Hello Splinterlands Summoners! Today I'll be sharing one of my favorite strategies and teams in battle. This will be about the Water team and Commander Slade.
Commander Slade reimagined with Night Cafe Studio
Commander Slade is one of my favorite units that came out of the new reward set. He is a great tank that has the tools to survive in battle while weakening the enemy tank.
My Commander Slade is at level 4 and at this level, he can compete with the best tanks out there provided he is not hit with magic attacks from enemy units. That's his weakness as we can see in this battle.
When is the Best Time to Use Commander Slade?
I generally use Commander Slade when magic units are not allowed or when magic units are discouraged to be used like in Magic Reflect rulesets. Commander Slade will be great against melee or ranged attacks because of his Dodge ability. He also has Enfeeble to weaken the enemy tank. His damage potential and defense are also top notch. He is a beefy and high damage tank but he melts rather quickly against magic damage because he doesn't have Void or Phase abilities.
Best Units to Synergize with Commander Slade
I'd use units that would help keep him in battle longer thus I'd use the Merdaali Guardian who has both Heal and Repair. I'd also have the Swamp Spitter who also has Repair and does decent ranged damage. My other units will be high damage dealers like Deeplurker, Kulu Mastermind and Nerissa Tridawn. The Flying Squid is great as it has Blind ability. I have high winning rate with this team in particular rulesets where magic is not allowed or penalized.
Sample Battles
Battle 1
The opponent has one magic unit in the team and my Merdaali Guardian got eliminated early. Commander Slade was already low on health but my damage dealers did their job first eliminating the opponent's Djinn Oshannus and soon the rest of the opponents team followed.
Battle 2
In this battle, the opponent's healer got taken out by my Deep Lurker and soon his tank was elimated too. After that it was easy as my Commander Slade was not threatened in this battle.
Battle 3
One of my favorite combos when the ruleset allows it is Commander Slade and Coastal Sentry. They are just a deadly pair as Coastal Sentry wrecks the opponent units behind the protection of Commander Slade in first position.
Battle 4
In an all melee battle, the opponent used flying units together with Astral entity which gives all units the Dodge ability. This strategy usually works against slower units where the combo of Astral entity and fast flying units will make the enemy melee attackers miss. However my units are fast too so the chances of missing are reduced.
Final Thoughts
The team I shared is one of my bread and butter teams in Splinterlands. I have a high win rate with this team. However, no team is unbeatable--your opponent may have a better strategy to counter yours in a given ruleset. Learn from your losses and adjust your team play not just against your opponent but the ruleset as well.
Thank you for reading and have fun playing Splinterlands!