It seems like a lifetime since Spineback Turtle was part of the cards that we could use for free with the book, on one hand I miss those days, on the other I don't, and the new cards have their pros and cons and I think the lack of Spineback Turtle is one of those cons. And at first glance this card may seem just a low mana tank for battles of this style, but nothing further from the truth, this turtle is very versatile in its use, today I come to talk about that in this post, and also to tell a little of the story I've spent with it, welcome to a new Splinterlands Weekly Challenge.

Spineback Turtle.

Common Water element Card.
Mana Cost: 4.
AT LEVEL 1:
Attack: 1.
Life: 6.
Shield: 2.
Speed: 1.

Spineback Turtles live around the edges of the Dark Water, in the inner seas of ΛZMΛRÉ. They can breathe air, but the incredibly harsh climate of the Water Splinter makes the recesses of the deep more comfortable. They are generally gentle creatures, but when roused to battle, they are shockingly difficult to destroy.

Thoroughly it is a card that has good utility when the rulesets begin to appear as Little League, Equalizer, Reverse Speed or Melee Mayhem, it also learns the Thorns ability when it rises to level 4, making it a terror for enemy Melee cards, while more level up more is pigeonholed in its Mini Tank utility. I think that the rank in which this card shines the most is Silver, when it learns thorns and maintains good stats for that level.

How to combine it with specific Rulesets:

Source

Little League:

Here it does not have much science other than using it as a tank, how well it combines with this ruleset is because the cards that have her mana level or lower, for the most part are weaker than her in terms of life and shield, it is a guarantee of duration in the first place in this type of battle and even more if you heal it during it.

Equalizer:

Here things change a bit, and since it has a good shield, you can use this card as a tank and put another card with a lot of life behind to enhance that of this card and thus last much longer in battle.

Reverse Speed:

This card has 1 speed point which makes it the fastest when the speed is reversed, so it will always be one of the first to attack and that is a great advantage.

Melee Mayhem:

Since only Melee cards are allowed in these battles, you can be sure that this card will last a long time in first position by taking the hits while your lineup destroys the opponent.

There are even specific strategies that make this card perfect if the right conditions are met, for example in a battle with the Melee Mayhem + Reverse Speed ruleset you use the summoner Brighton Bloom together with this card and you are going to dodge so many attacks that you won't You will believe it, or play it in Equalizer ruleset with Alric Stormbringer and put it as a tank, and behind it place for example the Oshannus or the Kraken, so that it becomes a mega tank. The possibilities are endless, you just have to think about them, and added to all this, if you have the Alpha version of the card, you will get a DEC bonus for victory each time you use it.

Some example battles

Click to watch the battle

In conclusion...

I think that now that the new formats are out, this card is going to return to its top rank. Right now you can get its Alpha version with the thorns ability for about $ 80 and its Beta for about $ 50. It is not for me the best in its specific function if we talk about the Modern format but in the classic I think that if it will have its brightness, in one way or another it was a kind of trip to the past to use this card again, and that for me was a pleasure. I hope the post is helpful and that you liked it, greetings to all.