The Arrival of Riftwatchers - Death Splinter

This is the my 6th post regarding riftwatchers including the summoners. In my early days in Splinterlands, death is the hardest element for me to use but when the Chaos Legion arrived, I can now confortably using this. With the addition of the Riftwatcher, death is an exciting element.

In this post, we'll quickly look the stats and abilities of each monsters specifically in the death splinter and I will give my opinion regarding those monsters. I've already made a post for the other element and I will continue my last post for dragon & neutral as my final post in this series. If you have missed out my previous post kindly refer to below link.

Disclaimer: All information below are based on my opinion and playstyle. Each player has its own opinion regarding these cards and I'm just going to share my opinion.

My current owned highest level Night Ghoul is a ★4 normal foil. Night Ghoul is a very great tank that have taunt, high health and armor.

Looking at the stats of Night Ghoul, this monster is very powerful that can deal a massive amount of melee damage, can survive longer because of its high health and armor. The taunt ability is a very suitable with this monster to protect other death monster that have low health but high damage can be protected (such as Soul Strangler an soulstorm). In higher league, it will have a forcefield ability that reduce the damage into 1 from attack with 5 power.

However, because Night Ghoul cost 11 mana cost, it is very susceptible to Giant Killer ability which is really bad for this monster. Imagine that a 4 attack monsters with giant killer ability attacks this monster, it can deal a 8 damage even this Night Ghoul have a forcefield ability as forcefield does not check whether the incoming attack is multiplied but based on the monster actual attack.

Usage: A great tank with taunt from the death element. It is very useful to protect the monster with low health for them to focus on attacking the opponents.

Rating: ★★★

My current owned highest level Arachne Thug is a ★5 normal foil which unlocks the Trample ability.

At first look, I already knew that I would be loving this card. I feel that Arachne Thug is a very special because it does have a good speed, good damage, and good health/armor and the trample ability is the one thing I most love.

Death element have The Gordolon which deals a high damage but this is an epic card and cost 9 mana and it is very slow. In most cases Arachne Thug is much suitable. They also have the Shadow Snitch but in lower league, the damage is not that high. I can use Shadow Snitch for the little league though but overall I think Arachne Thug is the best monster with the reach ability in death splinter so far.

And as far as my knowledge in the game, Arachne Thug is the first monsters that have the reach and trample ability. Undead Rex and Arachne Thug in the 1st and 2nd position doing the trample in the stampede ruleset? I would love to see that.

Usage: For me it is the most optimal monster for the 2nd position if dealing with the reach ability. Arachne Thug being a common monster is a remarkable one which can be use in most cases.

Sample battle as below:

Rating: ★★★★

My current owned highest level Cabalist is a ★3 normal foil. In some battle, I use Cabalist but I think it is great to use in some specific scenarios.

Cabalist with the amplify damage I think would be great if dealing against magic users together with high health monster and Oyster Rotwell. It is also great with the Cursed Windeku to amplify its thorn damage. The 2nd ability Cabalist have is the Giant Killer which I assume is good especially that the Riftwatchers have a lot of high mana cost monsters. It can deal a 4 to 8 magic damage depending on the level.

Usage: A utility card that is a great addition to the death splinter. It is a great support to enhance return damage and a great backline support if facing against high mana cards.

Rating: ★★★

My current owned highest level Queen of Crows is a ★3 normal foil and I would say that Queen of Crows is another great card that I am fond to use.

Queen of Crows have two important points that I would love to emphasis which is why this card is a good one. The very first one is the headwinds ability to reduce all range monsters attack by 1, the second thing is the close range ability that is paired with its high health. It is a very great support card and since the mana cost is less than 10, it is not affected by the giant killer ability. In higher league, it does have a slow ability and return fire ability. This card is really against range units.

Usage: A monster specialized against range unit opponents. With the headwinds and return fire ability, these two abilities are a pain to range unit.

Sample battle using Queen of Crows together with Raa:

Rating: ★★★★

Sad to say but all my opened packs of Riftwatcher does not contained any Raa. So I usually rent this card at the moment. Raa is a very powerful card as in the max level it does have 5 abilities and a high damage.

Raa at the base level already have 3 abilities in which all abilities are really amazing. The first one is flying ability which is usually use against earthquake, then the double strike ability which is really painful as Raa baseline damage is 3, every round Raa can deal a maximum of 6 damage. Then the scattershot ability that could bypass taunt unit and have the chance to directly hit the backline opponents.

In higher league and level, Raa got the Giant Killer ability and rust ability to remove armor. With these 5 abilities, Raa is truly powerful in offensive however there are still weakness for this monster. First is that Raa is a slow monster which is not pretty common for flying monster so if granted with the true strike ability it will be pretty strong. I think it is very compatible with the Byzantine Kitty summoner as it grants speed and true strike ability. The second thing is that this card cost 12 mana which is that this card only have 7 to 8 health and a minimum of 4 power monster with giant killer ability could easily defeat Raa in just a hit. So Raa must be protected at all cost.

Usage: A high mana cost monster that is very powerful. It is very useful in high mana matchup.

Same battle with Queen of Crows but Raa as the MVP dealing a lot of damage

Rating: ★★★★★

I would say that the summoner of death is the under rated in the Riftwatcher summoners because of the cripple ability it can provide, I think that this summoner is only good in long battle such as high health, repairs/taunt/heal battle style.

On the contrary, the monsters of death splinter are very useful and powerful, Arachne Thug, Queen of Crows and Raa are all good addition to the death splinter which gives the death splinter a further boost.

Night Ghoul is a good choice as an alternative tank because it have taunt ability which can protect the backline monsters against sneak,snipe or opportunity attack.

Cabalist on the other hand could boost return damage (thorn, return fire, magic reflect) and good against monster with more than 10 mana.

Overall I think the Riftwatchers death monsters are great and could improve the lineup of Death element.

Thank you for reading and see you on the my last post on this series which feature the Dragon and Neutral monsters.