Last Friday at the @bdcommunity discord server, Azircon( or Dada) announced on voice about this splinterland contest where we had to pick our Ideal 12 mana line up. At the same time explain why you picked that line up and also its weaknesses while being creative with your writing.

It sounded a bit intimidating as I am just two seasons old into this game and Its highly unlikely I can win a contest where I have to write about technical strategies of splinterlands while making it fun and creative.

Its a bit daunting task for a beginner.

Hence, I thought I should just sit back and read others entries and learn their strategies about their line up, Instead of taking part. However, After reading the Awesome entries early this morning I decided to give this a try.

I know, I might not win, but it doesn't hurt to try. Right?

So here was this Monk from India who got in touch with @linco in the BD Discord at 3:39 AM to find out if it was okay to chose line ups of other players as I had this line up by @jacekw in my head.

He responded with a positive affirmation.

As I started writing, I saw another player posted a very similar line up for the BD contest.

In my head I said to myself.

"The battle I wanted to write about seems to be take already"
"Now what do I do?"

Then I decided, I should make my own line up from the other references I saw. Anyway, This contest doesn't limit me to the cards this poor monk owns. So might as well add some rare and expensive cards at their maxed levels to this line up.

So here we go.

Summoner

I chose This Baby Royal Dragon Prince Summoner because it will open up possibilities of adding dragon cards to my line up, also its a promo edition card which help me get a 10% Dec bonus.

Also, I have to admit that its a card that I was never able to use in my short game life span of one month since its a very rare and expensive summoner to have, but like I said before,This contest does not limit me to the cards I own, hence, I decide to go ahead with this card in My Dream 12 Mana Line Up.

Monsters

Can I miss out on the most used Tank Card?

Hell, No!!

With a usage of 27.68% , Lord Arianthus is easily dominates the other tanks in terms of Usage and the second most used card overall. This was only possible because it ticks all the boxes when it comes to performance. It has got the ability of Shield and Void which will reduced damage caused from Melee, Magic and Ranged Monsters. Followed by Counter abilities like Magic Reflect and Thorn which makes its attackers pay heavily for attacking it in the first place.

I din't say it ticks all the boxes for no reason.

No way I am keeping this Beast who Practises Ahimsa and yet causes Himsa out from my line up.

Gandhi Ji must be so Proud of Lord Arianthus.

Ahimsa- Non Violence in Hindi

Himsa- Violence in Hindi

If you saw the most used cards stats carefully, You would have noticed which card in Number one.

Yes, Its the Furious Chicken.

This Zero Mana card is must have for everyone playing this game because it just takes up a slot and take one hit as well. Who knows, If its an equalizer, Melee Mayham or Sneak rule its 2 Melee Attacks will come into Play as well.

Hence this card is a part of my line up.

Yet another Promo Edition Dragon Card making it to my crew after the Summoner, Again a card I was never able to use but yet impressed me with its ability Sneak with its fair health of 3 units and low cost mana of 1 which will take out the Monster at the back end of the of the enemy line up. Additionally, Its Magic Sneak(2 units) will penetrate through shield. This is the reason why I chose the dragon summoner Julian as it would give me an opportunity to play Shin Lo.

This Monster is the Heart of this line up.

Why I say heart is for the fact that it is until this monster lives this line up remains successful because if this monster is killed the 1st and last monster becomes vulnerable to get death as it heals both the Tank and Back line Monsters with Tank heal and Triage respectively.

Hence the key is to safe guard this Pretty Khmer Lady, So that she could do her job to keep the rest of them alive.

Also, Its got a fairly decent health of 5 with a Magic attack of 1 unit for a Mana cost of 2.

Its a good deal right?

Last but not this least, I went with swamp thing because it offer a pretty good guard from the sneak attackers with its health of 5 units with Ranged attack of 2 units for a mana cost of 2. So it slowly kills the 1st monster of the enemy line up while keeping the line safe from sneak attacks.

Additionally, It has the ability to slow down and Weaken the enemy by one unit which is very handy.

As this is a fictional line up, I don't have the battle.
However, I have a reference of very similar battle fought by @gank

Cons of this line up

Every line up has some flaws and weak points to penetrate.
Here are some of them.

#1. Not suitable for Earth Quake Rule

Since it is low mana battle with multiple cards with non flying abilities , The health of each card is relatively less to sustain the damage caused by earth quakes.

Hence, Refrain from using this deck for Earthquake rule.

#2. Snipe and opportunity cards can take this deck down

Like I said before, Khmer Princess is the heart of this line up. Attacks like snipe and opportunity can take out this pricess after taking down the chicken and shin lo. Since they are of relatively lower health while compared to Khmer.

#3 Grim Reaper can potentially take out Lord Arianthus

Lord Arianthus was practically invincible until they introduced cards with oppress ability. A ability that 2x the damage against monsters with no attacks. I particularly mentioned Grim Reaper because It is Range attacks with Oppress and Affliction which doesn't let Arianthus heal, also we should keep in mind that Arianthus is relatively weaker to Range attacks while compared to Melee and Magic as it doesn't have return fire ability.

That is about it guys.
I have told you everything I know about My Ideal 12 Mana line up.
In the process, I ended up writing over a 1000 words.
Hope, I din't bore you guys.

Let me know what you think about this line up in the comments below.

Think this blog will be valuable for someone? Feel free to Tag your Friends and re-blog.

_{Cartoon Art by @turtledance24}