*"The Silver Shield of legend is locked securely away on Khymian holy ground, but expert Khymian Armorsmiths have made many replicas of the great Shield throughout the years. The Khymian soldiers who are called to carry these shields are known as Shieldbearers. Ironically, the Shieldbearers are trained to sacrifice their own bodies before their shields."* - ***Splinterlands Official Lore*** That's right my dudes! It's finally time for... # SHARE YOUR BATTLE Weekly Challenge! ~~SPINEBACK TURTLE~~ SHIELDBEARER! Boy oh boy! Here we go! First of all, I know this is not the Spineback Turtle, and I promise I did try looking for a card of the same element that came close to what the Spineback Turtle is, but as you may have guessed (and if you haven't done so yet, you may do so after reading this post) I'm new here and I'm just trying my luck with this week's challenge (so much that I'm posting this **hours** before the challenge ending timeframe 😬). Anyway, there I was, going through the cards, elements and summoners; reading about the game and battle strategies, checking some of your posts about previous challenges and what you guys have tried and whatnot when suddenly, I came across this card and that was it. Now, I don't know much about you guys,or the Splinterlands community itself, but if you like RPGs (especially MMORPGs) like I do, there's "classes" or "roles" that you can choose from in order to determine what you will do to progress in the game as well as determine **HOW** you will play said game. For me, after decades of playing MMORPGs, I've gone through a series of "stages" in which you begin (and I belive we all do) choosing the DPS class because, let's face it, damage **IS** the most important aspect of the game (or is it? 🤔), then you go to healer maybe, then off-tank, then support and so on so on until you finally arrive to one of the roles that are often frowned upon due to the "simplicity" of the playstyle... the **Tank**. After discovering the tank role and finally getting to use it, I've been unable to stop. Yes, it's fun to see the big numbers and being nimble, dodging everything that comes your way, but there's just something about tanking that it just feels so good! Now, I can understand how this may be a matter of personal preference and some of you may still like to be DPS or Support over Tank, and that's perfectly fine, but the main reason I chose this card is because, given my ~~*obsession*~~ *interest* in tanks, I saw this card and that was it for me. ## **Card Design** ![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/imjustadewd/23wMcP7nHaVE36GTy9MDyRCx4Qr999iAaHVhqAnKWdoURCMTyy2PeD4WrYtSv6pZWC6Mv.png) + Giant shield? Check ✔️ + Heavy armor? Check ✔️ + Taunt ability? Check ✔️ That's three checks folks, we've got a winner! Now! Let's not forget about the stats! In my journey as a tank guy, I've always worked towards being a tank that is either capable of supporting somehow or dealing enough damage to keep the aggro on me. One of the things I noticed a lot on "tanky" cards was the fact that they had either 1 or 0 damage, which means they're there just to eat the hits while the rest of your party tries to win before they die, and that's fine! But it doesnt have to be that way and this card can give you that extra bit of edge on the battlefield. For a more in-depth look at what this card could become (if you spend enough on it), here's a look at the stats on each level: ![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/imjustadewd/23t78trMvYu7tz5Z9SDVkXMniKoAbyqi3taeWS7teXomikgsJCuEVSUhGTgs9ySJKPxJs.png) Look, I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert here, but I believe there are three levels to highlight here: + At 3 stars, the damage and HP increases by 1, which means not only that Shieldbearer can take *more hits*, but also *hit more*, get it? + At 5 stars, its armor increases by one, but it also gains a new ability called ***Shield***, which reduces incoming melee and ranged damage, so the extra HP and Armor will last longer. + Finally, at 8 stars, the cards damage and armor have increased by 1 once more, but the most important thing here is the new unlocked ability ***Return Fire***, which returns the reduced **ranged damage** back to the attacker. Pair that with the ***Taunt*** ability and you've got yourself a *reflect damage* buff to take down those pesky ranged cards at the back row (who happen to have a low HP pool, most of the time, so this can really give you a **HUGE** advantage if you use cards with ***Snipe*** to destroy those cards quickly). (As a quick side-note, if you are experienced with tanks yourself, then you may know that the whole "reflect damage" thing is not really worth it, since tanking involves a lot of damage reduction/mitigation, resulting in very low damage "returned" for it to actually have an impact on the attacking enemy, but given the low HP pool of most ranged cards, "damage reflection" can and **will** work wonders for you). ## [The Battle](https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=a2c39a9c00078c8f78284a2ee24840153444b7e7&ref=imjustadewd) ![Before the fight 1.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/imjustadewd/23wMaX6e3e1P9dY1CWvWqytKtNVk53KTCMhiLfuHrYhCd8FkRSQM46qzdveQHuZWNYHg7.png) *(Please ignore the mouse at the top left corner, I'm just a dude, man.)