Dragons - They are awesome, what else is there to say?
When I think of the Dragon splinter, I think of Djinn Chwala. This speaks volumes about my inexperience with this splinter because it runs much deeper than Djinn and her Thorns. In my defense, it was my first Dragon card, and as the saying goes "you never forget your first".
I enjoy the Dragon cards, the art is some of my favorite because I just enjoy looking at Dragons š The issue is I haven't focused my energy on this splinter to find the best synergies and strategies. The sum of my go to moves is to use Brighton Bloom with the earthquake ruleset or throw Djinn up front to deal some damage while the back line finishes them off. I'm exaggerating a touch, but I struggle when the time comes to use Dragon. With this in mind I dove in head first to this week's challenge and and used it as an opportunity to expand my gameplay knowledge.
Summoners
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I decided to limit my deep dive to three summoners. Kretch was on my radar as he can summon level two commons as a level one summoner and next time I'm going to rent a Kitty because, of course! This go around however I had my hands full as it was so I choose to stick to the above three.
1ļøā£ Drake is free to play, but is still a powerful option. The plus one shield, especially with several of the cards already boasting high armor make a formidable team.
2ļøā£ Brighton Bloom is a must have for the earthquake ruleset battles. Beyond this niche however the flight ability is a great advantage when one additional miss can easily be the difference between a win or a loss.
3ļøā£ Quix the Devious is a card I tested out for the last share your battle challenge involving dragons. At the time I forced the card in battles and failed to see how is best synergized with the other cards. This go around I focused more on using the speed debuff and found better use case scenarios.
BATTLES
My favorite aspect of Dragon splinter is the ability to pair with any of the other splinters. It's fun to shake some new life into an often played splinter by adding in some Dragon. This first battle I'll share I was able to expand my options in the Death splinter by opting to use a Dragon summoner.
š Follow the full battle HERE
The rule set was Lost Legendaries, it was a low mana fight and Earth and Fire were off the table. I was fairly confident I would be squaring off against a Thaddius/Windeku combination. Assuming this was going to be my opponents play I attempted to counter with a more heavily armored version of Windeku in Djinn. I placed Life Sapper in the back to attempt to Leech as much health as possible. I opted to place the chicken in the second position hoping that my opponent wouldn't have any back line attackers and give Life Sapper some extra rounds to Leech.
Opponent's Lineup
Round by Round Detail
Screen Shots from Splintertools
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I guessed correctly on facing off against Windeku, what I should have also calculated was that there was enough mana to also use Silent Sha-Vi. My miscalculation that there wouldn't be a back row attacker cost me Life Sapper before she could do much damage and made Chicken a nonfactor. Thankfully my hunch to use Djinn and her heavy shields won the battle for me, but using Chicken in the rear would have been a better play.
Next
I already knew I could win some matches with Djinn and Drake but what about Quix? This next battle I thought I had it all figured out. The ruleset was Close Range and Little League and my opponent had been playing a lot of General Sloan. I thought this would be a great opportunity to bring out Quix.
I opted to place Pelacor Conjurer in the front hoping his high speed and Quix's debuff would lead to some misses. Well, my opponent went magic heavy so that was not going to happen š¤£ On the flip side, my team being faster, paired with my opponents low health, allowed me to take out the magic dealers before they could do too much damage.
Last but not Least
Here's another bad guess that worked out in my favor.
I went in thinking my opponent was going to use water and I choose Quix to counter Kelya's buff. Well, my opponent choose Fire, but in my favor they choose a majority ranged cards and I was still able to take advantage of one of Quix's debuffs.
I was hoping that Radiated Scorcher would get one good shot in to take out the tank's armor, but with the Weak Magic ruleset Djinn Inferni took out Living Lava's armor so it didn't matter that Scorcher went down before getting to inflict any damage. In the end Quix and Djinn Chwala paired up well and took my opponent down.
Further Thoughts
I was lucky on a couple of battles with Quix, but I am starting to get a better feel for how and when to use him. Dragon is a fun splinter to use and it is great to throw an opponent for a loop mixing them in now and then. After fighting a few more battle with Quix I will again move him up high on the list of cards I'd like to acquire.
There are some big bad cards in the Dragon splinter, but I still turn to Djinn and Brighton for most of my battles involving Dragons. As I start to level my deck up more and play in higher leagues I am sure that Dragon will start to play a bigger role in my arsenal.
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Credits:
Thumbnail created by me using Canva
Battles analyzed and screen shots from Splintertools
Thanks for reading!