A look at the top of my wish list of cards
🦴 Tis but Scratches🦴
However, the new ruleset suddenly makes Cripple much more intriguing. So what does Cripple actually do?
Cripple: Each time an enemy is hit by a Monster with Cripple it loses one max health. If crippled monster is cleansed, it will recover 1 health for every time it has been crippled since the last cleanse.
A couple notes to add to this definition. Cripple has a 100% chance to activate on a successful attack, health is decreased even when attacks hit armor.
Offensive Considerations
- Higher speed melee attacks are more likely to connect.
- Using the Slow ability adds to the above and essentially gives +1 speed to all your cards.
- Enrage is another sneaky ability that can be used to increase speed
- Aim True will ensure all attacks strike and Cripple is activated.
- Magic attacks are a nice way to focus on the tank and ensure your attack hits.
- Since all battle participants gain Cripple, the more, attacking cards deployed, the merrier
- Cripple becomes much more effective if you can focus on less targets. Scattershot may spread the damage too much.
Defensive Considerations
- Flying, Dodge and higher Speed will help reduce the Cripple damage taken
- Cleanse can help remove the Cripple damage taken each round
- Taunt becomes a bit of a liability as your opponent will be able to focus the Cripple on one target
- I mentioned magic attacks as a good offensive ploy to ensure your target is hit, but that does open up the Phase ability as a defensive strategy.
Battle Example
| Battle Link | Pre-Battle Screenshot |
|---|---|
| Kelya v. Kelya |  |
This was an interesting example because not only was Tis but Scratches active, but it also included Scattershot which made some of my strategies less effective. I went with Kelya to increase my teams speed and increase my chances for missed attacks.
| Card | Notes |
|---|---|
 | A great tank to use against Cripple. Good starting health and Enrage that will hopefully increase the speed and lead to more misses. |
 | The Reach ability will override Scattershot and allow Squid to foucs more Cripple on the opponents tank. |
THis turned out to be a landslide in my favor. Two key points that tipped the scales in my favor were my leveled up Diemonshark with Enrage and my opponent's selection of Disintegrator that couldn't attack from the middle of the pack. Once Enrage kicked in on Diemonshark my opponent had a hard time landing any punches while I was able to quickly remove my opponent's shark and then blew through the rest of their lineup.
While Disintegrator's Demoralize can be powerful, my use of Inspire countered that and my opponent was then down one attacker.
Don't Ignore Cripple
I'm enjoying the new rulesets and it is forcing me to dive deeper into abilities that I had in the past otherwise ignored. What I have found most interesting as I do the deep dives is how much the abilities synergize with each other to make the gameplay so deep. It might be time for me to do a deep dive into all of the abilities 😀🐲 START PLAYING SPLINTERLANDS 🐲
Thanks for reading!