Introduction

Hello fellow Summoners,

This week's Battle Share Contest by @splinterlands is about the fanastic Serpentine Spy! The link is here:
https://steempeak.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/6oiuzj-share-your-battle-weekly-challenge-win-upvotes
The theme is the Serpentine Spy, a Fire Monster. Since this monster belongs to the Fire Splinter, it can only be used by Fire Summoners. Even so, I think it is very suited for the fire splinter since all the fire summoner's ability boost Serpentine's effectiveness by a LOT! Plus, I personally think the art looks pretty cool and that he would not look any better with any other splinter.

Experiences With The Spy

Ever since I started playing Splinterlands, to even now, Serpentine can be found in my lineup when I play the fire splinter. When I first started this game, I easily got to gold league using the simple living lava, 1 health monster, serpentine spy, and some other monsters at the back. It proved very devastating to my enemies. Even so, the best monsters still have their flaws. Like @splinterlands said, it is a bother protecting that weakling. Thorns is also a major concern to Spy users If you protect him properly, you will be rewarded handsomely in battle though.

Card Level

On the delegated account which I play on, I use a level 5 serpentine spy which has 3 attack, 2 health, and 5 speed. His 5 speed makes him hit hard and fast, downing one of your enemies almost certainly before they even have a chance to hit back. The speed also gives him increased chance to dodge! Its attack allows him to kill the glass cannons on the opposing team (which is really what opportunity is for right?) and its health is a bit higher than its level 1 health making it less susceptible to your opponent's opportunity.

Ruleset

For this battle, I got the knockout ruleset. This ruleset is uaually ignored since not many monsters have the stun ability. Sorry to say but I am also not a great fan of this ruleset and treat it as a standard game. The battle was 20 mana which is pretty low. All the summoners are allowed except life so I can't do my favorite silvershield knight + assassin combo.

Battle

Since my opponent also ignored this ruleset and didn't put any stun monster in, I think we can remove the equalizer rule as a topic of this battle.
You can see this battle here: https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=b8fd6437ece1d7104a27fdb4b81b2a69d3aa3324

Summoner + Monster Choices

Summoner

Pyre: I chose this card because:

1. It was either that or Talia for fire and I wanted a buff for all my monsters so I chose Pyre. I also considered using Daria but that is 4 mana and every mana counts in a low mana battle.

Monsters

CHAIN GOLEM

This monster is going to be my primary solid tank. He will be able to fend off attacks from all the monsters and his shield and void makes him last a long time.

Magma Troll

Guys, don't under estimate this 4 mana monster. He can wreak havoc on your opponent's front line and also acts like a second tank. That was magma troll's purpose in this battle.

Furious Chicken

A meatshield meant to absorb snipe and opportunity hits and a 3rd monster just in case my chain golem and magma troll fall.

Flame Monkey

A 1 mana monster here makes me conserve mana. His repair is also very good and will help my chain golem live longer

SERPENTINE SPY

It is the monster itself, the spy! I put it here after the furious so it is protected from enemy opportunity attacks at the back line, it can wreck havoc on the squishy troops and killing all the glass cannons!

Creeping Ooze

Well I had 1 mana left and it was either going into Daria or getting prepared for a possible sneak attack. I also put it there to, just in case my chicken falls, increase the chances of my serpentine to evade the enemy attack.

Did It Work?

I am going against a Daria, my very own favorite summoner. The splinter she chose to go with dragon was earth and included the annoying flesh golem. Grrr that heal could quickly tear up my plans and she also brought her very ow opportunist, the screeching vulture. This might go a bit hairy if my serpentine misses its shot on the vulture.

Turn 1

I killed his brownie using the serpentine which was good since it meant that my monsters would have a higher chance of hitting his troops. My chicken did its job too and absorbed the vulture hit leaving my serpentine unscathed.

Turn 2

My serpentine landed a 75% chance hit on the vulture. If it missed that would mean my flame monkey getting hit and would probably result in a loss since my chain golem looks like it needs some armor. Good job serpentine!

Turn 3

My chain golem is almost dead. Without the repair, it would have been long gone. That flesh golem and manticore are really putting a dent in it. My serpentine has its eyes on the swamp thing which will give me golem 1 health back.

Turn 4

End of the flesh golem means the end of the match and a guaranteed win for me. The manticore cannot put a dent in my chain golem anymore since my flame monkey can repair it right up. The thorns may be troublesome though.

End Result

It turned out to be a win for me. All of my cards played a huge roll in the win (maybe except of ooze) and it was a really well fought game! My opponent played very well and I congratulate him on that battle! Serpentine was very important in this battle, without that screeching vulture gone, I wouldn't have won!

Looking Back

Looking back at the battle, would I have changed anything? Maybe changed pyre to daria or pyre to talia and then put imp bowman instead of ooze. The ooze barely did anything in this battle but I guess it is a sort of isurance. Other than that, I feel like my placement was pretty solid.

End

I have some ending questions for my readers. Do you use the Serpentine Spy? Why do you like to use it? What is a good strategy with it?

Thank you for reading my post and BATTLE ON!