Splinterlands Social Media Challenge | Up Close and Personal!

Namaste to all the warriors of Splinterlands!🙏

This is my entry to the weekly social media challenge For this week's social media challenge, I have chosen a ruleset based battle in which apart from my monsters, my summoner also played an important role which is why it became one of my remarkable battles.

So, the total mana cap for this battle was only 20, including the summoner's mana cost.

Summoner	details
	I chose Underboss Fabino a summoner of the Earth element whose mana cost was 5. This Summoner would provide +2 melee attack to 2 monsters or Poison 1 monster. My reason for choosing this summoner was already clear, I did not need its +2 melee attack power but its poison.

Rule set (Up Close and Personal)	Meaning
	As per this rule set, only monsters with melee attack may be used in this battle.

This is the second time recently that I have chosen this summoner of the Earth element; honestly, its powers prove to be quite effective in some situations.

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Monsters on the battlefield

1st position (Endless Ape)	Ability
	This monster has a mana cost of 8 and this ape has Scavenger Ability according to which it gains 1 max health each time any unit dies.

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2nd position (Venari Knifer)	Ability
	Mana cost of this monster is 6 and its ability is one of my favourite Thorns, according to which when this monster hits with a melee attack, it does 2 melee damage back to the attacker.

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3rd position (Mycelic Morphoid)	Ability
	Mana cost of this monster is only 1 and it has no ability.

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I created my team by using all my mana caps with these monsters.

Now I will take you to my battle!

First, let me tell you my strategy. According to the ruleset, only monsters with melee attacks could be used in this battle and the mana cap was also very low. So from experience, I knew that my opponent would also use a monster having thorns ability as it is a good way to double damage melee attackers. So I did the same to counter all his moves. But instead of placing my thorns monster in the first position, I placed the Endless Ape in the forefront, he had 10 health + 1 shield so that it could block the initial attacks and my summoner's poison could do its job in every round.

Round 1

This screenshot is just before the one-on-one battle starts. When all monsters got Summoner's powers since my opponent had the power to reduce one health and one magic from each of my monsters, he did his job and each of my monsters lost one health. I already have decided to use the Poison ability of my Summoner for which I chose the first positioned monster of the opponent's team. After which now it was the turn of the monsters to fight.

Round 2

In the first round, my first-positioned Ape lost 3 health due to one direct attack and two thorn attacks but my opponent's first-positioned monster lost a total 4 health in which 2 from the attack of my Ape and 2 from the effect of the poison of my Summoner. This is what I was talking about, at the beginning of each round this poison will affect my chosen monster and reduce its health by 2.

Round 3

After this, at the beginning of the third round, the poison did its job on the opponent's first-positioned monster, bringing it down to the lowest health, after which one hit from the opponent destroyed my first poisoned monster. Now at a glance, my team was looking a bit weak cause I had only 2 monsters left in this battle but my second main monster had just come on the front foot and after this, the battle was about to take a new turn.

Round 4

Then without doing anything, at the beginning of the 4th round, once again my Summoner's poison showed its effect and the opponent's first-positioned monster was destroyed. Now both of us had 2 monsters left and this battle once again seemed equal. However, the opponent's team will still be considered stronger because both its monsters have more total health and both of them have abilities, while one of my monsters is standing without any ability.

Round 5

In the remaining 4th round, one direct hit and one reverse hit from my first positioned monster's Thorns ability brought the opponent's first positioned monster to lowest health, while at the beginning of the 5th round, a single hit knocked out another opponent's monster. After which now my victory in this battle was certain because even if for some reason my monster did not attack the opponent directly, his Thorns Ability would defeat the opponent in the battle.

Round 6

And as I strategised, At the beginning of the 6th round, the opponent was killed by Thorns in reverse of one of his own hits and I won this battle.

Conclusion and what I learned!

In the beginning, looking at the monsters on both sides, this battle seemed simple and perhaps it simply ended, but once again I learned that no matter what the battle, one strength is never enough. The choice of summoner and monsters, and then the positions of the monsters, all matter a lot, taking into account the ruleset. Without the poison ability and perhaps the correct positioning of all the monsters, the outcome of this battle could have been different. Therefore, it is very important that you have the right strategy before the battle starts and prepare yourself accordingly.

You can enjoy my entire battle here

Thank you for visiting and reading my blog. Generally, I keep writing blogs on life, nature, gardening, photography, and Splinterlands.
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Note:

1. English is not my first language. So sometimes I use 'Google Translate'. Please don't think that anything I have written in this blog has been copied from somewhere or is AI-generated.
2. Paragraph Dividers and all the photos are from #Splinterlands.
3. All the other content images and words are mine unless otherwise stated.

Have a Happy and Blessed day!