominion to give her the Void ability. The problem with that combo is you will be using mainly Fire units which do not have a lot of support for Bera Dallin. This is why Saltwater Mage and Captain Fellblade combo is hard to counter.

👉 Watch the full battle replay here
https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_a2ff773ada555b0b376ef1a891909c70?ref=ashenova

Results & Reflection

What strategy I was aiming for:
The plan was to use low 1 speed units like Ulundin Overseer and Grimbardun Smith to take advantage of Reverse Speed Modifier. With this rule, slow units attack first which can create a huge difference in the early rounds. Then I wanted to use Weapons Training to give damage to the same units while having Marlai Singariel boost all of my damage from the first unit to the last. I also have the usual combo of Saltwater Mage and Captain Fellblade to destroy the enemy team from behind.

What surprised me:
Reverse Speed Modifier had very low impact on this battle because most of my attack came from magic units which always hit anyway. Even some of the faster units didn’t really matter since most of the fight was decided by the consistent and huge magic damage my team had. It made me realize sometimes, a modifier may sometimes end up doing nothing.

What I learned:
Modifiers can impact games but sometimes, you can just ignore them if they don’t match your lineup or strategy. There's modifiers that you cannot ignore like Counterspell because it can destroy your team and there are some that you can ignore and not priotize like Reverse Speed because the impact won't be as bad. Teams revolving magic damage don’t care much about speed because they don’t miss even with low speed. This battle is a good reminder that better team synergy can sometimes beat the advantage a modifier can give.

Closing Thoughts

This battle gave me a funny mix of feelings because I built the lineup expecting Reverse Speed to play a big role. In the end, it barely even mattered and my team simply won through strong synergy and better strategy. It shows how sometimes, your real strength is in the lineup itself not the modifier you try to play around with.

Some of the modifier, you can just ignore while others you need to pay attension. More importantly, a good synergy within the team is more important and can carry you even when your main plan didn’t really hit the mark.

Posted Using INLEO