Played Steemmonsters Tournament Final Against A Very Unexpected Team

I just played the final in the 'Steem Monsters WilTravel Silver Leagues Tournament' and got faced with a team I hadn't expected at all...

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WillTravel Tournaments

The tournaments hosted by @travelgirl and @wilhb81 are my favorite. Not only because of their perfect timing (1 pm my time), but because they are a little smaller, clear and simple, and there never seems to be as much trouble as in the other tournaments.

This one was a Silver League tournament. I like Silver ones the most. Although my deck is perfectly leveled to play gold, I guess I'm just not skilled enough (yet) to do good in those gold tournaments.

For me, the only downside to the WillTravel tournaments is that they are single game, single elimination tournaments.

In single game tourneys, it's not only your skills that count. You also need a little luck. One wrong decision and the tournament can be over before you know it. Because there's no double elimination, it's a big disappointment if you lose one of your first games.

When you play 'best out of 3', the skill factor becomes more important. If you make a mistake, you still have a chance to set it straight by winning the other two battles. But those tourneys take up a lot more time, and often get really confusing if not run properly.

Opponents

Like I said, you need a little luck in those single match, single elimination tournaments.

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@the01crow

My first opponent was @the01crow again. We've been matched a couple of times in these last two days.

I always get nervous when I see his name pop up, because I know he's often one of the last players left in the tournaments he enters. His deck is a little stronger than mine, but because this was a silver league tournament, that difference is wiped out. The problem is that he's also a better player than I am.

But today, luck was on my side, since we needed to play one of my favorite battle rules.

As a result, I managed to beat him fairly easy.

@chrisroberts

I didn't know my next opponent very well. I think we have been matched once or twice before, so I didn't really know what to expect.

When playing a 'best out of 3'-tournament, you often get a little time to go check out your opponent's deck on Peakmonsters, and check out if he has a favorite team by taking a look at his battle history, but I since it all went so fast, I didn't have the time to do either.

So, I started the fight without any information at all.

And it ended up to be one of the weirdest battles I've ever played...

His Water Splinter took out my Haunted Spirit-tank pretty fast, and it was obvious that I wouldn't stand a chance without her. We were both convinced he would win the battle, since the last two monsters on the battlefield were his Frozen Soldier and my Twisted Jester.

Since the ranged Twisted Jester can't attack when in first place, we both assumed it would just take him two strikes to take me out.

Fortunately, my haunted spider had poisoned him earlier in the game, and it was that poison that killed him and allowed me to go on.

You can watch the fight here

@travelgirl

Although @travelgirl has one of the weirdest decks I've ever seen, I know from experience she should not be underestimated.

This time, my Fire splinter was too strong for her Earth splinter and I could take her out pretty quickly.

@pkocjan

In the semi-finals, it was the hard-to-beat @pkocjan who was my opponent. I lost count of all the times I had lost from Paulina.

After checking out her deck, there's only one conclusion I can make: she's a very, very good player. I see her at the top of the bronze and silver tournaments' leaderboards all the time. I can't even remember if I ever did win a fight against her before. I'm pretty sure I didn't.

Up until today...

I was pretty unsure about the team I had assembled. I started playing the Life splinter only recently. I never liked the Splinter, until the Sacred Unicorn came along.

Last season, the Life splinter was by far the strongest splinter in the game, so I practiced a bit while trying to survive in the Champion 3 league, but I still have a lot to learn about the abilities and options of Life.

This time I was lucky. My Life team beat her Earth team and for as far as I remember, I beat @pkocjan for the first time in my Seemmonsters' 'career'.

All thanks to the @steemmonsters' version of 'My Little Pony'. Oh, how I love that card....

@cranium

So I made it to the final again. It had been a while since I got this far in a tournament.

It was no surprise to see that @cranium had made it there too. I could be wrong, but to me, it seems like the tournaments - especially the Bronze and Silver ones - are dominated by @cranium and @glory7.

I don't know if there's a way to look up how many times one has lost against a certain opponent, but in the case of @cranium, I have lost loads.

This time, it was no different. And I can only blame myself.

The battle rules were almost exactly the same as in my previous battle against @pkocjan, except for the fact that is was a 19 mana game, instead of a 20 mana game.

I don't have a clue why I decided to replace the Life splinter - which enabled me to beat @pkocjan - with the Death splinter. On top of that, @cranium came forward with a team that was very surprising, to say the least. I don't think I have seen anyone play the Water splinter in the way he did...

I didn't stand a single chance... @cranium wiped me out without any effort.

You can watch the fight here

Conclusion

I was happy to reach the final again. After winning a couple of tournaments in the beginning, my results had been pretty disappointing lately.

It pumped my self-esteem again: if I stay focused, I can do it.

After getting kicked out of so many tournaments in a very early stage, I started doubting myself more every time. As a result, I was never sure which splinter to go with, and I often switched teams with only 30 seconds left on the clock.

I definitely still have a lot to learn about the @steemmonsters game. One of the things is the order in which the monsters should be placed... I always stick with the same basic order, because that's a part that is still a big mystery to me.

I also need to take the time to learn the rules of attack. Believe it or not, I still don't have a clue which monster is going to be attacked by a monster with the sneak or snip ability. All I know is that it isn't the first one, lol.

So, if I ever want to get any better, I will have to start with studying the rules again. And then find me a good sparring partner - someone who knows all about the game - and not just play challenges, but also discuss the fights afterwards. I need to learn where I go wrong every time...

Anyway, this is no time to complain. After all, I finished in 2nd place, and won another 5SBD.

I assume I will learn everything I need to know eventually, as long as I keep playing...

See you in my next post!

SteemMonsters is a really fun game. If you don't have an account yet, you can create one using my (affiliate) link:

SIGN UP HERE

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^{Screenshots taken from the Steemmonsters website}

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