This is part of the Community Engagement Challenge: @splinterlands/weekly-splinterlands-community-engagement-challenge-battle-of-the-forgotten-cards
Prologue
There are SO many cards in the Splinterlands universe that it's unavoidable to have some going obsolete, or being forgotten. On one side - that is what land was created for, many of those cars are parked on Land, giving at least some value to them.
There is one card that I never paid attention to - until I got into higher leagues and got obliterated also thanks to it. It's not a stand-alone card, not a Quora that wipes out the entire team without scratching her manicure. It's a card that is only working in certain rule-sets, and only with other cards. But in the right setup, it can be the key to victory.
The Every-Hungry Skull
The card
The Ever-Hungry Skull is a Chaos Legion common card, from the Reward collection.
It starts out with Flying, 2 damage, 2 speed, 7 armor and 1 health. It gains Thorns at level 6 (100 BCX) and Return Fire at level 10 (400 BCX) - then it has 3 damage, 4 speed, 11 armor and still 1 health.
Money money money!
I do own a max-level Gold foil which I purchased for $6. It currently goes for $19, thanks to Survival mode (that thing has shot my collection value to the moon). I sometimes buy the cheap cards as Gold Foil, in order to collect the 10% Bonus, and I've been using the Skull more and more recently. So, it was a good investment on all fronts so far.
Right now, you can get a maxed regular foil for under $2, which is quite cheap - only 0.005$ per BCX.
When do you use the Ever-Hungry Skull?
The Skull has very high armor, but almost no health. In standard, one magic attack will take him out. There are quite a few scenarios where it makes sense to use it.
- No magic - removes the greatest danger for the skull.
- Weak magic - his armor makes him a 12 LP unit for only 5 mana.
- Melee Mayhem - he can attack from anywhere, so he's save
- Sneak for all - Place him in the back, and you'll see his thorns doing wonders. Also, he is fast and has flying, so a lot of attacks might even miss.
- Earthquake - well, it flies.
What are its weaknesses?
As mentioned, magic. Any kind of magic damage turns it to dust. But there are others:
Shatter - destroying its armor is the best way to kill it fast. That's its main weakness.
Rust - reduced its armor, but is not as dangerous as shatter.
Corrosive Ward - again, against the armor.
Thorns - it's a melee-unit, after all.
Both
- Equal Opportunity - If Magic is not allowed or Weak Magic is in place, then this one is actually a great rule-set to use the skull with, as it basically gets "Taunt" with only 1 LP, and its punishing abilities do some serious damage. If Magic is allowed, Equal Opportunity should NOT be used.
Other notes: In Melee-Mayhem or Sneak for all, magic blast or magic scattershot can still be a danger to it. Also, the Night Reaper - that's basically the Skulls worst nightmare.
What is a good combination?
Astral Entity
Using the Astral Entity provides the Skull with Dodge, making it even harder to be hit by non-magic monsters. The Rust-like -2 armor helps the Skull to do damage. And then, there's Revive. Units revive with all their armor, and only one health - that means, the Skull revives just as it died. For me, this is a very powerful combination.
Weirding Warrior
All abilities of this card benefit the Skull. Shatter helps him do more damage. Amplify has it making +1 Punishment-Damage (Thorns, Return-Fire), and Rust, like shatter, helps it to do more damage.
Scavo Hireling
The Hireling repairs the armor, which is very important as the Skull relies solely on the armor. Additionally, the Hireling slows down the enemies, making it less likely for them to even hit the skull.
Helheim Demon
Here, it's the taunt ability. All magic damage will go against the Demon, until dead. Maybe that gives the Skull enough time to do its work. Quite risky though.
Others
There are, of course, other combinations. In Dragon for example Agor Longtail, Syrenth (both Taunt), Runeseer Sevaya (armor, repair, blind), Oshuur Constantia (revive), Lily Shieldpaw (Camouflage). Arkemis the Bear (armor) and Venator Kinjo (Slow, Amplify) as well.
Examples - one perfect, one not so much
Battle 1 - The best case
Super Sneak, Weak Magic and Rise of the Commons - the perfect combination for the Skull. Gold League (Advanced?) Tournament with 24 Mana.
I got a little lucky hitting the Continuum Seer both times. The Scorcher was a problem, taking out the armor with one hit two times - not missing once. But besides that, my team was able to win.
Battle 2 - Shatter is not its friend.
Wild Ranked, so no level caps. Melee-Mayhem, Weak Magic, Aim True, 44 Mana - lots of possibilities!
This is the best example for Shatter being a problem, again. If the Skull would've hold out a little, this match would be my win. It did some serious damage to the Raider, though, returning its damage to it. The enemy combination of the Legionnaire and the Disintegrator can be very effective, by the way. The Legionnaire might be another under-rated card.
Conclusion
This card is a great buy. Very cheap in price, yet with a variety of use-cases in which it can excel. Especially its Punishment-Abilities come in handy and should not be under estimated. Luckily, there are some ways to break this card easily, so it's not over-powered. The more I think of it, the more it strikes me as a very nicely balanced card that gives a lot of strategic variety to the game-play, despite being so "small".
Thank you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it at least as much as I enjoyed writing :-D If you have any comments or feedback - please let me know! And don't forget to leave your own posts for me to curate. Thank you very much!
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