Hello guys, welcome back again my weekly Splinterlands Post. Its been a long time since my last participation in Splinterlands Social Media Challenge! and here today I am back with a couple of posts for it. As for today topic, I want to share my opinion about Donatelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Just kidding, he is not Donatello from TMNT, he is Swamp Spitter. It's a soulbound card and I think this one is very interesting although he is a common rarity monsters. Let's check its stat below:

shoten lore: Most swamp spitters remain in Skegmire their entire lives, but others journey beyond the reaches of the city’s swamps, turning to mercenary work and offering their services as assassins to those that can afford them. They are deadly at what they do and take their trade very seriously. There isn't a target that has escaped the dart of a swamp spitter, and only a fool would refuse to pay the bounty they had agreed upon for a task well done.

Swamp Spitter is an archer or range attacker, what interest me on him is that he is strong in attack and at the same time he can play defensively. His repair ability is enriches water element defensive plays. On higher level he will get Giant Killer ability, it's a great one to play defensive too because most defensive monsters weak against big mana monsters who come with destructive attack powers. Having giant killer in our team definitely helps alot to fight big mana monsters.

LETS BUILD A TURTLE FORMATION/META

What's a Turtle Formation anyway? It's a vocab I use to describe people (mostly me) who play using a super or over defensive meta. It's like having a solid unbreakable wall and let our opponent dies in frustation because their attacks can not break our defense and meanwhile we bit them little by little until all their monsters are gone.

THE BATTLE

~Click The Image Above To See the Full Battle~

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I picked this battle as a reference for my Turtle Formation with the help of Swamp Spitter. It's quite interesting because its a battle of Turtle Formation, my opponent really went with defensive formation too, a turtle one too.

So here was my plan:

Position	Card	Ability	Plan and Strategy
Summoner		+1 speed and +1 armor	Whether its attacking or defending, Kelya always be a great choice in Water Element. Even a full mage formation still can get some benefit from else, although debatable Alric and Valnamor will be better alternatives than her. In my trutle formation, I need Kelya +1 armor in order to make Swamp Spitter able to repair any armor in any position.

The Tank

I decided I would bring 1 tank only, I was pretty much confident that this tank would perform well because of some supports I had in the backline.

Position	Card	Ability	Plan and Strategy
Main Tank		Demoralize, Trample	It's not a common one to have Disintegrator on the main tank formation due to its low health points, However I think this Gorilla could perform well because we have Lost Magic ruleset. No magic allowed so everything has to come on its armor first.

The Backline Team

Majority of my backline team were supports. I would bring only 2 pure attackers here, which were both Sneak Attackers.

Position	Card	Ability	Plan and Strategy
Second		Triage	My first support here, maybe some people find it weird to put an archer on second position. Incase Disintegrator falls, he will come forward as my second tank with 6 health points. at main tank position, Angelic Mandarin won't be able to attack however his Triage ability will be still active and healing the backline teammate.
Third		Tank Heal, Repair	The main reason why water element can be super strong on defend is the existence of Merdaali Guardian. She heals and repairs at the same time, a complete set of a support.
Fourth		Sneak, fly	The first attacker in the team. I put him in front of Uraeus as a preventive action incase opponent coming with opportunity attack. Hopefully Pelacor Bandit can avoid some of those opportunity attacks.
Fifth		Sneak, Poison	The second sneak attacker in my team. I like the combination of Bandit - Uraeus, one is fast and hit harder, another one gives status ailment. Often this tag team gives victories to me in smaller mana cap battles.
The Last		Repair	Here come Donatelo, without Rafael, Michelangelo and Leonardo, this Boo-man Ninja will keep the whole team alive. I will let the detail flows in the last part of this post.

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This was a Dimond League Modern Rank Battle. I was using Backrrsantan account, a scholarship account from Bulldog1205, our famous and favorite streamer. We will see whose turtle formation is better....

ROUND 1

• The battle started with both of us Buffing up our team and debuffing our opponents.
• My opponent came with 6 Melee damage.
• My team had 8 Melee Damage, and 4 range damage. A total 12 Damage per round.
• My team had a better powerfire than their team

ROUND 2

• nobody died in first round. It looked like a plain one.
• The difference was that my Ninja Turtle got poisoned and his EVELYN AUVERA had immunity ability which made my Uraeus unable to poison her.

ROUND 3

• Another plain round, an endurance contest between our backline wall.

ROUND 4

• again, one more plain round. However little by little we could see their defense started to be corroded.

ROUND 5

• again, one more plain round. However little by little we could see their defense started to be corroded.

ROUND 6

• Finally their EVELYN AUVERA fell, piece by piece their monsters would start crumbled.

ROUND 7

• another plain round, but Uraeus would not make it in this round.

ROUND 8

• A though round for them. both of their monsters were in near death condition.

ROUND 9

• The battle settled, none of my monsters got killed in this battle

CLOSURE AND DISCUSSION

Both of us actually came with a very negative approach, using a super defensive team. In the first round, everything looked equal and hardly to predict that it would be a one sided battle So why did he lose badly?.

1. Lack of Supports

A turtle formation need more than one support, and that's his biggest mistake. He brought Evelyn Auvera. She was awesome, a formidable non attacking tank. A great wall, however she is not a support. She is a Tank, makes a great wall to absorb all attacks she can endure.

Meanwhile I was having 3 supports in my team, Angelic Mandarin kept healing Swamp Spitter to prevent him dying from poison , Merdaali Guardian Heal the Disintegrator and repaired some armor, and Swamp Spitter kept repairing some armor. This triangle was the actual core of my turtle formation, that's why unlike their team, My team did not need any big strong walls which became a burden on 31 mana cap battle.

2. Lack of Attacks

The only monsters who could not attack in my team was Merdaali Guardian. The other were attacking whilst in their team Scavo Hireling and Evelyn Auvera stood idle guarding only, not helping delivering any damage.

This is one of the main reason why Angelic Guardian and Swamp Spitter are dangerous, because they join delivering damages from their range attacks.

3. Please Try These Three Stooges Support Combination

I show these 3 again, 13 mana combination which actually makes a big deal. You can add Wave Brood behind and they made a fomidable backline taunting tank. Adding a Deeplurker and one strong tank will make a good combination too.

All are cheap, not expensive such as Riftwatchers or Untameds. Please go ahead try them and share me your favorite new Turtle Formation, OK!!

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Thank you for visiting my BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge, don't forget to leave your comments and feedback below. There are credits in this post for these people:

• @splinterlands : for holding weekly social media challenge events
• carrieallen : for ultimate markdown tutorial
• bulldog1205 : for providing me a scholar account ~ blackrssantan
• thepeakstudio : for wonderful divider art