Introduction

Hey fellow summoners,

This week is yet another week of suffering and trying to find a decent battle to use the barking spider in. Haven't used this creature in a long time since I haven't found the need to level it up. After lots of hurt and losses I finally found the best use of a barking spider; as a damage dealer.

Card Levels

The barking spider starts off as pretty cheap but weak ranged tank, sort of like Earth Elemental without the heal. As it levels up, it gets more and more useful but is still not as good as Earth Elemental unless the rulesets are healed out or you feel like a blinder would be better than a healer.

Ruleset

The ruleset for this battle will be armor up and all monsters will be agining 2 armor. Many people like to use armor removing monsters/summoners here or use magic to get passed the armor. I always keep this in mind while making my team so I can form a counter. Mana cap is very high so I can spend my mana without using too many low mana monsters.

Battle

Here is the link to my battle for you to follow along: https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=1a5beb22d3718cbc004d0de1bbead09d0169776b

Summoners and Monsters

Summoner

Wizard of Eastwood:

The perfect summoner for an armor up game, this summoner removes the armor that your opponent gains from the ruleset making them vulnerable to non-magic attacks.

Monsters

Chain Golem:

I am super obsessed with chain golem and his shield + void ability allows him to last a long time against all attacks.

Corneleaus

Placed in second position to be my second tank in case my chain golem falls and it is also an insurance against snipe monsters.

Prismatic Energy

My third tank in case my first 2 tank falter and it is also good against magic type troops since it can reflect magic.

Sand Worm:

One of the new reward cards that have come out, sand worm is an awesome sneak monster which is suitable for high mana battles since it can do amazingly high damage to your opponent's back rank.

Barking Spider:

A good damage dealer here. I had 4 mana left so I chose to put it here to do some additional damage. It doesn't have blind yet but will be amazing when it does.

Mitica Headhunter

I focused on high damage output in this battle since people like to put in buffy tanks for high mana caps. Mitica is suitable for this job since she has 4 damage and is super fast.

Battle Analysis

Turn 1

As I thought, my opponent was going to go magic to pass the armor up and in addition, he has a lot of tanks to protect his ruler. My high damage cards are going to grind through them and hopefully my sand worm can do some cool sneaking. My high damage dealers managed to rip the kraken apart in the first turn which is awesome since its taunt made my sand worm unable to hit the water elemental. My chain golem took lots of magic damage despite its void ability so I'm guessing it will die this round.

Turn 2

My barking spider is actually doing a pretty good job at shredding the opponent's tank despite its measly 2 damage. I defeated the sea monster with that extra 2 damage preventing an undesirable heal and some pretty nasty damage against my corneleaus. Doing a good job so far.

Turn 3

Didn't manage to break through the goblin mech due to its tough armor but it will fall the next turn. My prismatic energy is doing its job and reflecting the ruler's blast right back at him.

Turn 4

The 40% miss chance did not stop my sand worm this time. It destroyed the water elemental in 1 shot without giving it a chance to heal and my monsters also destroyed the goblin mech and did plenty of damage to his remaining monsters.

Turn 5

And this round is the last as my monsters destroy the remainders of what was formerly his army. Very well played and if it weren't for my high damage and anti-magic combo, it may have done me in.

Conclusion

Barking Spider is best used as a support/damage dealer. At high levels it could also be used as a cheap tank but other cards can be better. Not too many scenarios have a good use for it but when used in the right situations, it can be devastating. Thank you all for reading my posts and as always, BATTLE ON!