Card First Impressions

Firstly, If you aren't playing Splinterlands yet click here to sign up. This week's battle challenge highlights the backline snatcher, the hard hitting slammer, the game winner or strategy jammer, the one, the only, Saaaaaaannnnddd Wooooooooorrrmmmmm. If you've been playing for a little while already you have probably already encountered sand worm regardless of you tier or ranking, and it either rocked you and killed a good portion of your team single

handedly or puttered out before even doing anything and completely caused the lineup to fail while you look upon the battle . Perhaps you even have one yourself. At 9 cost Sand Worm is not very high in health for a 9 cost card, and additionally at lvl 1 offers only 1 speed gradually progressing to 4 over time. In most cases at early tiers you will not see one with more than 2 speed without buffs. These stats are not where Sand Worm shines in all it's glory, it's really impressive stat is its 5 melee damage on a neautral sneak card. Enticing to use due to sheer damage, Sand Worm can be easily foiled by light armor, or plating, or a faster team, or the shards forbid ... a faster Sand Worm. The issue with sneak is that it is heavily prevalent in the post Untamed meta, there are more sneak cards for all splinterns now than there have ever been. So playing Sand Worm can EASILY end up being anticipating (sneak is all the rage at the moment). I've found Sand Worm to pair well with Wizard of Easwood, Sporecerer, Blast, All Melee,decadently mana heavy lineups, reverse speed at it's earlier lvls, and so forth. However, it can always be a game changing surprise Watch out!

Placement and Strategy

Usually you have to do something to guard your sand worm as his hp is not very high for 9 mana and he needs time to get to his maximum damage potential. Exceptions to this are when using him unexpectedly would provide a tactical advantage ie many ranged units attacking the front with no volleys thrown to the backline etc. In my battle located here. I place Sand Worm between spacers in front AND behind. Being wise to do so as it appears the enemy was reinforced with goblins, known for sneaking about into the backline. Sand Worm being slow works to it's benefit with the reverse speed modifier for this battle allowing for quick hits to be doled out.

I utilized thorns expecting melee, even going as far as to put retaliation at the front of my lineup. My opponent chose the same summoner and Sand Worm could have had a hard time, but thanks to flesh golem's tank heal, Orc Stonesplitter's retaliate, and the fact that Sporeceror didn't proc thorns lead to Sand Worm achieving a blaze of glory.

Because despite the enemy having thorns, my front liners and back liners were able to withstand all incoming blows and protect sand worm while he eliminated the backline one by one. Eliminating a vast majority of the enemy offensive. Winning the battle and gobbling up the entire enemy lineup like the voracious predator it is Sand Worm killed all but 2 opponents.

An atypically high kill count for Sand Worm, even considering it's high damage output. This battle was a rather good display of Sand Worm's formidable might and prowess on the battlefield and why it is can be a game changer for any lineup.

Takeaway and Conclusion

Not to be underestimated just because it is a common card Sand Worm can rain death when left to simmer too long unattended. A common reward card in the recent months, and sighted all over the Splinterlands. Sand Worms are likely here to stay, even with a meta shift with the release of Chaos Legion I suspect the occasional Sand Worm will still surface to cause some havoc.

AZMARE Dice Opening

For this weeks battle challenge I opened an AZMARE Die, and within were various useful low cost cards and the Vera Salacia summoner. Not a bad haul at all.

Lore, Talking Tidbits, and Giveaway Rules (That's Right There's a Giveaway)

Did you know that Sand Worms were previous confined to Draykh-Nahka only recently being seen in other areas of the Splinterlands and are so large they can snatch birds out of the air? Additionally at higher lvls it acquires snare AND piercing to become even more deadly to match this terrifying factoid. Anywho, * drumroll * It's time for a giveaway! To one of the first 10 people who comment on this post (chosen at random) I will delegate a Sand Worm to you for 21 days. If you are a veteran and comment within the first 20 comments and don't want this delegation you can add PASS to the end of your comment in addition to letting the delegation go to a more needy player you will be eligible for a special surprise coming within the next few days (stay tuned). For cool content like this and more for Splinterlands and other things don't forget to follow. Keep summoning and See You in the Splinterlands #freeSplinterlands

Giveaway Winner Hive account@chinotek

6/10 commented for potential delegation 4/20 Passed for Entry into the Argonm Unleased Tournament (more info here)