Surprise wins - Poison monsters are game-changers!

Greetings to all the members of the Hive Blockchain community, most especially those who enjoy playing Splinterlands. I would like to appreciate monsters with the poison ability.

According to Splintercards, monsters with this ability "have a chance to apply poison, which does automatic damage to the target at the beginning of each round after the poison is applied."Furthermore, the "poison ability is triggered 50% of the time. Poison does damage at the end of the turn and is not affected by shield or void." Even when the enemy has healers or shields, the poison will inflict damage to the health of the monster. So, if you are expecting your enemy to field monsters with the poison ability, make sure to field in monsters with Immunity or Cleanse; otherwise, it will be a tough battle, similar to what happened to my opponent in this game.

The battle was in a Diamond tournament sponsored by Splinterlands. I only have a deck for Gold, so I do not expect to win in this battle. Nonetheless, my cards were able to pull a win off!

Because of the weak magic, I thought about using an Obsidian-Mycelia lineup or a Kelya lineup. I decided to go for the latter for the speed. I chose the Diemonshark as my main tank. When it gets enraged, it can make enemy monsters miss their attacks on it. Because I expect my enemy to shield up, I put in two of my poison monsters - Deeplurker and Uraeus. I said a prayer quickly for the odds of applying poison favor me. Then I included Merdali guardian for the tank heal and repair. Then I included Albatross as an additional healer and Hardy Stonefish as a meat shield at the back line. I am not expecting to win as I know my cards are only good for the Gold league, not the Diamond league. Nonetheless, the handicap brings excitement within me. Also, I was not pressured to win. If I lose, that would mainly be because my cards are out-leveled by my opponent's. But if I win, BAM! It is because of my talent! Lol. Just kidding. It will mostly be because of luck and RNG.

When the cards were revealed and I saw a Kelya level 8, I thought I would lose. My hopes of winning were further crushed when I saw a shield-generator Venari Wavesmith, a repairman Tortisan Fighter, and a shield-breaking Ice Pixie. It also did not help that he has a stunner Igor Darkspear in the back line. However, when the battle went on, I noticed that because my opponent's cards stripped my Diemonshark of its shield and damaged its health, it was easily enraged, causing the melee and archery damages to miss. Then later, my Merdali Guardian heals my tank and fixes its shield to sustain the front line. My albatross also healed my tank. While this is happening, my poison monsters spread the poison in my opponent's back line, effectively killing them despite their heaps of shields.

I invite you to watch the battle using the link above, but in the interest of time, what basically happened was my poison monsters were able to inflict damage on my opponent's cards despite having sheets of shields. I thought I would lose but because of the poison damage, my team was able to get a win! Next time you expect your opponents to have poison, make sure you use a monster with Immunity or Cleanse. The Riftwatchers set has recently been released, so I am not yet familiar with the cards. But be sure to get poison monsters or have them level up to get this ability.