This week's Splinterlands Challenge of the Week was to showcase the Coral Wraith from the Water Splinter.
The Wraith is a rare 'sneak magic' card - very few cards have a sneak magic attack, but he is pretty weak in terms of both damage and health with only a middling speed.
Given the unique sneak ability I wanted to put together a team with The Wraith and the Sabre Shark, as it's usually a good idea to play double or treble sneak, but the dice weren't in my favour and I had a LOT of duff ruleset and splinter options which meant it took me several surrenders to avail myself of said double sneak opportunity.
I tried out the Wraith on his own - but lost several times, so this is a pretty useless card which weakens my overall attack IMO.
I did eventually get a win with double sneak, but only after dropping two tiers and finding a suitably weaker opponent which finally allowed me to win with him....
The Rule Set and Line Up
- 50 mana
- ranged in first
Summoner - Valnamor
- Lord A - when you can, tank him!
- Corealus - An excellent second tank for ranged in first
- Mermaid Healer - triage and strengthen
- Shark - sneak attack 1
- Coral Wraith - sneak attack 2 and rust
- Phantom of the Seas - Massive damage and some dodge defence against sneak.
Did my strategy work?
Finally! To see it in action click here!
- Round 1 - both sneak attacks are rendered useless by the Kraken, but he gets taken all the way down to one health, nice miss on my Phantom!
- Round 2 - I lose Lord A, but my opponent loses both his Kraken and his Dragon Jumper. The Shark misses the Dragon at the back, but the Wraith hits at least!
- Round 3 - carnage, hard to keep up! I lose Cornealus, but thanks to lucky combos my opponent loses all his cards but his Gold Dragon
- Round 4 - Now it's just a matter of finishing off this one card!
How important was The Wraith?
He played his part in taking down a couple of monsters but on his own he was hopeless, more of a fetter, I'd have been better off with the Medusa to give me a chance to stun the Kraken for four mana, or the Eeels.
The double tanks were more important, as was the Phantom's huge magic damage and Cornealus thorns and return fire.
Final Thoughts: The Wraith - worth levelling up?
No, I actually might sell mine - I've never used it before this challenge, now I know why!
There are very few rule sets where this card comes in useful, I ended up having to surrender about 10 battles as I got sick waiting for an opportunity to use him.
Probably the only rule set he's useful for is 'armoured up' where rust could work in conjunction with the Shark.
But for four mana, there are far better options with Water in order to load your attack on the front. I think a front-running strategy with mainly magic is what you want with water.
Playing sneak just dooms you to failure most of the time.
If you don't yet play Splinterlands, why not give it a go?
Anyone using my referral link will receive a free rare card!