My Journey Into The Splinterlands : Some Random Thoughts and Use of Kron on Low Mana Battles

Background

I am in Steem Blockchain for more than 2 years now, but I only started playing the Splinterlands game since last November 2019; so I am playing for only little more than 2 months! I know some of you veteran players are rolling their eyes! Yeah, what can I say, I was not interested in the beginning. It is actually surprising because I played Pokemon a great part of my adult life, which is also a card game. So believe me I understand Monsters Battles and value of a digital asset (NFT)

Well after some point, and after many months of pushing by my friend @scrooger I finally gave in and started playing. Several others helped me a lot in the beginning like @joshman and later on @reazuliqbal, where all hell broke loose in terms of building a battle worthy team.

In late November into December I mostly played Earth Splinter outside the quests, as I liked Lyanna a lot and also one of the first card I bought was Prince Rennyn :) I know you are perhaps again rolling your eyes, and I agree! I didn't even have proper cards to play the Prince back then, but I liked the lore. Many of you probably not even read it, but I like it a lot:

There was no Prince in Lyveria. Old King Wilhelm lived childless for all his days, but in the twilight of his life, he wished he had a son on whom to impart (what was left of) his wisdom. The sudden arrival of a boisterous and handsome pointy-eared nobleman from faraway lands seemed to provide exactly what the Old King sought.

So around the Prince I started to build my deck, so no wonder I played Earth Deck a lot. As I built my deck it was quite easy battling for two reasons:

1. I didn't battle everyday; I only battled towards the end of the season, where most of my level players have advanced a bit more than me

2. I mostly exclusively battle the Earth Splinter (I skipped the non-Earth quests, or barely scrape by sometimes); and in the lower leagues; most people do not have Prince, and on mid- to high-mana games, Prince with a couple of fast range attackers in the back and a flesh golem in front is basically un-stoppable!

3. Prince provides +1 boost in range attack, speed and health; which is often more than enough to win a game in the lower leagues for sure
   

I never bought packs much. Never was a fan on too much randomness. During the recent Power Up Promotion, I did buy a 100 pack Untamed. My friend Reazul said the opening was profitable, and I believe him :)

Anyways it is @reazuliqbal who introduced me to https://monstermarket.io/ which is a market where you can buy cards at a discount; and I can assure you it is not a scam (little inside joke here!) Reazul helped me build a pretty decent battle deck that I have now. I am still learning and still consider myself a noob. But I love to play the game full manual and by myself without any bots; and its fun.

Featuring a card and asking for opinion on battle strategy

Kron the Undying

First of all, Kron is a pure flex card in my opinion :) You can also call it a status symbol. You don't think you need it, but if you have the money, oh boy, you would love to flex it on low mana battles like 12-13-.... perhaps even 15 mana battles?

At Level 4 with 4 Magic Attack, 12 Health it almost sound invincible, especially when you add the 3 abilities: Heal, Divine Shield, and Last Stand. However, it's the Last Stand (Gains increased Stats if it is the only monster in the team alive) that makes the difference in the low mana battles

Getting straight into an example :

Battle that I won with Kron

First of all, its a 12 mana battle (Aim True rule) and I am using Xander (2 mana summoner), and a L3 Kron (10 mana). I do have a Max Kron now. The opponent is playing fire with a decent well rounded team of Cerberus in front and Kobbold Miner (with sneak), Serpentine Spy (with opportunity) and the Chicken for filler; so the first two can both strike from the back

Last Stand Activated

Each turn Kron's health heals by +5, which is this case is enough for me to win the match. However, one can't use it blindly all the time, as I learned rather quickly.

Battle that I lost with Kron

This time its a 13 mana battle (Fog of war, Melee Mayhem rules) and I am using Lyanna (3 mana summoner) and L4 Kron (10 mana). The opponent is playing Earth deck as well with L8 Stone Golem in front; and Max Wood Nymph, L4 Brownie, and L1 Chicken at the back.

If you see the battle video, you will see that Kron gets stunned by Stone Golem twice, and even with +6 self heal, it is not enough against the heavy hitting of the Stone Golem. In the end it was a fairly one sided battle with a loss for me without taking out even a single monster from the opponent!

So what did I learn?

Well, the more experienced players please help me out there, but I think getting stunned is a problem for Kron. Kron is certainly not invincible, which is a good thing I think. Any melee attacker that can stun and hit quickly will create a problem for Kron. Also a healer at the opponent was a plus. It is hard to predict when the opponent will use a Kron in a random game, so I am not going to worry about it too much. However, I certainly learned to buy a max Stone Golem, which I do not have :)

In closing: This is my first write up about Splinterlands. As a sizable stakeholder in the steem blockchain, I am ranked #38 in terms of total SP in the steem blockchain (I understand some stakeholders have multiple accounts, and some accounts are repositories), I think it is almost my responsibility to play the Spinterlands game (especially I am someone with a gaming background), which is clearly the most played and most matured game in the steem blockchain. I see a lot of potential and I am sold on the concept. I wish I started much much earlier and I even wish I participated in the kickstarter; but hey better late than never :)