Get Thee Behind My Chaos Shield! Talking Strategy in Low Mana Battles.
There are some combinations which just seem to go together; tomato and cheese, bread and butter, and the other obvious one, the SHIELD ability in a low mana battle. In this blog, I want to explore this powerful combination, as it is a match made, well and truly, in a chaotic heaven!
To do this, let's start with Chaos Knight:
On it's surface, this is a pretty solid card. It has 4 health, which is a bit less than you'd hope for a tank out the front, however, the +3 armour supports his vitality. The 2 speed on this tank is handy, as most tanks only have +1 boots. His +2 Melee attack is also fairly average, with most tanks holding a +3 or +4.
But, while the card stats are perhaps a little bit underwhelming, this card comes in to it's own when you consider it's SHIELD ability. In fact, I think you'll be amazed!
The SHIELD ability is basically armour for your armour, as it will reduce all melee and arrow attacks against you. If you're opponent hits you for +2, you'll only take +1 damage. If your opponent hits you with +1, you'll take no damage! It is kind of like legally being able to cheat, that's how amazing this skill is!
Let's face it, this guy is amazing!
My card is Level 1, and it is unfortunately not leveled so I can make use of it in in my Silver league battles at Level 5, but I did want to check out it's complete stats, just for some perspective.
In the end, I was incredibly impressed. This is one hot card and as it progresses from Level 1, all it's stats start to come alive! I noted that if I took this card to Level 5 for Silver League, his attack would improve to +3 and his boots also move to +3. This will make this a fairly powerful tank - with speed other tanks cannot match. The slight improvement in health would also contribute to his longevity.
What I was also surprised to see was the GIANT KILLER skill at Level 5. That's a super skill, it will double your attack vs 10 mana+ cards. That means instead of doing 3 damage, he will do +6 melee. Let's face it, that's pretty mighty indeed!
In looking at this card, I was actually a bit surprised to note that I didn't own it. It is only available to me in the starter set, so I had the idea that it was definitely worth having a look at the card in the market, and perhaps checking for a cheeky bargain. This is going to be an investment, afterall!
It was an absolute no brainer, I could buy 14 cards for 330 DEC ($1.08 USD) - and in doing so, transform this tank from a bit average, into something a bit more KILLER! The extra card power didn't hurt either, I'm trying to get to 70,000 for Silver I, so every little bit helps!
Have a look at my newest card's stats, unfortunately, I didn't have this guy for the battle, which is a shame, because it would have made the match up so much easier.
The next strategic consideration is the best time to make use of this card. I'll be honest, my LIFE splinter isn't strong, so I tend to avoid using it unless I'm forced into a corner. For that reason, I'm on the look out for a low mana battle. The reason is, the SHIELD on this card will help him stay alive - particularly if an opponent plays lots of low damage cards.
Just be mindful, that if you come up against a magic team, the result will be a definite loss, even before the first hit has landed.
In the low mana battle, I'm going to keep it simple:
- Use the SHIELD on my tank to allow the battle to go deep. The tank's attack is low, so I need to hit from the backline.
- I choose to make use of magic from the backline, this will mean if I come up against a shield, I can blast my way through it.
So let's get to the CHAOS KNIGHT + LOW MANA battle:
This ruleset is very interesting, and not one you see often. Earlier in this post I noted that I rarely play LIFE, unless pushed into a corner. Here, my only choice is a LIFE splinter. But the ruleset helps my attack out in a significant way.
- The first ruleset gives my cards +2 armour. This is great for the Chaos Knight, because it will give him increased life vs melee and arrow damage. He's a tough card already, and that just makes him a whole lot tougher.
- The second part of the ruleset limits my cards to common and rare cards only. All the epic and legendary cards are excluded, which may have the impact of getting rid of some dangerous tanks. The best part is, the Thorny Dragon Djinn can't be used - because he's epic, so that is automatically going to help me out, not vsing that guy (with his huge health and armour pile).
- By limiting the mana to 15 - I know that this battle will play either 2 OK cards, or lots of 1 and 2 mana cards. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.
Have a look at my attack:
There are a few things about this line-up I'd like to discuss.
I took General Sloan on as my summoner, when the battle got underway, my initial thought was to use 2 x 2 mana archers, and to give them +2 arrow damage each with the bonus. My General is only level 1, and I would have been better using literally any other summoner, because in the end, I didn't use an arrow team. This was my mistake - and something I should learn from, as I played it far too quick. General Sloan cost me 4 mana to put on the battle field.
You'll notice my tank out front, he's worth 6 mana. With the additional armour, he looks like a very solid front row. His shield ability is certainly going to be important in this battle.
The secret of this attack is the Temple Priest in the back-row. You'll notice he has 2 magic damage sitting on him. That's significant. Think of it this way: If the Temple Priest was vs'ing the Chaos Knight, the Temple Priest would only need 2 hits to drop him. I felt confident that this back-liner would be the weapon that would shine behind my meaty tank.
This is how the battle gets underways:
My initial observation was satisfaction. The only card that could damage my Knight was his arrow shooter. Yes, his Harpy could have hurt my support line, but having picked a more expensive support line, it means that the Harpy will hit my Chaos Knight and do 0 damage, and my Temple Priest would stay shielded until he moved into the front position. As far as I could read this battle, it was going to come down to this: Could I take out the four cards in front of the archer, before the archer would take down my guys? His archer has a lot of cards to protect him there. I was also a bit nervous about his tank having HEAL, and me only having +4 damage total - in a low mana battle, HEAL really can change outcomes, eh?
Ok, let's have a look at how the battle went, have a look at this video. Trust me, it's not too long and will have you on the edge of your seat!
As you can see, this battle was on from the start. My opponent played a very long line-up, and because each of my opponent's cards was given +2 armour, it meant that my Chaos Knight was only ever really hitting Armour, not health. Thankfully my Temple Priest could shoot off his magic.
At the start of Round 3, you can see, the initial hits have taken a armour from both sides, and my opponent's HEALING tank is looking like a good choice out front. At this point in the battle, I felt a little bit vulnerable, it was going to take a number of magic bolts to get his arrow guy into the front position, which would stop him from attacking:
Then, my Temple Priest is brought to the front row in Round 5 - and at that point, it seemed to me this battle was going down to the last hit:
And then, at the final moment, this happened - with his archer facing off against me in the front line, the battle was going to be won by my Temple Priest - but did you notice I only had 3 health left, and his archer had +3 arrows? If he had managed to get off just one more hit, the game would have been his! How close was that?
So what's the verdict?
- CHAOS KNIGHT is such a strong card in low mana battles, and he did an amazing job of being the meat shield for my Temple Priest. I learned through this post, however, that he needs to be leveled up - and I've done that now. This will make him far more of an attacking asset moving forward.
- Regarding the battle and the way it played out, I think my secret magic attack was genius! Not to blow my own trumpet, but by using magic in this battle, it didn't matter that every card was given +2 armour, the Temple Priest ignores armour anyways!
- I still don't love playing LIFE, but I'm starting to understand it a bit better now.
Thanks for joining me, for another Splinter Chat! This blog was put together as part of Splinterlands' weekly 'Share-Your-Battle' challenge. Have you put yours together yet?
LordTimoty
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