Steem Monsters Battle Case Study

So, looking back through some battles I had, there is one that I remember as sticking out the moment I played it, as well as when watching it again. It happened 2 days ago, during the Silenced Summoner / 27 Mana conflict.

Full Battle Here

I remember the moment once I saw the lineup, my first reaction was „meh, GG opponent”, as I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of golden cards, as well as the Phoenix, which generally disintegrates whatever low-level team I have.

Here's the battle.

To my massive surprise, I won. Now, looking back, I can better understand what happened, and I want to use this battle as a case study, to analyze who did what how, and why the result came to be.

First, the lineups.

It's easy to see my team was behind. Enemy had only gold, except the Phoenix. I'm pretty sure up to this battle I had yet to win against an opponent that was using the Phoenix. My cards were somewhat upgraded, but I expected the Phoenix to soon wipe out my tanks, then it would be easy GG.

The Good

One of the things that I came to love is using the Giant in second position and a beefy ranged unit in last position. Offers good protection against both Sneak AND Snipe. Given the design of the conflict, my team was aiming to remove the opponent's utility cards through Snipe asap, while bashing down the tank(s) with whatever damage the Wolf and Spider could put out.

The Bad

In hindsight, I have to admit that the odds weren't as stacked against me as I first thought. This is because of one thing and one thing only: POSITIONING.

The opponent had 2 Sneakers, yet they were put on the first and second position. Their utility was completely neutered, as their main focus should be to chip away at my back units.

Doing a quick mental exercise, by imagining the sneakers behind the Serpent+Ogre, I think the outcome would have been different. Centaur would die quickly, then Jester, even possibly leaving the Phoenix alive.

Anyway, this just goes to show HOW IMPORTANT POSITIONING IS IN THIS GAME!

And even so, one last thing helped me tremendously for this victory...

The Luck

I said the Phoenix should've been essential in bringing me down. Did you notice something though?

Speed of 5 and Flying, yet not a single miss. Centaur+Jester brought it down as soon as possible, letting my Giant tank with a decent amount of HP left. Small details like these are the ones that tip the balance. In a range-based team as mine, if your tank is melted down fast, the game is OVER.

To Conclude

I wanted to recheck this battle because I felt it left an impact on me at the time. Through hindsight analysis you can figure out what was done well and what wasn't. This means you LEARN. This is how you make progress in this game. Through a better understanding of the mechanics and the dynamics of a match.

I wrote a long post - possibly my longest post yet! I just hope it brought you some kind of value and that it helps you improve your game, even just by the tiniest of bit.

I want to do more case studies in the future, but I promise I'll try to keep'em more concise 😁