Favorite Strategies - Level 1 Astral Entity Against Level 7 Summoner!

It's a new edition of Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge and the theme this week is Favorite Strategies.

One of my favourite strategies to use an Astral Entity lineup! Ever since I tried out Astral Entity when this card first came out, I fell in love with using this summoner, so much that I decided to buy a copy for keepsake instead of renting it for battling.

At that time, it was 21 USD on the market - I know it's much cheaper now - but I think it's a cool card so I am happy to hold a copy of it regardless!

Astral Entity packs 3 very important abilities. The -2 Armor is extremely handy is certain rulesets where Armor comes into play, such as absorbing Magic damage, or Earthquake fights where Armor help to lengthen the cards' life. Dodge is a subtle ability and it's not immediately noticeable - but if you play Astral Entity long enough, you will realise you do get a lot more misses on your cards. In crucial battle such as one vs one, a miss can determine who wins. Of course, the favourite last ability is Resurrect! Not only it can bring cards back, when played with Venari Marksrat, Martyr can be triggered twice! So let's see how Astral Entity fares using a sample set of Death cards!

As usual, here's the lore for Astral Entity for your reading interest (it's actually very well written!):

From the shadows and the ether comes an eldritch entity known only as the Astral Entity. It is a celestial being that drifts through rifts in reality, searching for new planes and realms. There are almost no recordings of the Astral Entity in the athenaeums of the Splinterlands, but if one was to search through forgotten scrolls in the cobwebbed corners of ancient libraries, one would find the briefest mentions of this being. Snippets from across the centuries mention a humanoid shape made of cosmic energy. No one knows where it came from or what it wants, but it has only been recorded doing one thing: observing.

In spite of this, death always seems to follow the Astral Entity's arrival. Clans and nations go to war. Crops wither, livestock become ill or infertile, and famine ravages the land. Droughts, plagues of locusts, and violent storms bring empires to their knees. And when it's over, the Astral Entity vanishes without a trace.

When the Chaos Legion invaded the Splinterlands, the rift they opened echoed across realities. This drew the attention of the Astral Entity. It was able to slip through the rift undetected and explore this new world.

It witnessed a world rich in mana, with diverse people and dramatic landscapes. It also witnessed a world crushed by the grip of the powerful Chaos Legion and their leader, Silus of the Rift. The Astral Entity observed the battles, the people suffering, and all the death, but it did nothing to intervene. What it did do was learn. It learned the strengths and weaknesses of not only the Splinterlands, but of the Chaos Legion, as well.

The time may come when the Astral Entity chooses a side. Whatever choice it makes will be purely for its own gain and based on all it has learned from its eons of passing through the rifts.

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Battle Type & Team Lineup

Position	Card/Level	Mana
Summoner	Astral Entity	6

With just Fire and Death lineups allowed, I have gone with my trusted Astral Entity because it's just awesome summoner to use!

Position	Card/Level	Mana
1	Pelacor Deceiver	5

Pelacor Deceiver is one of the big cards to pair with Astral Entity. With 4 speed, Flying, and then adding Dodge from Astral Entity, it's not easy to hit it. And it's just 5 mana!

Position	Card/Level	Mana
2	Venari Marksrat	3

Venari Marksrat is also another card that pairs nicely with Astral Entity. When it gets the Resurrect, it can die twice and trigger Martyr twice on adjacent cards! How crazy is that?

Position	Card/Level	Mana
3	Djinn Muirat	9

We have a lot of mana here so Djinn Muirat can fit in. Its tanky stats will be important to hold off the Blast hits in this battle.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
4	Silent Sha-vi	5

Silent Sha-vi in Gold Foil form (i.e. Level 3) is such a strong card! 3 Melee damage with Sneak for just a 5 mana card. At 4 speed, it hits very early and could potentially take out weak backline cards from the opponent.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
5	Dhampir Stalker	7

Dhampir Stalker is the trusty attacker because of True Strike. At 7 mana, 3 Ranged damage is guaranteed. With Scattershot in this battle, 3 damage is big enough to take out cards.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
6	Lira The Dark	7

Lira The Dark forms a good partnership with Dhampir Stalker as hard hitting Ranged attackers. With Opportunity, Lira The Dark takes down cards very efficiently and her high speed ensures that she goes off very early in the battle rounds.

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• Pre Battle: Oh my god! I am going against a Level 7 summoner and my opponent's cards were of so high level. Whereas for mine, everything is Level 1 except the two Gold Foil Commons. Let's see how this battle goes!
  

• Round 1: I survived the first round with all 6 cards still standing! Lots of misses on my team thanks to Astral Entity pulling the strings behind with dodge but my opponent's cards were really strong. Not sure how I am going to overcome their tank Grum Flameblade but continue with Round 2!
  

• Round 2: Both teams were heavy on Sneak damage and cards began to fall swiftly in Round 2. Surprisingly I ended up the Round 2 with 4 cards whereas my opponent had 2 left. Shoutout to Dhampir Stalker for the exceptional 3+2+2 damage thanks to Blast and Scattershot!
  

• Round 3: It was amusing to watch a Level 4 Legendary Grum Flameblade missing my Level 3 Common Pelacor Deceiver for all 3 rounds! Like I mentioned, when partnered with Astral Entity, Pelacor Deceiver is very hard to hit.
  

• Round 4: We are at the closing stages of the battle and the opposing Grum Flameblade finally landed a big hit. The good news is this immediately triggered Martyr for both my adjacent cards but the bad news is Grum got that Bloodlust which makes even harder to clear.
  

• Round 5: With 3 hard hitter cards left for my team, it was not too difficult to close out this epic (or rather, legendary) win! Can you believe it?
  

If you are interested to watch the battle, you can find it here.

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Post Battle Strategy Talk

If you watched this battle, you would see that Astral Entity is a force!

The 3 abilities are very powerful when you pair Astral Entity with the right cards! The interesting thing is Death element has a lot of cards that pair very well with Astral Entity. To take advantage of the Dodge ability, some examples of high speed and Flying cards include Pelacor Deceiver and Riftwing. To take advantage of Resurrect, cards like Venari Marksrat would allow Martyr to trigger twice, and Ever Hungry Skull and Djinn Muirat will be resurrected with a full stack of armor to frustrate the opponent again. And Riftwing gets more HP from Scavenge too! Of course, cards like Ravenhood Warden boost the team's armor, making Resurrect even better when effected. There are really endless possibilities for a Death Astral Entity line up. Just one note of caution, after all no cards are perfect, so Astral Entity's lineups do not fight well against Magic lineup, and Thaddius Brood with the -1 Magic ability would be a better summoner in such situation.

So that's all I have! What are your takeaways from this battle? Feel free to comment below, as I am always keen to learn and improve!

As always, thanks for reading and have a pleasant day ahead!

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