Hello everyone,
This week challenge we will be looking at the dragon splinter. I have been seeing quite a lot of nice posts using Canva and today I tried my hands on using Canva to create a nice animated cover image for this week's theme. I think it looks quite good? Let me know down in the comments below if you have any suggestions as I am new to Canva.
L͓̽I͓̽N͓̽K͓̽ T͓̽O͓̽ B͓̽A͓̽T͓̽T͓̽L͓̽E͓̽
Rarity: ANY
Element: DRAGON
Attack: ANY
Abilities: ANY (you name it, dragons have it!)
Diversity
The dragon deck is truly a diverse deck that can be used in many different scenarios and ruleset. The main reason being that the Dragon summoner can use Dragon type monsters and the splinter of choice. So if you are a fan of the Water Splinter, and you do not have Alric, you can use Delwyn Dragonscale. You like the fire splinter? You do not have Tarsa or Malric, you can use Daria Dragonscale!
In short a high level dragon summoner allows you to access higher level cards from other splinters without having the said level summoner for that splinter. That is the reason why Kretch still holds value even though it does not have any buffs.
Ruleset & Mana Cap
Let's move on to the battle, the ruleset for my battle is Melee Mayhem and Weak Magic and with a mana cap of 30, a few heavy hitting monsters can be used!
Melee Mayhem: Melee Attack Monsters can attack from any positions
Weak Magic: Magic attack hit armor before hit before reducing health
Based on the following ruleset my strategy is therefore to load up on armor in case of enemy's attack and to place some monsters with thorns as I assume my enemy will most likely use melee attacks with this ruleset, and fill my backline with a few melee attackers
Positioning and Choice of Monsters
Summoner: Drake of Arnak
An excellent summoner for use against melee attacks. It gives +1 Armor which can essentially provide a 2nd breath of life to monster without armors against melee attacks.
1st Position: Djinn Chwala
A level 4 epic card that has thorns. This monster has Thorns at level 1, but at lvl 4, it unlocks the Enrage ability which makes the Djinn a very dangerous front tank. An excellent card against Melee due to its high health and armor!
2nd Position: The Vigilator
As the off-tank, I am using the legendary card, The Vigilator. The card has double strike at level 1 which means that with this rule set, I am able to attack twice for melee and once for ranged while staying behind the Chwala. How cool is that?
Also at level 2, the card gain thorns which is what I want for this ruleset, and at level 3, the card also has poison! This combination is simply monstrous against any high health tanks the enemy might want to use.
3rd Position: Armorsmith
A very low mana card from the life splinter. The best feature is that is has Repair which restores the armor of my monsters. This will be super useful as the ruleset is Weak Magic. So any armor will be great for all attacks, melee, ranged or magic.
4th Position: Dragon Jumper
Finally in 4th we have Dragon Jumper. With its opportunity strikes, we hope to bring down the enemy backline, for instance healers or repairers.
5th Position: Furious chicken
Finally a lvl 1 Furious Chicken to tank any sneak attacks or opportunity strike. With the armor from my summoner, chicken should be able to take two hits
BATTLE Commentary
Round 1:
The opponent is using a level 1 Yodin Zaku. To be honest in the Gold League, this card still rocks and is quite a threatening summoner. That is why you can see in guild brawls, if the opponent has the capability to lock out cards, Yodin is often the one chosen.
The round started rather well with my speedy Dragon Jumper killing the enemy's Scorch Fiend which was placed at the back (similar to my chicken). The Vigilator followed up with a quick ranged strike on the enemy Serpentine Soldier, however the first hit does no damage thanks to the shield ability. Because of the double strike, it actually attack 4 times, twice with melee and twice with ranged. Poison was also successfully applied!
The enemy counter attacked with Serpentine Soldier, however the damage is quite low (1 melee + 1 blast). The enemy received thorns in return. The attack continues with the enemy ranged monsters, especially with fire beetle dealing substantial damage. Nevertheless once Djinn Chwala is able to attack, the Serpentine Soldier is killed. The faithful armorsmith repaired Chwala's armor thus restoring +2 armor for my tank.
Grum from the enemy's became the new tank and carried out its attack on Djinn, injuring itself in the process from thorns.
Round 2:
At the start of the 2nd round, all my monsters are still alive, however Vigilator is in peril at only 1 HP left. Once more, the battle starts with Dragon Jumper picking off the weak Imp Bowman in a single hit. Vigilator has a nice 4 speed and thus with the 4 attacks, it completely removes Grum's armor and at the same time poisoning it.
Unfortunately the Vigilator perished from the blast attack by Goblin Fireballer. However this attack enrages my tank, and this Djinn Chwala transformed into a +5 melee attacker! Djinn Chwala counter attacks on Grum almost killing it! Armorsmith further attacks Grum and reduce his health to a paltry 1 HP.
Round 3:
At the start of round 3, the poison effect was triggered and removed Grum from the battlefield.
Goblin fireballer was attacked by Dragon Jumper, while the enraged Chwala squishes the enemy's Fire Beetle. The lowly Armorsmith finished the round by destroying the last sliver of health left on Goblin Fireballer.
🆅🅸🅲🆃🅾🆁🆈
Additional Battles I - Won
L͓̽I͓̽N͓̽K͓̽ T͓̽O͓̽ B͓̽A͓̽T͓̽T͓̽L͓̽E͓̽
In this battle, the ruleset is Stampede (multiple tramples) and a low mana of just 15 capped. The battle was won with the thorns from the Viiglator and with Flame Monkey restoring the armor granted by the Drake.
Additional Battles II - Won
L͓̽I͓̽N͓̽K͓̽ T͓̽O͓̽ B͓̽A͓̽T͓̽T͓̽L͓̽E͓̽
In this other battle, the high mana cap of 60 allows us to use multiple high mana cards. With the result being only melee cards, and blast, I focused on thorns and high attack cards. Molten ogre was a nice addition to reduce all melee attacks and War Chaang will retaliate on attacks from the back!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Is it cheap?
Drake of Arnak is one of the cheaper cards in the Dragon deck to rent. Quix the Devious is also a great and cheap card to rent (just FYI)
Strategies
Drake of Arnak is shown to be excellent against ranged and melee attackers. Care should be taken against Magic attackers which are popular these days thanks to Obsidian in the Earth Splinter.
What do I like about Dragon most:
The versatility is great. Dragon splinter has many high mana cards but this battle challenge shows that the dragon deck is equally nice in low mana cap games.
What I do not like?
There is nothing not to like with dragons!
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Credits
Splinterlands for the source image and Canva for the bountiful elements (background, animation, logo design) to use.