* Just in case you missed the link and would still like to see the battle, click [here](https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=a2c39a9c00078c8f78284a2ee24840153444b7e7&ref=imjustadewd)! #### **The Rules** ![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/imjustadewd/23tRxGFvJh6CEkj6Ay8vpmiX44onuCc4znJSVdL1p7xhBhJCY9R5rVjrqqFXDm2EEnHD6.png) This was my ***first*** ranked match overall and I got lucky, since it was a **standard** match with a wooping **23 MANA** limit and no restrictions over the element. That main reason this was great for me was because I could afford to use Shieldbearer while leaving enough mana for over valuable cards. ##### Strategy I had enough mana to get Shieldbearer as the main guy on the field, but him alone wouldn't be able to do much, since he´s there mainly for tanking, and I already knew I would be using Truthspeaker to increase Shieldbearer's armor by +1, but I still needed damage if I was to win the fight. That's when I noticed Pelacor Arbalest and his sweet ***Double Strike*** ability, plus the fact that he was a ranged card. Immediatedly, the plan of using Mother Khala for that extra +1 HP switched over to using General Sloan to increase Pelacor Arbalest's damage by +1, which turned out to be great since I still had 2 mana left and Herbalist was another ranged unit that could benefit from General Sloan's buff. The plan? Very simple. Leave Shieldbearer do the tanking and pray that Herbalist and Pelacor Arbalest could kill everyone before Shieldbearer's HP depleted completely. #### **View of the Battlefield** ![Battlefield 1.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/imjustadewd/EoATvVnJtrvxc6h2guuEHv13oKT7SMk4iuZAgHn6BKN6oQNrSk6bc27XkChqDoeN2Mp.png) *(There's that darn mouse again...)* Now, again, I'm by no means an expert or anything, but I believe my opponent was having a tough time choosing his cards, mainly because his last was a melee unit which could do nothing from the back of the row. Again, maybe I am missing something, but I've reviewed his cards and I still cant wrap my head around what his plan was, or if there was a plan to begin with... #### The Result ![Battle Results 1.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/imjustadewd/23tbKEAUP8kaiy1pNQhkHhTcZHjLSxoeDiNkhPqvQ6U3wmXwD3R4ZFiiN9pkmBmokXkYq.png) *(This screenshot is missing something, I wonder what it could be...?)* 😶 Alright, now that I have learned how to properly crop screenshots, it's time for us to celebrate my first (of many) victory! I mean, not to brag, but it all went according to my plan 😎 Shieldbearer was able to tank through the whole battle while Pelacor Arbalest and Herbalist did their thing, although I need to recognize I learned one very valuable thing from this battle: the exceeding damage you do to the enemy's armor will not carry on to the enemy's health. Again, many of you may already know this, but this was groundbreaking for me, since it made the battle last longer, but also means the tide of the battle can change depending on how much armor a card has, since it basically "eats up" a full attack from the enemy before HP begins taking the hits. For example, if you attack a card with 3 melee attack and it has 1 armor and 2 HP, the attack will deplete the enemy's armor while leaving the HP unscathed until the next successful attack. *Please use this information to your advantage, as it may be the difference between winning and losing a match.* Lastly, I need to remind you that, despite my biggest efforts, I have been unable to understand my opponent's strategy and, well, perhaps mine was better overall, but result may have varied if I had fought someone else. ## Should you use Shieldbearer? Heck yeah! Great card! Good looking, well rounded, nice stats, I mean, if you haven't tried the "Life" element before, please do so! Having that said, I guess now would be a good time for us to do a little pro/con comparison here: #### Pros + **Very** tanky (Large HP pool and decent armor) + ***Taunt*** ability is **HUGE** early game + Gains ***Shield*** and ***Return Fire*** at higher levels + Nice looking *(although that doesn't have an impact on the battlefield)* #### Cons + High mana (which means you will rarely get to use it in an actual fight) + Rare card (which means it's gonna be difficult for you to come across this card in order to level it up) + No speed increases / low base speed (which may mean you could get killed before you get to kill). ## Final Thoughts I had fun playing around with the card and building strategies around it, however, I only got to use it once, since the other matches had a smaller mana cap, preventing me from using the card in order to comply with the mana cap. Whenever I get the chance in the future, I will certainly try it again and see if my plan stands strong or if someone gets to beat me, which would get me thinking in how to improve the plan. Just the idea of powering up this card makes the spellbook worth it, perhaps I will get it sometime soon? 👀 ###### Anyway, that was all from me today brobos. Bottom line is: use the card, it's a great tank for high mana pool situations. If you enjoyed the read and would like to see more, I encourage you to be a **dude** and follow me for more *duderino* content here: https://splinterlands.com/?ref=imjustadewd