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Earth splinter in my opinion has Flesh Golem as its standard tank monster, but once in a blue moon I would use the Stone Golem. This is not often as my Stone Golem is only as high as level 3. Since I do not use it that much I have offered it for rent.  However spell book allows us to use the beta version level 1 Stone Golem.  I will show a battle in which I used it and talk about it in this post.

<h3>Battle Formation</h3>

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/mawit07/23u5tDaS264Y12b6ezvsT2ePYX892HvbdMdSD7WdRjhwW9QPScUBMxubft3w4ppbm2MJe.png)

A high 42 mana battle with Target Practice and Heavy Hitter rule sets. It made sense to go with water splinter when they have a very familiar selection of magic and range monsters to take advantage using Target Practice rule set. On the other hand I took a risk and went with earth splinter as I wanted to take advantage using Heavy Hitter rule set while also mix in magic and range monsters to take advantage using Target Practice.

My opponent would go on selecting water splinter lead of by none other than Alric Stormbringer. Interesting for tank monster they go with Elven Defender followed by Peaceful Giant, Medusa, Venari Wavesmith, Elven Mystic, and closing with Ice Pixie. On the opposite end I went with earth splinter and lead of with Stone Golem, followed by Minotaur Warlord, Mushroom Seer, Centauri Mage, Javelin Thrower, and close with Earth Elemental. 

My plan was to have heavy front monsters as my tankers while dependable magic and range monsters at the back end of the formation.

<h3>Round 1</h3>

![image.png](https://images.ecency.com/DQmXH1Q7BjuGrR3pWt87CCaVKGKeNzKerAPrdsJYBns4bMe/image.png)

At the end of round one it was clear that both formations were defensive at the front. No monsters died. However take note that my opponent's Peaceful Giant had a health of 2 at the end of the battle so they were somewhat at a disadvantage going into round 2.

<h3>Round 2</h3>

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/mawit07/23tvCb1qv31UAmiExZkPWmNmpnbcejm8pvQwpd3eRV742Yd9j75HH1SDCgFQzgn6Foywm.png)

The target practice was giving snipe to all range and magic monsters. This lead to extensive blows between both formations and I lost my Mushroom Seer through the exchange of blows. However my opponent lost Peaceful Giant and Medusa.

I have the advantage here as it ended up 5 versus 4 monsters. In addition both my Stone Golem and Minotaur Warlord had most of their health stats going into round 3.

<h3>Round 3</h3>

![image.png](https://images.ecency.com/DQmWWKrFD4o255XnsiiNEKM6gSuAidaHawqn9fNN8D79xn2/image.png)

The turning point was in this round. I cleared my opponent's monsters and they were down to two while all five I had remained mostly intact. Centauri Mage may be holding by a thread but I was going to lead off in the next round in attacking first and know Ice Pixie number's were up. There would be little to any chance for Elven Mystic to be able to steal the victory from me.

<h3>Round 4 and 5</h3>

![image.png](https://images.ecency.com/DQmPFDxBrUdSpbvzUs6E7bTMtxQaeB2prjfNbeCFo39anRq/image.png)

First attack from my Earth Elemental knocked out Ice Pixie but it will take two rounds to knock out Elven Defender.

<h3>Battle Conclusion</h3>

In many of my weekly posts I force the monster in weekly post into my formation in order to make it applicable. At first it was the same for Stone Golem, however as this battle played out it was clear that Stone Golem was a very good choice to be the lead monster. Its shield ability reduced damage that came from my opponent's front monsters. What is the most interesting part of the battle was the rule set target practice may have become a detriment to my opponent.

The magic monsters where not attacking my Stone Golem while hitting my middle and rear of the formation. This in turn allowed my Stone Golem to protect my formation while I had a faster and stronger mix of earth monsters to handle my opponent. The level 1 cards from my opponent did not help them in this battle.

If you are interested in watching the battle described in this post, <a href="https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_3936229504979839f382e9d0041d4033">Link Here</a>.

Until next time thanks for reading!!!

If you are interested to learn more about Splinterlands please go through some of my other posts. Order is from newest to oldest posts:

<a href="https://ecency.com/hive-13323/@mawit07/splinterlands-everything-about-dark-energy">Everything About Dark Energy</a>

<a href="https://ecency.com/hive-13323/@mawit07/splinterlands-all-you-want-to">All You Want To Know About Reward Chests</a>

<a href="https://ecency.com/hive-13323/@mawit07/splinterlands-sps-white-paper-cliff">SPS White Paper Cliff Notes</a>

<a href="https://ecency.com/hive-13323/@mawit07/splinterlands-helpful-links-for-new">Helpful Links for New and Veteran Players</a>

<a href="https://ecency.com/hive-13323/@mawit07/splinterlands-good-cards-to-own">Splinterlands Good Cards To Own</a>

<a href="https://ecency.com/hive-13323/@mawit07/splinterlands-rentals-a-perspective-from">Splinterlands Rentals from a Lender Perspective</a>

<i>I have plenty of other cards for rent! Just go on peakmonsters and check out the market place and if you are curious what I offer here is a link:</i>

<a href="https://peakmonsters.com/@mawit07/cards">mawit07 rentals</a>

<h3>If You have yet to take part in playing this great game called Splinterlands please click on my <a href="https://steemmonsters.com?ref=mawit07">referral link</a>.  It is free but in order to earn real assets such as cards and token you would have to invest in a starter deck or purchase game cards.  Join the <a href="https://discord.gg/ZPdUpszf">discord</a> to learn more.  Good luck!</h3>

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<center><b><h3>THANKS FOR READING! CONTINUE TO PLAY SPLINTERLANDS!</h3></b></center>
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