One of the best feeling in Splinterlands is predicting an enemy's move and it's the key reason for your win. You didn't just used strong units and forced the win but rather you, the strategist, is the main reason for the win. I am happy to show that in this week's battle.
Predicting an enemy, though, is a game of chance. You cannot always successfully do this each time but the limited cards that can be used in Frontier Mode can make this possible. This is why being able to make it work feels fulfilling. By having an advantage on the game, I was able to make good predictions adding to my advantage for this battle.
Lore
The Dragonsguard is the military arm of the Gloridax Empire, responsible for the law, order, and protection of its lands. Service is considered a great honor and elevates a family’s hierarchical status within the empire.
Most who join the Dragonsguard as ronach train for the sword, the bow, or the saddle. But others train in the arcane. Among them are spellmongers, specialists in retaliatory wards and punishment magic that turns aggression back on the attacker. They often serve as arcane adjuncts and protective wardcasters for Dragonsguard commanders.
https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/853/regular/15?tab=lore
Stats
Spellmonger is a very unusual unit that does not deal damage directly but still punishes enemies for attacking. It's a unique unit that I use often despite the low stats. With Thorns, Spellmonger excels as a defensive unit that forces melee enemies into bad trades. This unit is not a tank or damage dealer in a normal way but more of a trap unit that you only use isn specific circumstances. Spellmonger works best when enemies are forced to hit it.
Abilities
| Icon | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Untrainable | This unit cannot be trained. |
 is a match because If Enemy has Thorns, that means they it won't work with Spellmonger because it has no attack. It cannot gain attack from Weapons Training which also means he can never be hit by abilities like Thorns, Magic Reflect or Return Fire. | ||
 is a counter because Weapons Training is completely wasted on Spellmonger. Since Untrainable blocks any form of attack gain. Spellmonger gains no benefit from it at all. This makes him a bad unit if you plan around Weapons Training. |
| Thorns | When hit with a Melee attack, does 2 Meele damage back to the attacker. |
 is a match because Amplify increases Thorns damage by 1 which is very strong for Spellmonger. Since Spellmonger is meant to be attacked multiple times, the extra reflected damage adds up. This makes melee-heavy teams lose health very quickly just by playing normally. | ||
 is a counter because Charge units can only attack the front position making their targeting predictable. That means you can just put Spellmonger in the front and the one with Charge will be forced to hit him. |
Good Rules to Consider
| Icon | Name | Reason |
|---|---|---|
 | Equal Opportunity | All units have Opportunity (targets the enemy unit with the least health). |
| Spellmonger has very low health making it a really good target under Equal Opportunity rule. Enemies are forced to attack it and take Thorns damage. This would result you in favorable trades even if Spellmonger dies. | ||
 | Up to Eleven | All units have Amplify (increases damage of Retaliate and all Punishment abilities—Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Return Fire, and Thorns—by 1; does not stack). |
| Up to Eleven rule gives all units Amplify which increases Thorns damage. Spellmonger benefits a lot from this rule because it increases the reflected damage. Even with just 1 increased damage, that can be the deciding factor whether you win or lose a game. | ||
 | Equalizer | The initial Health of all Units is equal to that of the Units on either team with the highest base Health. |
| Equalizer fixes Spellmonger’s biggest weakness which is his low health. With now high health similar to others, Spellmonger can survive much longer. This gives Thorns more time to work. |
Bad Rules to Think Twice
| Icon | Name | Reason |
|---|---|---|
 | Thick Skinned | All units have Shield. |
| Thick Skinned gives all units Shield. Shield halves Thorns damage which is Spellmonger’s main damage source. This makes attacking Spellmonger much safer for enemies. | ||
 | Unprotected | Units do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs. |
| Unprotected rule removes all armor from every unit. Spellmonger loses half of its defense immediately. With only 2 health at max level, it dies very fast with just a simple attack. | ||
 | Noxious Fumes | All Units start the battle Poisoned. |
| Noxious Fumes rule applies Poison at the start of each round. Poison deals 2 damage, which is exactly Spellmonger’s total health. Spellmonger usually dies at the start of the next round regardless of what happened on Round 1. |
Battle
I'd like to highlight today's battle because this is a special one. Believe it or not, I was able to predict the enemy's units and countered it effectively. Since this is a Frontier Mode battle and Life is the only element allowed, that hugely limits what units the enemy can use and Life doesn't have that much versatility with their foundation units. I thought they would be using Vengeful Monk at least and luckily, they also used Vicious Quilliun, both melee units with Opportunity ability. I simply had to lay down a tasty bait, Spellmonger, with his Thorns ability to chunk these two unit's health and that advantage is all I needed to win this battle.
Images were taken from Splinterlands, made in Canva, drawn in Krita and animated in Photoshop.
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Thanks for sharing! - @clove71
