Hello! This week's challenge is about a card that is completely "out of its element" in every possible way. First of all, it is a ranged Fire card from Chaos Legion - while so far CL has been more focused on melee attackers instead. On top of that, it is a Scavo - a monster race that has 3 representatives in Splinterlands so far. It is known for Hireling and Chemist - the two attackless supportive monsters. Firebolt is instead a fully offensive card - its only ability is Knock Out, which is also purely damage-oriented.

As a monster it is not used much at the level where I play (which is sometimes bot-filled Silver, other times high Silver ranks with high level cards). This is likely because there are better options for Yodin at a high level, while it also does not necessarily synergize with Tarsa, who only gives it 1 extra health. That said, I did find a way to utilize it well in a battle.. Even if it wasn't exactly one with tons of choices.

The Battle

The battle that I ended up using Scavo Firebolt was quite important, as it was a guild brawl - and the guild I am in is very new to brawls, so every win matters to get some of those sweet sweet merits and crowns.

The battle was an extremely limited one. It basically chose Scavo Firebolt for us, as you can see - both me and my opponent have opted to use it! The rulesets, mana and splinters available were already limiting, but just to be clear - this was also a brawl fray for CL bronze, so there were barely any cards to choose from.

You can find the battle HERE.

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

My Team

What I could choose from was so limited that there is barely anything to say - but still, as in every battle challenge, here's the 4 main limitations:

• Ruleset: The Close Range ruleset made it so that using ranged monsters was more viable, while Back to Basics - in this low of a mana cap - simply meant Scorch Fiend was not a viable option.
• Splinters: Only the Fire splinter was available - this means that Tarsa was the only available option, making the summoner choice inexistent.
• Mana: The mana cap was 12, which was quite limiting and basically gave only a chance to use a few cheap monsters - or one big one.
• Brawl Fray. Due to the fray chosen, the battle only allowed monsters up to Bronze level from the Chaos Legion expansion.

Frontline

The choice of my frontline for this battle was pretty interesting. There were few options and yet I took almost all the allotted time to choose. With low mana, the first instinct was to simply stuff the frontline with throwaway monsters, such as Chaos Agent and Radiated Scorcher, which would give my damage dealer(s) time to actually destroy the opposing units. The reason I did not go for it was that I was afraid of Xenith monk and that having a weak unit in the front will lead to not having enough damage.

The next choice was simply between Xenith Monk and Antoid Platoon. In hindsight, my opponent is the one who made the right choice, as Monk's higher speed meant that Platoon could've gotten unlucky and missed, leading to a clear loss. Thankfully, I was the lucky one and won the battle.

Damage

When it comes to damage, I obviously went for Scavo Firebolt - else this post wouldn't make any sense! That said, I was considering some other options which I believe are good to mention. Depending on my frontline choice, some of the most prominent choices could have been Radiated Brute and Tenyii Striker, as well as Lava Spider or Djinn Apprentice. The last one especially was a consideration because of Antoid Platoon.

In the end, I went for Scavo because it was the most reliable option. It would've been able to survive 2 turns before it could die to an opposing Tenyii Striker. It deals 2 damage and does it to the frontline, letting me focus the damage. Overall, it just felt very consistent.

Scavo Firebolt

Scavo Firebolt is a 4-mana card that struggles to find its home in any kind of a lineup. While it is quite powerful on its own - it has decent stats, comparable to Kulu Swimhunter, while also getting Knock Out as an ability later on. It is difficult to put it in a lineup because as I mentioned earlier on, it just doens't synergize with anything that well. Yodin prefers Snipers and Opportunity monsters, Tarsa and Malric want melee instead.

Its biggest upside is the fact that it can be used in Little League. 4-mana cards in general are great there, but the Knock Out ability is incredible when combined with cards that can Stun, especially against little monsters of 4 mana and less.

I believe that in modern, Scavo Firebolt could become a better card - with less cheap options to pair with Yodin and a potential synergistic new legendary champion, there definitely are ways for this monster to become much better than it currently is. Personally, I like sub-races or clans in games, such as Scavo or Venari, so I am cheering for it to become more powerful!

Closing Words

This wasn't the most exciting battle and it wasn't the most exciting monster - but I still think it was quite interesting how lucky I got to get my guild 3 extra points in this brawl! I also love writing about monsters that I do have in gold, especially ones that are not common.. So this one was fun!

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 football management game through my referral link to receive lot of RBN, the in-game currency!

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