It's been a while since I partook in a Splinterlands Battle Challenge, but this was a particularly fun one. Focused on the Deeplurker, a Water Melee creature with Opportunity to strike the enemy creature with the least health from any position. At level 6, it also gains the poison ability - one of the key reasons why I chose to level this card in particular up:
For only 6 Mana, you can summon a monster with Opportunity, Poison, capable of dealing 4 Melee damage and has 7 Health. The 3 Speed gets bumped to 4 and it gains 1 Armor point when paired with Kelya Frendul, not bad right? I often like to add in a Demented Shark to the line up, moving the melee attack from 4 to 5, so even in Silenced Summoner matches, it's a little more powerful. With all of those buffs, the Deeplurker is a very capable predator and it's not hard to see why it instills fear in the Swimhunters when they fish.
Let's breakdown a match with it:
It's a silence summoner match, so no buff from Kelya, but all of my monsters get a nice +1 Melee buff from the Demented Shark. The padding on each of the tail ends gets split up fairly quickly. The Flying ability on Carrion Shade gives it just enough mobility that my Deeplurker misses at the first attack on it, but picks it off in Round 2 while the Silent Sha-Vi and Sandworm eat my Pelacor Bandit and start in on the Demented Shark. At the front lines, the Chain Golems are attacking each other, but not a lot of action there.
At the start of Round 3, I lose the Demented Shark and the buff is gone - putting my Deeplurker on the menu for the Sneak attackers. It hits Silent Sha-Vi, while not killing it, it does 4 direct damage and inflicts poison - allowing it to be taken off the board at the start of Round 4. In the opening attack of Round 4, the Deeplurker targets the Chain Golem - connecting for a modest 2 direct damage, but also inflicts poison. The Sand Worm then takes it off the board with a Sneak attack, leaving the Chain Golem and the Hardy Stonefish.
Thankfully, the poison is able to topple the opposing Chain Golem, leaving mine to finish off the Sand Worm with a Win in the end of Round 5.
While only a common rarity, the Deeplurker is a powerhouse of a card, especially when combined with the right cards to buff it.
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