This was a somewhat unusual little league match for me. Normally I choose life or a dragon/life combination (Biceratops, Manticore, Wood Nymph, Goblin Chef, Khmer Princess & Earth Elemental). This time, however, my quest was five wins of Water so I went with the flow (cough, cough).

https://steemmonsters.com/?p=battle&id=238fb935659e62790d324e393b9031a3e3820197

Once you're using blue in a little league game, most of the line-up is a no-brainer. Front line is a Spineback Turtle backed by Electric Eels -- just as my opponent and I both had. Crustacean King is a necessity for armor and healing and Medusa for its attack and stun. Again, just as we both decided. I decided to decimate him from the last monster forward as getting rid of the Turtle always takes time. Blue has two excellent sneak monsters in the trusty Sabre Shark and the new Untamed Coral Wraith (arguably better than any other sneak monster with the possible exception of Life's expensive Silvershield Assassin). My opponent took the opposite tack choosing Daria Dragonscale and the short-lived Enchanted Pixie to boost his Turtle and Eels twice. Generally, I prefer not to use that tactic as the extra points of damage are wasted after destroying armor or killing a monster. Further, he used three magical attack monsters and had no Dragon splinter monsters -- so Alric Stormbringer would have given a total of +3 attack (instead of Daria's +2 total) which never gets wasted on armor. The battle went pretty much as I hoped. The Enchanted Pixie did in the first round and his Turtle was stunned and didn't get its +2. My Turtle and Eels died in the second round quickly followed by his Turtle and Mischievous Mermaid. Round three saw the death of my Medusa quickly followed by his Eels. My Shark killed his Medusa in round four leaving his ranged attack Crustacean King alone and helpless in the front row. The scary thing is that with one small change, he would have crushed me. If he had used Alric instead of Daria, the Pixie and Medusa would have taken down my Turtle in the first round before he got an attack thus leaving his Turtle with armor. Worse, the Mermaid & Crustacean King would each have put 2 damage on my Eels so that my Eels would have died when they hit his Turtle at the start of round 2. Next in that same round 2, his Eels would have blasted my Medusa for two and they wouldn't have taken 2 damage from my deceased Turtle's thorns. Things would have then continued to go downhill from there as his Medusa would then kill my Medusa before his Turtle even died leaving the Wraith, Crustacean and Shark against his whole team. The best strategy would seem to be Alric with a hybrid between the two sets of monster selections. The Coral Wraith was a great choice, particularly with it's Rust ability countering the Crustacean King. The Shark, however, should be traded for an Enchanted Pixie to get the first turn Turtle kill (which is easier that I was initially thinking). I was happy with my ordering and would just replace the Shark with the Pixie on the tail end. I'm pretty neutral to slightly positive towards the Little League rules. I like the variation of as many match-specific rules as possible and Little League is well balanced across splinters. Until next time may you always hit, retaliate and poison when you need to – and may your opponent not be so lucky.