Card Highlights #21: Queen Mycelia
Queens protect their loyal subjects. As Queen Mycelia's presence bless the battlefield, the increased morale of her men allows them to be protected in various attacks. Wielding magic in an Earth Element team composition, she is certainly the Venari Wavesmith equivalent of water mages.
Lore
A dark and dank estate was overseen by a fearsome noble woman. She craved ever more and more, and had her slaves dig deep into the mountains that bordered her home. Seeking riches within the depths. But when no riches emerged, she became fierce and violent. Demanding harder and harder work. And the slaves dug more. And within the depths of the mountains, they unearthed a horror beyond their comprehension.
The first happening was the growth turning on the manor. Food became poisoned. Vines blocked doors and obscured windows. And spores sprouted everywhere.
Then the slaves became corrupted. Their bodies turned into hosts for parasitic fungus. Long after they died, their bodies shambled around the grounds. It was a menace that could not be controlled.
As the woman's estate fell into chaos, she couldn't bear the shame of seeking help from outsiders. Instead, she went into the mountains herself to uncover the source of this horror that had ruined her.
And there she came across her. At that time, Queen Mycelia was more a collection of fungus in a loose physical form. But when she consumed the noble woman, she altered her own appearance to look like a fearsome female in a gown.
She continued to spread her corruption across the estate. She'd never experienced such growth and such control before. Realizing she could now extend her powers even further and turn more creatures into her slaves, she traveled.
She corrupted each land she crossed, claiming the plants, claiming the people, and leaving behind a trail of fungal rot. She walked both above the earth and below, a female figure in the fog. But any that got too close realized terrors beyond their comprehension.
And finally, her journeys brought Queen Mycelia to the Realm of Silence under Praetoria. Praetoria's trees and roots stretched far down here, she could call out to so many servants. The whole continent could be hers. But why stop there? The Chaos Legion had means to reach even further. One day, the entire Splinterlands would be under her control.
Rental Cost
The rental is a bit high right now at 5.34 DEC per day but the effects should be instant. Upon renting one, a use in battle would certainly provide you a couple of wins immediately as long as you use a lot of mages. Queen Mycelia is the Earth version of Venari Wavesmith but with lower mana cost compatible with Little League Rule Set.
Buy/Sell Cost
For a legendary card with a very strong ability and excellent potential, the price reflects it. The lowest one was priced at $23.60 and it might go lower in a few more weeks as more people get their hands on their own copy. However, after a month or two, it would certainly increase in price as the card's effects are very powerful and fitting for old and new Earth element cards. I advise to purchase one after a month or two and reap rewards in the future.
Card Stats
Queen Mycelia's Stats are actually low even if she's a legendary card. However, the reason why you put her is due to her Protect ability at lower levels. The other abilities are a plus but it's the Protect ability that shines the most.
Card Effect
Protect is God send for mages. Normally, mages has low survivability and thus, protect increases it by a round for all monsters. This is also the reason why Venari Wavesmith in Water Mages are so strong.
Amplify || Increases Magic Reflect, Return Fire, and Thorns damage to all enemy monsters by 1.
Amplify is a good combination ability especially since you can have Mylor Crowling and amplify all the Thorns damage. It's not game changing but it's still strong overall.
Triage || Heals the friendly back-line Monster that has taken the most damage for 1/3 of its max health, rounded down, with minimum of 2.
Triage is a support ability for your back row. This is especially good for Mycelic Slipspawn's Taunt ability since you put him at the back most of the time. Triage allows you to heal Myceli Slipspawn without putting him at risk on front line.
Rust || Reduces the Armor of all enemy Monsters.
Rust is not as useful as other abilities since when you run Queen Mycelia, you would most likely be running mages as well. With mages damage passing through armor, reducing armor doesn't make any difference.
When to use
Little League is the best Rule Set for Queen Mycelia. Since you only use low mana cost monsters with low stats, the Protect from Queen Mycelia gives immense advantage during these battles.
|| Monsters get +2 added to their armor stat.
Armored Up is an advantage for mages. With Queen Mycelia's Protect, you now have not 2 but 4 armor for each monsters while your attacks passes through the opponent's armor. There's no better way to abuse this Rule Set than an Earth Mage comp with Queen Mycelia on its center.
Reverse Speed || Slower monsters attack first. Try to pick monsters with speeds of 1. Speed effects how soon your monster will attack in battle and how effective it is at evading attacks. So a monster with a speed of 1 would normally attack last now will attack first. A speed of 1 will also have the best chance of dodging if paired with evade and flying as well.
Reverse Speed is an advantage due to Queen Mycelia's 1 speed. This allows her to be the fastest in the game allowing to dodge attacks and attack first.
When not to use
Unprotected is bad due to Queen Mycelia's Protect. Unprotected disables the ability making her useless at lower levels.
|| No type of healing is allowed in the battle. So, abilities like Tank Heal, Triage, Heal are rendered useless. This de-buff cannot be removed by using Cleanse. Summoners Like Byzantine Kitty, Scarred Llama and Chanseus The Great cannot perform Heal and Cleanse either.
Healed Out is also a negative when Queen Mycelia reaches level 3. This shuts off Triage effects which lessens the sustainability for Mycelic Slipspawn.
|| Legendary Monsters can't be used. Legendary Summoners are still available though.
Lost Legendaries is a rule set not allowing Legendary monsters such as Queen Mycelia to be used in that battle. It's pretty straightforward.
Battle
Click here to view the replay
This is the positioning I used for this battle:
Hoping there's no Sneaks, I put Queen Mycelia at tha farthest back. However, as you can see in this battle, Silent Sha-vi and Undead Badger would be a threat. This is a major blunder for me and I should've just put Khmer Princess as a Sneak blocker.
Round 1
By end of Round 1, no fatalities were made and damage overall was made to everyone. Cursed Windeku goes down to 5 health after the attack of Khmer Princess.
Round 2
By end of Round 2, Cursed Windeku dies along with Carrion Shade changing the flow of the battlefield entirely. Undead Badger goes to front.
Round 3
By end of Round 3, Undead Badger falls and Silent Sha-vi goes to front.
Round 4
By end of Round 4, Queen Mycelia goes down while inflicting damage to Silent Sha-vi.
Round 5
Game ended by end of Round 5 with the elimination of my opponent's team.
Disclaimer
- Battle photos are taken from Splinterlands in-game website. To view the full game, click on this link.
- I do not own any of the animated pictures. Visit Giphy to get more information.
Happy Holidays. Good luck. Have fun.