In this battle I wanted to try a different kind of tank. Most players think tank should always be melee. But Pixie-Knife Hurler is a ranged unit that can stand in 1st position thanks to his ability. That already makes him very interesting.
Pixie-Knife Hurler costs 7 mana which is not cheap but also not too expensive. He has 4 armor and 8 health, so he is not fragile. With 2 range damage and 3 speed, he is balanced in stats. What really makes him special is his full set of abilities and his synergy with a strong archon, Bella Ratajowlski.
Image from Splinterlands
Close Range is very important for him. Since he has ranged attack, normally he cannot attack in first position. But with this ability, he can still deal damage while tanking. That means you do not lose damage when Pixie Knife Hurler becomes the tank. It makes him flexible because he can start in backline and move forward later. This ability is simple but very effective for monsters with range damage.
Image from Splinterlands
Dodge increases the chance enemy attacks will miss. This works even if speed difference is small. When combined with his 3 speed and Swiftness, he can become very annoying to hit. Missed attacks mean 0 damage taken. This is very strong against melee and range damage without True Strike. Dodge makes him feel tankier than his stats show since attacks often miss.
Image from Splinterlands
Swiftness increases the speed of all friendly monsters by 1. Speed is very important in Splinterlands. Higher speed means higher chance to attack first and higher chance for your monster's attack to hit and opponent's to miss. What's better is that Swiftness supports the entire team, not just himself. It works well with Dodge because more speed increases miss chance even more. It also helps slow melee and range monsters to become more effective.
Image from Splinterlands
Enfeeble reduces the enemy’s melee attack by 1 when he hits them. This is very strong against frontline melee tanks. Most tanks rely on melee damage for their attacks. Reducing their attack makes your main tank survive longer. If battle goes long, this ability can stack reducing the opponent's damage by a lot.
Image from Splinterlands
Heal restores part of his health every round. Since he can be used as tank, this ability can be very important. Healing makes him stay alive longer and makes opponents need more turns to remove him. When combined with Dodge and Shield from Bella Ratajowlski, he becomes very hard to kill. Heal also works well in Equalizer modifier that can increase his health.
Since we have Counterspell modifier in this battle, there would most likely be not a lot of monsters with magic damage, if there would be any at all. With Bella Ratajowlski's Bloodline Dominion, he can give all Ulund Bloodline monsters Shield ability to half the damage to all melee and range attacks. This makes Hungry Ulund, Chuma Marandu, and Pixie Knife Hurler really effective monsters in this battle with the Shield. This was proven when my two of my opponent's monsters have 1 melee damage so those two monster's attack are negated each time by Shield. With the advantage of Shield, I won this battle very easy.
Pixie-Knife Hurler is a ranged unit that can work as a frontline tank. Close Range allows him to attack while in first position. Dodge, Swiftness, and Heal make him hard to kill. Enfeeble weakens enemy melee tanks over time. With Bella Ratajowlski giving Shield, he becomes even stronger and more annoying to as the game goes on.
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