Splinterlands Challenge of the Week: Double Blind, but not with the Barking Spider!

This weeks Splinterlands Challenge of the Week was to showcase the 'Barking Spider'

Someone said in the comments to this week's challenge post: 'this is the new Rusty Android' and I'm inclined to agree, except this spider has worse stats and isn't anywhere near as cute.

This probably explains why I've only got a Barking Spider at level one, as I don't really use him.

So I've decided to take the alt option this week and show a different battle, featuring a much better Spider, the Octopider from the Death Splinter. In this particular battle I play double blind, helped out by the Fallen Specter.

I chose this battle as blind is the only ability the Barking Spider gives you, so at least it showcases that, and it was crucial to winning this particular battle, to the utter frustration of my opponent no doubt!

Here's a great example of a Double Blind' Battle.

The Rule Set

• Mana 44
• Melee Monsters have sneak - perfect for blind as a defense!
• Equalizer - again, blind is quite useful - the more they miss...!

The Line Up

1. Lord of Darkness - just a vicious tank!
2. Corrupted Pegasus - weak against blast, but nice tank heal, and useful reach damage, good in equalizer because of the extra health.
3. Fallen Specter - I usually play him, but with equalizer it's a real no-brainer with his 1 health!
4. Octopider - a solid damage disher and blind.
5. Corneleus - My second line of defense against the anticipated sneak attack, with heal and thorns.
6. Tower Griffen - really just for the shields, anticipating lots of sneak attacks!

Note my opponent's legion of maxed out cards, to my one max. Note I still win!

Did my strategy work?

Well basically YES - to see it in action click here!

• Round 1 - No losses on either side (it is equalizer with high health!) - mainly due to the fact that my opponent misses my Tower Griffen with three out of his four heavy damaging sneak attacks (ahahaha!)
• Round 2 - again no losses, and again this time due to two misses from the sneak attacks!
• Round three - my opponent loses his tank, so now he's down to three sneak attacks, he does take out my Griffen though.
• Round four - blind lets me down, and my opponent rips right through Corneleus, at least he did some thorns damage. I take out his Unicorn, down to two sneak attacks
• Round five - he takes out my Spider, missing another time at least!
• Round six - I take out his Golem, now he's down to one sneak attack.
• Rounds seven - nine - i gradually whittle down his fourth 'tank' while his Golin Mech manages to miss my fallen specter twice (blind's back again)
• Round 10 - it's all over!

Oh and at some point in there, my one sneak attack from the Pegasus took out his Defender of the Truth!

How important was the Double Blind??

Double blind I think was crucial - I was maybe lucky to get so many misses in early, but it balanced out mid way through the battle with fewer misses in rounds 3-5 especially. It ended up being about one miss per round!

All in all, a very effective and massively irritating strategy to play against a massive sneak attack!

And the Barking Spider...

Maybe his blind would save the day with the right rule set, but with so many awesome alternatives, why would you bother playing him with earth?

Next time there's a weaker card on the table, I'll have a go with it, honest! I just couldn't resist this particular showcase of blind today!