Splinterlands | Lineups for beginners | Fire with Malric Inferno

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In this series I intend to give you a better insight by providing a lot of example lineups in common situations. I have written a full theoretical guide on Malric Inferno, I would recommend to read that first and then take a look at some of my example lineups. The combination of the theoretical part and actual examples should be a very good preparation for the battlefield.

Ps: click on an image to see the actual battle

The 12 mana fight

The lowest mana battle is a pretty common sight, a meager 12 mana fight. Malric is a pretty decent choice in a battle like this. The living lava is an absolute beast and will do most --if not all-- of the work. You can add any 2 mana melee creature to finish the lineup (I actually prefer the battering ram over the kobold miner). If you have a chicken, you should use this aswell of course.

An alternative could be to use cerberus instead of living lava here, but for me, the living lava seems like the better option. Also, creating a lineup where you use chicken + ooze + ant miners instead of a "real tank" can be pretty succesful, however, a chicken and an ooze are rather expensive cards, so it's not really perfect for beginners.

It's a very solid lineup, but somewhat weak against an Alric magic lineup, so be careful if your enemy has the option to do this.

A 13 mana fight can be similar, use serpentine spy instead of a 2 mana creature. However, you must realise that you will get beaten by a Pyre in a mirror match because the enemy serpentine will kill yours first (if there is no "chicken advantage").

The 15 mana fight

Another very common battle is the 15 mana battle.

The lineup here is pretty straightforward, living lava + 2 low mana damage dealers. The serpentine spy is usually a no-brainer because it's a 3 mana creature that has 2 damage (+1 from malric). However, it's a really squishy monster so if you have a chicken, make sure to put it in front of it so it can absorb a potential opportunity or snipe attack.

In this example I'm using the kobold miner, but using a battering ram is actually better because it has some synergy with the serpentine spy since they both have the opportunity ability. Remember, you don't want to spread out your damage over the entire enemy line, you want to create focus fire.

The 17 mana fight

The mana is slowly increasing, we are at 17 mana. This lineup seems a bit weir, because I only use 2 monsters (and a chicken if it's allowed). Usually I tend to use a lot more monsters because this way I take more advantage of the Malric summoner ability. That being said, this strategy just seems to work better for me most of the time.

In this example, the battle rules were blast + enrage, making it an even better decision to bring 2 large hp creatures to the battle. The mirror matchup proves my point pretty nicely. Also, this is a great lineup in a noxious fumes or earthquake battle because of the high HP combination.

The 22 mana battle

Another lineup that feels very typical to me, the classical 22 mana battle. Here I use a combination of some classical cards, the living lava, fineas rage, serpentine spy and the kobold miner. Note that I would replace the kobold miner with the battering ram if possible.

High mana battles

We have talked a lot about the lower mana fights, let's discuss high mana fights. I must say that these can be a bit more tricky and you will usually get beaten by the 7 mana cost summoners. That being said, if you don't have any of these, or you just focus on playing with malric, you still have a fighting chance. In games where there is a battle rule that allows your melee monsters to attack from any position, malric is actually always a solid high mana battle pick.

36 mana

36 mana might not be that high, but I wanted to show you an example where we use the go-to high mana fire guys. However, living lava can be replaced with goblin mech, or even molten ogre. Fineas rage is a very solid pick here, high health, decent attack and the reach ability. Last, but not least you should always include the sandworm in high mana fights. He can attack from any position and has 5 (+1) attack at level 1.

99 mana

The 99 mana battles are tricky, because you can't fill the lineup with high mana melee monsters that can attack from any position. So, you have to balance the amount of idle monsters versus using monsters that don't benefit from your summoners ability. I tried to do that in this example, but I feel like these type of battles are not my strong suit because I will almost always use Yodin Zaku in these type of battles.

Anyway, in this battle, only the molten ogre is idle at the beginning of the game, but he's still usefull as he decreases the enemy attack. Once our first and second position monsters are killed, he will still be very usefull as a backup tank.

Little league

Let me show you 2 examples of typical little league lineups (little league means that you can only use monsters that cost 4 mana or less)

21 mana

48 mana

In little league, we try to use the same idea. Use lot's of melee monsters and use as many active ones as possible (meaning we don't want melee monsters that cannot attack from the position that they are in). That being said, I often use the ant miners card in third (or maybe even second position).

The ant has the ability to get pretty high health because of the scavange ability, combine this with the fact that malric gives him a +1 damage bonus, this card can actually become a beast and a very solid backup tank. Even when there is enough mana to select another 4 mana monster I often select the 2 mana ant over any of them.

All the other cards are pretty straightforward, except maybe the fire bug, as it's the only non-melee monster. Let me start by saying that this guy is a lot better at level 3 and I would probably replace him if he was a lower level. The reason why he is so good is because he has 2 damage (at level 3) and because he has 4 hp, which is pretty high in little league. Very often the enemy will use 1 or 2 sneak monsters with this ruleset, therefore it's a pretty good idea to have a somewhat high health monster in your last position.

Equal opportunity

17 mana

19 mana

In equal opportunity battles there are plenty of options. Usually, I will put living lava in the front. Depending on the mana I would recommend cards like ant miners, cerberus, Molten ogre, kobold bruiser, ooze, etc.

Remember, it's great that we can use any type of melee monster and it will be able to attack from any position with this ruleset. However, always keep in mind that the enemy can do the same thing. Know that your lowest health monster will die very fast.

Reverse speed

19 mana

In reverse speed, our good card Living Lava becomes absolutely fantastic. The only thing he can't handle is a strong magic lineup, but he's very strong against everything non-magic. Except for the living lava, Parasitic Growth is also a fantastic card, at least when he reaches level 3 and gets 2 damage instead of 1. I have included kobold miner and serpentine spy here to finish the lineup because they are melee creatures that can attack from any position, but they are not fantastic options because the serpentine spy has a pretty high attack speed and the kobold miner is the only sneak monster (so less focus fire). That being said, they are still decent picks simply because the malric buff makes them very strong for the amount of mana you spend.

Make sure to include the sandworm in higher mana battles, as it is a fantastic card for this ruleset.

Conclusion

I hope these examples will help you guys out. You may have seen that some cards are not level 1 anymore, but the same strategies apply. That being said, if you notice that you use a lot of the same cards, you should focus on leveling those. For me, it was pretty clear that cards like Living lava and Fineas rage had to be upgraded first.

Note that you can't learn everything from these examples. Splinterlands is a dynamic game and there are lot's of different battle rules combinations. You can use these games as a starting point, but you should constantly try new stuff and learn what works best for you with trial and error.

If you have any questions, remarks or advice make sure to leave a comment.

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