Hello! As I said before, I will buy the card that is in the weekly challenge if I do not have it at the level I am looking for. Crypt Beetle is the first one that I do not own at all - I just never saw the need for it, as I only used it in fringe cases, which did not happen enough to warrant spending the money. That said, I like to keep my word, so just for the sake of this challenge, I spent a little of my DEC and got myself a 1BCX Gold Crypt Beetle. Level 3 is the max I can use with my level 2 Thaddius, so I will keep it there for now, even though level 5 is quite tempting, due to the extra point of attack.
The Battle
Because I do not generally play Crypt Beetle too often, the choice of battles for this challenge was not the craziest. I got to play it in a ranked game, where it was fairly easy to get value out of it. The battle in question was a high mana cap one - I had 50 mana at my disposal. Crypt Beetle let me make sure I could put whatever other units I wanted.
This was a Silver level battle, but it could as well be Bronze for me, as my Thaddius is only level two. With the Reverse Speed ruleset, it was quite nice for Crypt Beetle's 2 speed, while Opportunity mean that my little tank could be a great bait for the opposing units. This made the battle really interesting and allowed for creative uses of units normally less popular, such as the theme of this challenge.
You can find the battle right HERE
Here's a screenshot for whoever doesn't feel like watching the whole thing!
My Team
The team I could use was, as usual, limited and influenced by three factors:
- Ruleset: Reverse Speed makes it more enticing to use units with low speed, especially seeing as usually it is a downside of a card - cards like Sand Worm are a great example. Equal Opportunity means that Melee units, as well as high speed units (or low speed, in this case) are way more powerful.
- Splinters: Earth was the only unavailable Splinter - this has some effect, as it means there will be no Mycelic Infantry to worry about, but in general is not the biggest gamechanger with the rulesets in question.
- Mana: With 50 mana available, it was barely a concern - with my collection, it would be difficult to go over the cap even if I tried.
The reason I chose Death is to prevent silly magic shenanigans from the Water splinter, as well as to be able to play around with the Disintegrator + Shield combo - with Crypt Beetle and Harklaw being good synergies.
Main Combo
Secondly, Harklaw was put in the last position. Because Sneak takes priority over Opportunity and Sand Worm is incredibly popular in Reverse Speed, I preferred to play it safe and have Harklaw make it nearly useless. While there was no Sand Worm, it still managed to continuously tank hits from a Silent Sha'Vi while taking no damage.
Damage Dealers
While turtling is fun, there is nothing better than dealing damage. Because it was Equal Opportunity and Reverse Speed, I decided to go for blitzkrieg and choose the slowest monsters I could find. Sand Worm and Dark Astronomer fit the bill perfectly, as they are also both only Common and Rare, meaning they would attack before any Epics or Legendaries.
Sand Worm's Sneak can be both a detriment and a boon, as opponents will often forget to protect against it, tunnelvisioning on Opportunity. Dark Astronomer was just a nice way to finish off the team with a low speed unit. In the end, the Sand Worm did provide enough damage to kill of Disintegrator, which really helped lead to victory.
Bone Golem
Finally, Bone Golem was there for one simple reason - stop any silly magic users. Between Thaddius' summoner debuff and the Void on Bone Golem, there was little way for any magic user to get through. On top of that, it supplied the team with a pretty good damage at a great speed, so there was little reason not to slap it on top of the other monsters in this lineup.
Crypt Beetle
Crypt Beetle is actually a little lackluster. While it isn't useless by any means and can be great in situations like described above, in combination with Demoralize effects.. it also happens to not be the most exciting. Cheap tanks without high stats can be easily overlooked and I rarely see this monster in my games - be it in my or my opponents' teams.
It works really well in the Little League ruleset, as Death can be very happy with a frontliner to put in front of a Riftwing, especially to buy time for Bonesmith and Life Sapper to build up their health pools. On top of that, if Up Close and Personal or Lost Magic are active, the Shield ability can make Crypt Beetle a cheap way to stall for a few extra attacks, when combined with abilities that reduce attack - Demoralize and Headwinds.
It is quite weak, however, in more standard rulesets - it is extremely vulnerable to magic, able to be taken out by just one or two attacks even at higher levels. On top of that, if we are not in Little League or extremely low mana caps, it has to compete for a spot with cards such as Cursed Windeku - some of the best tanks in Chaos Legion, if not the whole game.
Closing Words
There it is, weekly battle challenge with Crypt Beetle! Situationally great, but not the most flexible inclusion into teams - while it can be useful, you cannot just slap it into any lineup like some other cards.
All images are screenshots from the game, while the thumbnail is copied from the official Share Your Battle Challenge post.
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SPLINTERLANDS - Splinterlands is the poster child of the HIVE blockchain. Join now through my referral link to get a few cards from me!
RABONA - Join the football management game through my referral link to receive a small RBN bonus!
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