How am I supposed to have one favorite ?

This weeks community engagement challenge asked about our favorite cards of the new set and well, that's a hard one to say.

Read the original challenge here https://peakd.com/hive-13323/@splinterlands/splinterlands-community-engagement-challenge-conclave-favorites

There are so many fantastic cards in conclave Arcana. I've written numerous times about how much I love the elf bloodline, from the artwork, the lore and of course the abilities of the Archon Kaylia Silverleaf.

There's also cards that make cards from rebellion even stronger like the Archon Bella giving the already formidable tank Uladin Overseer shield.

I've also written about how cool the venomancer is in some situations. I've used them in a clutch and had my tank just not go down thanks to shield more then a few times. It's a great combo.

However I'm dedicating this post to Sheng xi, one of the Concalve Arcana archons. She's dragon splinter which makes her that much more versatile. Her tactic grants you the ability to give 2 units corrosive ward and poison burst. Corrosive ward is great against anyone with a lot of armour, and who doesn't like having their opponent taking damage constantly?

This ability also pairs exceptionally well with the born again rule set, and with any unit with abilities that let them be defeated multiple times like the abyssal elemental.

Lets see it in action! (Watch the fight here )

The rule set

Might makes right, so I could only summon units with at least 3 attack. 23 mana which is on the lower end these days. There were further limitations of only the dragon and fire splinter being active. This meant my unit options were rather small.

Here's the load out I ended up with.

Archon -Sheng Xi of course- Lets make things bad for the other guys. Acid and poison go!

Tank Halfling Refugee - In low mana matchs I often use them as my tank . They've got decent health, do okay damage(when they don't take a nap). On top of that at level 3 they get healing. The down side, they nap on the job. Ah well, they're underpaid with 1 mana.

Position 2 -Night reaper - Wing breaker, flying and at level 3 deflection field. And 3 magic attack. What is not to love? This was also my first Epic card. They cost 11 so I wasn't 100% confident this was a good choice for a low mana match.

Position 3 Arandurel - 3 ranged attack and at 6 mana relatively cheap to use. Great back liner. I also like having someone that hits the backline in low mana matches as there are quite a few cheap units that she can one shot. I also love her lore. She killed enough dragons she got dragon magic. That's badass.

My opponent

Archon - Lorkus - very good card but not sure I'd use for a low mana match since it costs 7. However giving + melee, +1 magic and giving two units life leech and affliction is pretty awesome. (Do I want a copy of Lorkus, yes I do)

Tank - Chaos Golem - Very tanky tank. With ten health, four shield and with lorkus 4 attack. That combined with life leech means that if it lands an attack it gets 2 health back. WAs I worried, yes I was.

Kha'zi conjurer - this card is always a gamble to play. That 4 damage is awesome, but it lighting everyone on fire is very much not. Sure life leech will help, but that only goes so far.

Lets see how it shakes out

How it the battlefield starts - Tactics done, buffs given. Yeah I didn't think I was gonna win at first.

By the end of the first round I wasn't feeling much better since my tank was down. But theirs was now poisoned. I thought if the fire spread I'd have a decent chance.

And the fire spread, doing damage to both the chaos golem and conjurer. That along with my archer took the Kha'zi conjurer from 6 health to 1. Don't play with fire kids!

The other downside of using life leech for health, you only get health if you do damage to enemey health so when the conjurer did damage to my night reaper's armour it didn't help their near death situation.

It did however help the chaos golem, but with corrosive ward that means they have no shield left now.

Then Aruendel takes out the conjurer. Leaving just the chaos golem, whose on fire and poisoned so they're having a bad day. My units don't do anything, just watch as that combined damage over time takes their last three health.

The take away from this fight?

Be careful with fire, and Xi Sheng is awesome.

Also experiment and try stuff you aren't sure will work. This was very much a "Well it could work" sort of load out. I was not confident in my chances for victory but part of what makes Splinterlands great is that there are so many different strategies and situations so playing the exact same thing all the time shouldn't work.