Battle Mage Secrets: Super Sneak

The battle challenge ruleset this week is Super Sneak. In this ruleset, all Melee attack monsters have the Sneak ability.

The battle I chose to showcase is a 37 mana match with the Super Sneak and No Shields rulesets. Fire and Dragon were the only splinters available to play.

Here is a link to the battle:

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_33244e4e769eecfc6aa68e418e3ef5d5&ref=ninjamike

In a Super Sneak battle, the obvious strategy is to load up your lineup with lots of Melee cards. In addition, it makes sense for the cards at the back of your lineup to have the Shield, Thorns, or Retaliate ability.

In this battle, I decided to make use of a heavy magic attack hoping that my opponent would not expect it. I chose the Dragon splinter with the Magic summoner. I chose a magic monster with the Void ability and plenty of speed as my tank. I filled out my backline primarily with 3 magic monsters. My magic monster near the end of my backline has the Shield ability in order to slow down potential sneak attacks from the rear.

Start of Battle / Round 1

My opponent went with an all Melee attack lineup. Notably their tank in first position has the Void ability and the last monster has the Shield ability.

Round 2

In the first round, my furious chicken as well as my monster with the Shield ability were wiped out. I did not manage to defeat any of my opponent's cards and my opponent’s tank still has 10 health.

Round 3

In the second round, I defeated two of my opponent’s backline monsters but am still struggling to make it through their tank in first position.

Round 4

During the third round, I lost another backline Magic monster and now I only have two left both with only 1 health. I did not defeat any of my opponent's monsters. Things are not looking good for me.

In the middle of the fourth round I was defeated.

My strategy for this battle did not work. My backline did not hold up against the extremely strong Melee attack. In addition, I could not make it through my opponent’s tank quickly enough as a result of its Void ability.

I got a bit flustered while creating my team and was not super confident in it. So I knew it would probably take a weak opponent for me to win. That did not happen.

I find that with Super Sneak rulesets, it is difficult to decide what to do and what strategy to use. You know that the end of your lineup may be attacked with a strong Melee attack. You know that if you decide to attack your opponent with a Melee sneak attack they very well may have fortified and booby trapped the end of their lineup with Thorns and Retaliate. Your tank will receive mostly Magic and Ranged attacks but your opponent knows this as well and may use a tank with Void and or Speed. Maybe in the future I will try going with a Melee attack tank and a Melee attack monster with Reach in second position. Then supplement this with Melee attacks with Opportunity.

In Splinterlands, no one wins every match and it is always easy to bounce back. After this battle, I won my next three matches.