Hi everyone!

This is my first "Share your battle", I hope to rise to the occasion. Above all, thanks for reading and happy new year!🎉🎉🎉

My intention with Share my battle will always be to share my personal experience playing the proposed card and show you the most special battle.

But, what is really a special battle? To summarize a bit, the game that you see over and over again, in which the two teams are balanced and in which all the cards of the winning team play an essential role.

So here we go!

PREP STAGE

I never used the fire splinter much, it's not my favorite in fact. And therefore I did not have good cards, nor summoners prepared to fight in the gold league that I am currently in. So the first thing I did was rent Giant Roc level 6 with the trample ability to assist in second position, using my summoner Brighton Bloom. But I soon discovered that it was not a good decision, this summoner turns all creatures into flying and our Roc was already flying. I lost many battles because I did not know how to integrate her into the team and the ones that I won did not feel that our Roc was essential. This was all a bit disappointing for me, but I soon discovered the real solution in Chaos Legion.

The new summoner TARSA would add 1 melee attack to my entire team, making it easier for my Roc to kill an opponent and activate his trample ability, the new summoner TARSA that I didn't have 😟 That's why these days I've been progressively accumulating Tarsa until I have it ready for the gold league and for our friend, the giant-trample-roc. I also rented a few fire cards to accompany our Giant on his adventure, taking advantage of the fact that the rental market has great opportunities at the beginning of the season:

COMBAT STAGE

Here you can see the battle!

https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_5d3367f0b5197179d0662d20d8036f22

Battle conditions: 2 armor up / Only Commons and Rares / 26 Mana

Understanding rival strategy
The opponent chose a defensive strategy difficult to attack, to the divine shield of LORNA, my favorite summoner, add the ability of Taunt and the shield of Shieldbearer(A), who is healed by his Venari Crystalsmith(E). Gargoya Scrapper(B) and Herbalist(F) function as secondary shields against possible sneakers and blasters and would slow down the attack against the main cards once the Shieldbearer has fallen.

His offensive strategy is smart too and makes perfect sense, while my cards are wasting time fighting Shieldbearer; Temple Priest(C), Shieldbearer, Venari and Herbalist would attack my first position, Stitch Leech(D) would attack my last, increasing his life thanks to the Life Leech ability. His wizard is especially damaging by avoiding my armor and my shield, it is my main danger.

The overall strategy would have been improved if he had put a character to repair armor or increase attack instead of using the Gargoya. Also considering that the Herbalist would have cured him in case of Blast.

Understanding my strategy
In an Only Commons & Rares battle with more than 20 mana, the possibility of seeing Shieldbearer in front of your house increases a lot, with 2 extra armor if that was not enough. With this in mind I decided to create the following setup:

🔥TARSA: Increasing the melee damage by 1 would increase the actual damage taken by the Shieldbearer. Increasing health by 1 always comes in handy.

Living Lava (1) In my first position I needed a hard piece like marble to take half the melee and range damage. I only have lvl 1, but that is how it does its job.

GIANT ROC (2) With the Reach ability it can attack from second position and at some point it can activate Trample or cause Miss in the opposite to be a flying creature.

Beetle Queen (3) His main mission is to heal the tank for as long as possible.✨

Scavo Hireling (4) We needed someone to repair our own damaged armor ...

Battering Ram (5) ... and we needed someone to break full armor.

Creeping Ooze (6) It is always good to add a final card as a secondary shield against sneakers, if it also has any ability that negatively affects your opponent it is a great option.

My strategy would have been improved by swapping positions 3 and 4, if my front line had fallen, my Beetle Queen would still have a chance to save the game if we slowed attacks on her and Scavo could repair his own damaged armor.

RESULTS

The key to the battle was, which tank would die first? With the armor completely destroyed and some enemies with the increased attack, among them our Giant Roc of course!, Shieldbearer received all the damage directly on his life and will not take long to fall. While our Living Las Vegas Lava, although it was only level 1 and with a less efficient healer (+2 instead of Venari's +3), it had the support of the humble little Scavo. The opponent divided his attack between the Lava armor, his life and my last position, very far from my main cards and it was not enough to win.

Despite everything, the two opponents used good strategies with small flaws, typical of experienced players, and it is always a pleasure to find well-armed strategies.👌

My experience with Giant Roc

About Giant Roc, I have to say that I find him an interesting character for some battle conditions, when there is damage on flying creatures, infinite Trample or for games with low mana, his ability together with the bonuses of Tarsa makes him a creature with real danger to the enemy.

However, I also see that there are very good alternatives for the second position, Radiated Brute or Fineas for example and it is true that it has been difficult for me to integrate it into my strategy, used to using other splinters.

Likewise, the most important thing for me is that I have made my first big jump into the fire splinter and it has pushed me to get Tarsa and enjoy this game even more.

Thank you very much for your reading!

See you soon, on the battlefield and in our clan, Fallen Angels!