Social Media Challenge - Hanging By A Thread

Prelude
Good day to all, how are all of you doing? Hope all of you are doing good. I am back again to do another battle sharing with the community on some special and memorable matches that I encounter as I play Splinterlands. Today's sharing will be on a match that both me and my opponent was hanging on a thread due to us playing the Noxious Fumes ruleset and what set us apart is effectively just 1 round. Noxious Fumes is one of the more common ruleset that we encounter, so I want to share the hair raising encounter which was a real hanging by a thread match with you guys.

This particular match, was much tougher because I didn't had any chance to apply cleanse because it was a Lost Magic ruleset which prevented me from fielding something to cleanse off the poison from my card.

So without further ado, let's head right on to the match proper.

Battle Sharing

Reference Battle
Battle Link: https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_a4e120f1bdeeb8ced22dc54374bd1835

Ruleset: Lost Magic, Noxious Fumes
Mana Limit: 48

Selection Analysis
This ruleset combination and the available splinter for selection really creates loads of dilemma in selection as whenever I see these 3 splinters, there will be a strong tendency to play magic lineup. Not only that, without magic, there is also lack of cards to cleanse off the poison from the cards which leave me to look into other means to sustain this ruleset.

When we do not have the usual Oshanns, Quora, Iziar, we have to dig deep and think how to survive. No cleanse means we need cards that can sustain longer as 2 health will be shaved off every turn. I opted for Ulundin Overseer to take the front tank role because stat wise, this card is a beast. Big amount of armour to handle all kinds of melee or range assault and most importantly, with Ulundin's flank ability, I am able to sneak in a Coastal Sentry at the 2nd position whom can benefit from the protection of Ulundin Overseer. Next in line is Coastal Sentry, the flank ability from Ulundin allows this card to strike from 2nd position which is really very important as this card is not exactly having the best survivability. This is a card that really dish out loads of damage and clear out cards or severely injured them. Next in the lineup is Venari Marksrat. Since there is poison, why not just let this card detonate and boost the stats of its adjacent 2 buddies. After Marksrat is another fast opportunity attacker with good melee attack stats, Deeplurker. After it is the big and mean Kulu Mastermind whom boast a strong 4 melee attack with good health stats. Last card in the lineup is actually an utility card placed to reduce the armour on my opponent's card and that is Noa The Just. This card has rather decent stats and should be able to sustain sufficiently before getting smashed. And this is how I planned my lineup to handle this ruleset.

Now onto my opponent's lineup. Opponent used Life Splinter and used one of the best tanks for life which is the Drybone Barbarian, who has a crazy high damage with rage and can even retaliate. Next inline is Marisol Contuma which is a really strong card that can strike from 2nd position with amazing stats and blood lust. Next card on opponent lineup is something that I like a lot, Drybone Raider which has double strike and dual attack. Following Drybone Raider, Evelyn Auvera which has immunity but no attack. Ending off the lineup is a Imperial Knight which has heal ability to keep itself alive.

2 very different lineup but with very similar characteristics in terms of having high health and cards that can hit real hard. Let's see whose lineup works better in this ruleset.

Round by Round Synopsis

Round 1 - Ulundin hold up all the punishment given to it by all the cards that can reach it. However, on my end, Coastal Sentry and Deeplurker combined to give Drybone Barbarian a nasty whack and successfully win the match though both of the cards suffered a retaliation but we are still generally in a good shape.

Round 2 - A full scale poison effect saw how each card gets significant health reduced while Marksrat's death gave martyr to Coastal Sentry and Deeplurker. The barrage starts as Coastal Sentry strikes and Marisol gets finished off. Every card's health is all on the low side, time is running out.

Round 3 - When the round opened, the main part of the fight is the combat between Drybone Raider against my lineup which saw Raider being taken out. While it does look like I have the advantage, the health stats on my side is not favourable and I could end up losing by just being killed by poison.

Round 4, At the end of poison application, I am down with just a 1 health Coastal Sentry, 2 health Deeplurker and a 3 health Kulu Mastermind, while opponent had a full health Imperial Guard. The 3 of my cards combined together with Coastal Sentry shaving off the armour and damaging Imperial Guard followed by Kulu Mastermind and finally Deeplurker to land the fatal blow and secure the victory for us!

Battle Summary
This match could overturn if I didn't manage to clear off my opponent's last card in the lineup which had full health even after many rounds of poison. It was really this close as all my cards were hanging by a thin thread. But I can see how strong the attacks were as my lineup rip apart card after card throughout the game. Ulundin Overseer really gave Coastal Sentry so much space to do damage.

Wrap Up
This match really allow me to witness the strength of the lineup even without the capability to cleans and my usual magic regulars. It also showed how close some match can be and if I am late by 1 round, I will be the one that will lose the matchup.

See you next time!

I am currently part of PIZZA, an active gaming and creative arts crypto community on the HIVE blockchain and part of PIZZA guild. Popular cryto games such as SPLINTERLANDS, RISING STAR and HASHKINGS are actively discussed in this community.

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Till my next battle sharing, take care, stay safe and happy battling!

If you are keen on playing Splinterlands, feel free to join me via this link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=vaynard86