My Splinterlands Social Media Challenge! The Byzantine Kitty

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Hello guys, this is my entry to the "Splinterlands Social Media Challenge!". If you want to participate and/or read more about the challenge, click here.

We are almost at the end of another eventful splinterlands season. Modern format has been challenging for me with the removal of bots but I am finding it refreshing to battle against real players. It hurts way more knowing you are losing to an AI than to a human being. One of the units that has been helping me throughout this season is the legendary summoner, Byzantine Kitty and I am here to talk more about this impressive unit.

Let's start by looking at its stats in detail.

Byzantine Kitty

CARD
RARITY	Legendary
ELEMENT	Dragon
LEVEL	1
MANA COST	7 POINTS
ABILITIES	True Strike, Tank Heal

Byzantine Kitty is a legendary dragon summoner that came out during the Untamed edition. This is a very powerful summoner which comes at the cost of 7 mana but it is worth that cost because of the abilities it comes with.

It gives an extra 2-speed bonus to all the friendly units and gives the 'true strike' ability as well. But the best part is its 'tank heal' ability which makes it a powerful summoner, especially when you have strong tanks at the front of the lineup. I tend to mostly use it with high mana cost battles but it sometimes works well with low mana cap battles too.

Let's see how I used it in one of my battles.

My Lineup

This is my lineup for the battle

Position	Summoner/Monsters
Summoner	Byzantine Kitty
Position 1	Djinn Oshannus
Position 2	Phantom the Abyss
Position 3	Venari Wavesmith
Position 4	Tortisian Chief
Position 5	Ice Pixie
Position 6	Halfing Alchemist

It was a 39-mana cap battle and had the 'Keep Your Distance' ruleset which means monsters with melee attacks may not be used in battles.

All elements except 'Earth' and 'Life' were active during this battle. With 39 mana to use, and a restrictive ruleset like 'Keep Your Distance' it was a perfect time to use the Byzantine Kitty as my summoner because of her tank heal ability and the fact that all units will get +2 speeds.

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My primary tank in this battle was Djinn Oshannus. It costs 8 mana but comes with some nice stats, dealing 2 magic attack damage with 10 hp. It also comes with the 'Void Armor' ability which is effective against mages and I was expecting this in this battle because of the ruleset. I had high hopes for this unit and it was the glue that should held this lineup together. This should be supported well by the Byzantine's tank-heal ability and will prove to be a nuisance during this battle.

Next in line was Phantom of the Abyss, another powerful mage dealing 3 magic attack damage and having a very high speed of 7. However, it was not a cheap unit and cost 10 mana to use it. It also comes with 'flying' and 'dodge' ability which is very effective against ranged attackers as I expected my opponent to use them as well.

Venari Wavesmith was placed in the third position. It was yet another mage costing just 5 mana but having a very useful ability called 'protect' which gives an extra 2 shields to all my friendly units.

As you might have already seen I was going for a heavy magic attack setup and another powerful mage in my lineup was Tortisian Chief which deals 2 magic attack damage and has 6 hp. This one also costs just 5 mana to use.

I was left with just 4 mana to fill up two more slots and decided to use the Ice Pixie which just costs 2 mana and deals 1 magic attack damage. However, it only has 2 health so that's the reason I didn't place it at the end.

Last but not least was Halfing Alchemist, the only ranged attacker in my lineup. It costs just 2 mana to use but comes with a very interesting and unique ability called 'halving' which reduces its target's attack damage to half and it is super useful against heavy attackers placed at the front of the enemy lineup.

Now that my lineup was set, it was time for battle.

I will share my battle here, which I have uploaded to YouTube.

My Strategy

It was an interesting ruleset that disallowed all melee monsters so I decided to make my lineup with heavy magic attack damage. It was a 39 mana cap battle so it was enough for me to use the Byzantine Kitty as my summoner which gives some cool buffs to all the units, especially its 'tank heal' ability is very effective and goes well with strong tanks and I have one of the strongest tanks, the Djinn Oshannus. The healing is an essential part of my strategy and having a strong tank with heal is such a nuisance for any opponent.

As I stated earlier, I wanted to focus mostly on just magic attacks and wanted to finish up the battle quickly with my heavy attacks. I would be getting the first attacks too because of the additional speed given by the summoner so I used some strong mages in my lineup.

Also, I use Venari Wavesmith to give an extra 2 armour to all my units, I had a few weaker units, especially the ones on the end of my lineup. A crucial role played by the Halfing Alchemist which reduced the attacking strength of a couple of heavy hitters.

This strategy, as you will see, worked in my favour and gave me a comfortable win at the end.

My opponent went with a healthy mix of mages and ranged attackers. They used a gladiator card and decided to boost its stats by taking advantage of Veanari Marskrat's 'Martyr' ability... they use a unit with resurrect to respawn it and make their gladiator unit powerful.

Fortunately, I had the 'Halfing Alchemist' which reduced the attack damage by half other wise it would have been a close fight.

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They also reduced my tank's attack to just 1 as well but I had enough firepower in the back. Also, my tank received the healing at the start of the next round which just killed the hopes of my opponent's victory.

After the death of Usut which was a gladiator card, their attack fiddled out and they never recovered after that.

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Once their ranged attackers got to the front of the lineup it was all over at that point. I registered an easy win at the end and credit must go to the legendary summoner!

Conclusion

As you just saw in the above battle, Byzantine Kitty is a very powerful summoner capable of changing the fate of the battle. It is extremely effective in mid-high mana cap battles. The increased speed is such a huge bonus and will prove to be very useful in certain rulesets.

But the best part is it comes with the 'tank heal' ability which works so well with strong tanks in your battles just like you saw in the above battle. My tank survived the onslaught as it got healed up after each round which is such a nuisance for any opponent. It justifies its 7 mana cost easily and I recommend using it.

I highly recommend having this unit in your deck.

Thanks for reading...

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Note:

• Text dividers are from freeztag.
• Card images are from @splinterlands.
• Banner created in Canva (free version).

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