Hello! This week's challenge is the Supply Runner - a card that is peculiar in the sense that it is extremely mediocre or even bad for as long as you have it at level 4 or lower. This means that in Bronze, you will rarely ever want to play it. Then you look at its level 5 and it becomes amazing! Swiftness is one of the most powerful abilities, being essentially a better Slow. Supply Runner is a common card that can apply it to your team at Silver level, which makes it just so extremely strong. So let's dive into my weekly battle. Sadly, while I have it at level 5, I do not have a summoner that can use it, so.. here's a much less exciting version of Supply Runner.

The Battle

As I mentioned, I did not have the ability to use a level 5 Supply Runner, so I actually did not find many opportunities to play it well at level 3. The opportunity, though, presented itself with the battle I am about to show you!

It is a high mana battle with a lot of restrictions. First of all, it is silenced summoners, which is actually why I played Life - but I'll get to that in the next part of the post. The lack of ability to play melee monsters also takes out a large amount of possibilities. Finally, no Water, Fire or Death narrows it down even further.

You can find the battle right HERE

Here's a screenshot for whoever doesn't feel like watching the whole thing!

My Team

It was a really limited game, which was likely a big reason for why I could utilize Supply Runner, so it all ended up well. As usual, 3 main limitations were in my mind while making this lineup.

• Ruleset: Keep Your Distance made short work of all plans to include melee monsters, which made it easier to choose the lineup. Silenced Summoners made Obsidian a much weaker choice.
• Splinters: The lack of Water, Fire and Death as viable choices meant that some of my best cards were not able to be utilized. As I did not have any Dragons at my disposal, it was basically a choice between Life and Earth.
• Mana: As the mana cap was at 56, this was barely a limitation at all. Very few of my ranged or magic monsters are that expensive, so it could as well be a 99 mana battle.

In the end, I went for Life, as I felt it loses less due to Silenced Summoners than Earth would. On top of that, with no magic buff from Obsidian, I was confident I could outdamage Earth if it was chosen.

Frontline

My frontline for this battle was absolutely pathetic. I do not own any cards in Life nor neutral that could play the role of a high-mana frontliner in a game like these, where Keep Your Distance is an active ruleset. Something like Cornealus, Prismatic Energy or even Warrior of Peace would be great to have.

I was, however, forced to use Pelacor Conjurer as my frontline. Its high speed and Flying meant that if the opponent chose to go for ranged units, I'd have some chances to get lucky with dodges. On top of that, it does have 6 health when accounting for the Djinn Renova buff, making it.. an acceptable, yet disappointing choice.

Support

The supportive cast were two magic attackers, which were not really there for their attack. Instead, they both have abilities that affect whole teams, making them a great addition to a lineup that seeks to deal a lot of damage, as fast as possible. Time Mage's Slow is an ability that can make a big difference, letting cards like Pelacor Arbalest and Prismologist attack before the opponent's monsters.

Djinn Renova and her Strengthen, as well as large health pool lets it act both as an offtank, as well as a protection against potential Sneak attackers, Opportunity monsters, and simply making the frontline that tiny bit beefier. As you can see in the battle, it worked out to my advantage!

Damage

Finally, here is the damage part and we can find the hero of the post in this part of the team. Supply Runner, with its high speed, guarantees being able to attack quite a lot and potentially taking down the opposing frontline unit before it can make its own move.

Pelacor Arbalest and Prismologist are both lower speed, but high damage units that are key to victory and simply need to be able to survive in the backline for as long as is needed for the enemy team to perish. The Double Attack of Arbalest makes short work of most enemies, while Prismologist's Blast counters Queen Mycelia's Protect perfectly. In the end, it turns out to be enough in order to win the difficult battle.

Supply Runner

The thing about Supply Runner is that it being neutral makes it just so good. The level 5 giving Swiftness is great in any region and I love the fact that it is possible to use with any summoner that you have at a high enough level.

Swiftness of course is a fantastic ability that fits pretty much everywhere - well, except Reverse Speed of course, but you wouldn't want to use Supply Runner there anyway. Strengthen is the same, but I mean.. I'm not getting to diamond/champion anytime soon. There are hardly teams that don't want to see Supply Runner there - in most splinters, it is the best 6-mana ranged unit at Silver cap. Some of the biggest competitors would be Hunter Jarx or Azmare Harpoonist, at least in modern.

The biggest problem with Supply Runner is of course its uselessness in Reverse Speed. It is also completely unusable in Choosing Sides, as it is neutral - so what is normally an upside, turns into a crippling downside in that one. Another big deal is that it is way weaker pre-5, so you do need to invest in the summoners - whether purchasing or renting - in order to play it to its potential.

Overall though, a great card that is fun to play with - the Swiftness really makes a difference, especially when combined with other speed altering effects, making the opposing team unable to act before they're all gone.

Closing Words

I love Supply Runner, but I wish I could play him outside of having to rent. Of course, the goal is to have these summoners at Silver level and then Gold eventually, but.. It surely will take a while.

Since it's a gaming-related post, here is a bunch of referral links of mine - if you're not playing any of the games I've written about, give them a try! I wouldn't write about bad games.. well, not without saying they're bad anyway. So, here they are:

SPLINTERLANDS - Splinterlands is the poster child of the HIVE blockchain. Join now through my referral link to get a few cards from me!

RABONA - Join the awesome football management game through my referral link to receive a ton of the in-game token - RBN!

RISING STAR - Here's the referral link to Rising Star. Start your way to mega stardom now!