SHARE YOUR BATTLE Weekly Challenge! DISINTEGRATOR

The neutral Monsters in Splinterlands often play a huge role in the outcomes of battles. There are a few staple neutral Monsters out there and the Disintegrator is definitely one of those Monsters who make the cut. It is specifically great in all melee-related rulesets, and it is basically an auto-include in those. If you ignore the Disintegrator, you might have to pay the ultimate price.

Now before getting into the stats discussion of the Monster, let's have a sneak peak into its lore:

The crazed tinker, Morloth, created the Disintegrator within his lair in the Badlands. Assembling various parts of other creatures together, he spent an age designing and building his masterpiece. The only problem was bringing it to life. He tried taking the fierce lightning from the sky and filling the monstrous body with raw energy but that didn’t work and only damaged its limbs. He experimented with molten power from within the ground but that only burnt away its flesh and hide. It wasn’t until he had a visit from a cloaked agent of chaos and was gifted the answer to his problems that the engine burst into life.

The pair spoke for days and deals were made, adjusted, broken and presented again. Morloth grew frustrated with how long it was taking, all he wanted was to have more of the sickly, green crystals that the agent had placed within the heart of his creature, bringing it to life. Whether he eventually tired of the bartering and was worn down, or the taint of chaos itself had afflicted him, Morloth agreed to the terms laid out by his visitor. With a large sack of the chaos fuel and the promise of an endless supply in the future, all he had to do was keep his side of the bargain – persecute and destroy the people of Praetoria. He quickly produced more of the misshapen beasts and now, with his pets in tow, he terrorised Praetoria and all its inhabitants.

With the torso of a mountain gorilla, the hind quarters of a crocodile and the mouth of a leach, the Disintegrator is a mismatch of devastating qualities. Its strength is formidable, twisted strands of metal combined with great sinews of muscle. When the heavy forearms and tail strike its foe, it will pummel them into submission without mercy. If that fails to work then the monster’s evil jaws will latch onto its prey, numerous splayed fangs locking onto their body as it sucks the life from them. The obscene golem strikes terror into its foes wherever it goes and it has been known to continue to fight even after the yellow glow of life has left it eyes.

So the Disintegrator is a much worse version of Frankenstein, created to basically commit war crimes against the peaceful population of Praetoria. I like it a bit less now...😟 but no amount of villainy will stop me from using the Monster in battles though...😝

Okay, now that we have a vague idea of what the Disintegrator is, let us have a look at its stats and abilities at the key different levels.

It starts off with its signature ability - Demoralize at level one. It is a very powerful ability against all melee heavy compositions which are usually the go-to line-ups in melee-related rulesets.
At level 5 it gains the Trample ability which is decent but generally works better if the Disintegrator's attack is at least buffed a bit, either by a Summoner or a fellow Monster.
At level 8 the "Praetorian Frankenstein" gets the Knock Out ability. It is useful for Monsters in the tanking spot for sure, so it is not a bad addition to its arsenal.
And its ultimate ability is Retaliate which is acquired at level 10. Retaliate is also a pretty good ability for any tank Monster out there. It seems especially good in conjunction with the aforementioned Trample and Knock Out.

Now that we have gotten acquainted with the stats of the Monster and its abilities, let us have a look at the battle I have chosen to showcase.

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Let us begin with the line-up:

Given the mana allocation and the available Splinters for the specific ruleset - Reverse Speed - I decided to opt for General Sloan as my Summoner. She is capped at level 2 as the game I am showcasing is a part of a Bronze-level tourney. I think that Sloan is a really good Summoner to showcase the Life Splinter's ranged attack potential.

The Chaos Knight is usually the second tank of choice when it comes to the Light Splinter, right after the Shieldbearer. It is not because the Chaos Knight is not good enough to be the 1st pick, but that the taunt ability of the Shieldbearer is really vital for the success of a lot of the Life compositions. However, there are times when the Chaos Knight shines especially since it costs 2 less mana than the Shieldbearer, which is really important in low to moderate mana battles. This time the reason I chose the Chaos Knight over the Shieldbearer is more straight-forward - the Shieldbearer was not available due to the restrictions of the tournament... 😁

I have chosen to put the Disintegrator in the 2nd tank spot or the so-called off-tank spot, just in case my opponent has more snipe Monsters. I also expected they would go with a bit more melee heavy line-up. The right spot for the Disintegrator is really tricky for me to choose usually since you do want to employ its defensive capabilities but on the other hand you don't want it to die too soon because if it does, then the enemy's melee team is no longer impaired, which could spell real trouble.

I put the Djinn Renova in the third spot since she could take a few hits if it comes to that but is also a magic attacker so she can attack from the tank spot without any restrictions. I usually throw her in in battles with a loose mana requirement such as this one since her cost of 7 mana is pretty limiting at lower mana levels. Her Strengthen ability is nothing to scuff at either. 😎

Right after the Djinn Renova I have placed the Sand Worm. I want it in the 4th spot because I expect it to be the MVP of the match with its 5 attack and relatively low speed of 2. It has wreaked havoc in the enemies' back-lines more times than I care to remember. 😁

The fifth position is for another potential MVP of the match, namely the Pelacor Arbalest. It is a real beast with its Double Strike (Monster attacks twice each round) paired with the +1 ranged attack buff of General Sloan. A true champion of Light.

I have placed the Prismologist in the last spot since she can take a few hits as well with the help of her armor and decent amount of health for a ranged unit. She is also one of those Monsters I like to throw into the mix when I do not have to think about the mana constraints. She also has a low amount of speed which is perfect for the Reverse Speed ruleset. Oh and... her Blast ability.. do I even have to comment on the superiority of Monsters with the Blast ability. Maybe you should ask Yodin Zaku instead... 😝

And now for a quick round by round analysis:

As we can see my opponent (who is also a guildmate of mine 😁) has chosen to use his Level 2 Sloan as well, and on top of that, he has also decided to enlist the Disintegrator in his line-up. Generally our line-ups are almost identical with the exception of the main tanks and the casters, which is pretty amusing.

After 1 round, I am just slightly ahead thanks to the fact that my Chaos Knight also had armor while my guildie's tin can 😁 had 6 health and no armor instead. My Monsters are still under the influence of the buff provided by Djinn Renova as well.

At the start of round 3 I am one Monster ahead of my opponent. But I have the advantage of my Sand Worm still being in the backline which means that it will land a killing blow on one additional Monster before my opponent's Monster can have the chance to retaliate.

Half way through round 3 the winner is clear

Even though in the particular battle our Disintegrator friend could not really influence the whole field of battle as it usually does, the very fact that both my opponent and I had decided to include it in our line-ups, speaks enough for the viability and frequency of play of our protagonist (or antagonist if you still remember the story bit we began this write-up with 😝). We have surely not seen the last of the Disintegrator and it will continue disrupting the battlefields of Praetoria when least expected (or even when expected as the only decent way to counter the Disintegrator is to include it in your line-up as well 😉).

GhostlyBG, over and out
Referral

P.S. Here is a bonus BATTLE which perfectly illustrates the points I have made regarding the Disintegrator 😉

You can check out some other stuff from my recent Splinterlands blogging venture: