Splinterlands | Akane Tactics Rental Experience Guide !

The topic this week in Splinterlands for the Community Engagement Challenge is to make a strategy guide on Tactics Summoners. So I rented one of them on my Alt account to for the first time experience what it's like...

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What Are Tactics in Splinterands?

So basically the entire idea behind land was to create something which allows players to have a choice to influence the match at the time when you see the deck of your opponent. Since land is has been pushed back so many times, they ended the hijack the idea and implement it in the new Rebellion Set to give reasons for players to throw money at it. So basically, you select your team and before the start of the match you can make a choice what ability you like and which cards you want to put it at.

Right now there are 12 of these summoners in the game and some of them introduced quite some power creep. Especially when playing in Wild with older cards, when you face the Eternal Tofu, you kind of know in advance that you lost. The same is likely the case for the Nidhogger in high mana battles as it raised the mana cap to 10.

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Summoner Choice & Rental Experience.

I'm not really looking to buy packs of the new set since I don't have the time or willpower to be forced to grind 1+ hour each day, especially with the knowledge that earnings won't cover the inevitable asset devaluation once they get dumped into Wild mode. The price to play Splinterlands right now is just too high. It's also not possible for me to play on my main account since I don't want to waste energy which is better used in Wild with optimal decks. So the game doesn't really offer me a good way to have fun and experience new cards playing at the times when I want.

So I had to go to my alt account which uses gold cards at lower-level with less cards while wanting to try out one of these cards. The one I choose to explore was the Akane because it's a Dragon Summoner which allows for most combination with other class cards. I also like the speed meta and the Ambush Ability suits that very much which can be given to 2 monsters.

It did cost me 60 DEC (0.06$) to rent for 2 days as it was the only one available at that time. Basically, the rental cost doesn't really cover the expected earnings unless you really go for the cheapest ones and it remains quite the hassle of you have to do it for many cards. Just for this challenge though, it was convenient and easy to do.

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Akane Price & Abilities!

For a modern Legendary Summoner the ~130$ cost for a Max Level copy isn't actually that extremely high. Howevern it is the cheapest of the legenadaries and one the the least complicated. It gives the coince between 2 abilities...

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Give 2 monsters the Ambush Ability which allows them to attack first in round 0 while they also get to attack in round 1. What this basically allows you to potentially do is make sure your opponent starts with 1 monster less which tends to create a big advantage and a possible ripple effect. This is the tactics ability that I really like about this summoner and where a proper strategy can be build upon. The Other option is to give 1 Monster the Lookout Ability. this states "Adjacent Units receive 1 less damage from attackers with Sneak, Snipe and Opportunity. Additionally all units take half damage from ambushes as long as a Lookout unit is on your team.". For me this is one of the examples how abilities have become to extreme and complicated as I zone out trying to grasp what it really does since it's not simple to understand. These just make the game too complicated and complex doing more harm than good. I guess this ability can be played in battles where game rules give cards Sneak/snipe/Opportunity but I never once used it.

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How Tactics Work!

It's pretty straightforward and after you build your deck, you get to access the battle screen where you see your own and the opponent their lineup (once they have it complete) you have around 30 seconds to select the ability you want and to select the monsters you want them to be applied on.

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The Akane Strategy & Battles!

So the idea what just to spam this card each time it was available regardless the game rules and try to have as much fun with it trying to find something that actually works. Basically, the core idea is to kill 1 of the monsters of your opponent as quickly as possible so your are in a numbers advantage that is hard to overcome by the opponent. This however is easier said than done at lower levels with a limited number of cards to choose from. Basically you want your attacks to have synergy toward the same opponent monster either the tank, the lowest health monster using the opportunity ability or sneak.

In most cases, the strategy simply didn't work as it was sub-optimal for the game rules. However, here are some of the instances where it did work with the cards I had available and why...

Example Battle #1: with 8 damage in the ambush round along with 15 in round 1 all aimed at the tank of the opponent it managed to kill it quite quickly giving me the edge to win this battle against higher level cards.

Example Battle #2: The focus on sneak attack combined with the Martyr ability managed to make me win this one rather easy.

Example Battle #3: The combination of the Noa The Just which removes Armor as it's one of the weaknesses of this strategy. This along with 2 Strong opportunist monsters with the Deeplurker and the Kulu Mastermind worked quite well as there were some instant kills. This however can only really be used in matches where there is limited danger for the opponent to have a magic-centered deck.

Example Battle #4: This was another one where the focus was on sneak attack which managed to quickly kill multiple monsters of the opponent.

Example Battle #5: This is another one where the double ambush opportunity managed to kill some monsters from the opponent early helping me to win the game.

Example Battle #6: This last one is more an example on how the Negative Burning ability can spread and lose the players who's using one of these seemingly overpowered cards the match. In most cases however it doesn't and these cards help to win the match.

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Conclusion!

When you use the Akane Legendary Dragon Summoner, you always want to target your damage so you are sure to kill at least 1 of the opponent monsters very early on to get the edge in the match. Focus on the Tank or sneak attack tends to work best I would say. Overall it remains the same thing with Splinterlands that there is so much potential for pure fun but all the economical choices and pay2win nonsense totally make it impossible to experience properly. I did have some fun with this experiment but there are just too many dynamics in the way for this to be something to really do on a regular basis. I really love the ambush ability but too few players will be able to actually experience it to the fullest.

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