Hi Splinterlanders, I hope you are having a great splinterday!
I am contemplating upgrading some of my summoners to be more competitive in the game and play more regularly in Diamond League. Summoners cost money and the choices are hard to make. I need to consider my favourites, my strategies, my success recipes, my strongest monsters, and so on. It is not an easy decision to make, so I have decided to write a series of posts about my summoners to help me make that decision and share my thoughts with you while I am at it.
I feel it is the right time to make a move, while prices are down and the bears still have full control of the market. Many players around me have been upset about the many changes in the game lately and some are leaving or have already left the scene one by one. I am sad to see some players from my guild, the Legendary Dragon Babies, throw the towel and leave the game. I have not been happy about certain things either, like bots and SPS gates, but I am a Splinterlander through and through. So for me, there is only one way and that way is up.
I am not going to mention all summoners, only the ones I have. I am looking to upgrade two splinters and already have a rough idea of what I want to do but I still want to go through the splinters one by one. Today, I want to talk about the Death splinter.
I have 4 Death summoners and will list and discuss them as I got them. I will also discuss some of the monsters I like to use with particular summoners.
First comes ZINTAR MORTALIS. He is the first Death summoner I bought. He was not the cheapest at the time, but I took an immediate liking to the Beta summoners when I first started playing the game. I have him at level 5 and as a rare summoner, he has a 6/5/4/3 level cap.
I have always found the -1 meelee nerf he imposes on the opposition to be very effective. Meelee attack monsters are popular in all leagues and the frontliners are usually massive attack machines with high stats. Taking 1 meelee away can make a huge difference, especially if you field a Shield monster in the first position. It also does well reducing the offensive power of obnoxious Sneak monsters, who usually are meelee attackers and there are some meelee Snipe candidates to subdue, too. Costing only 3 mana makes ZINTAR MORTALIS a good choice in low mana games, where 1 mana can make or break your strategic team selection. On the other hand, MORTALIS is going more and more out of fashion since Chaos Legion, so I don’t think he is a candidate for a further upgrade.
I like using MORTALIS in nerfing strategies, where I do my best to reduce the all-round striking capacity of my enemy. The death deck is very good for that. When the neutral deck is available, I often pair him with DISINTEGRATOR, to turn enemy meelee monsters into toothless tigers. In low mana games, he goes well with CRYPT BEETLE, as most smaller meelee monsters rarely have more than 2 meelee. When reduced to 1 meelee, the CRYPT BEETLE uses his Shield to redicule enemy meelee attackers. QUEEN OF CROWS is another good combo with MORTALIS to nerf range attack with Headwinds. She has huge health stats and Close Range, making her a formidable second tank. PHANTOM SOLDIER is another great card for nerfing the opposition. He has Silence, taking 1 magic from all enemy monsters. He also has high health and 3 magic at level 3. These are my favourite and most effective strategic considerations, when using ZINTAR MORTALIS.
THADDIUS BROOD is the next summoner in focus. This rare summoner is at level 6, so his level cap is 8/6/5/3. He is the first summoner I upgraded to level 6, as the death deck is my favourite and therefore also my strongest deck. I have most chaos Legion cards at pretty high levels, so THADDIUS is right up there on my list for a max upgrade. His magic and health nerfs are very effective in low and mid cap battles and he dominates magic plays as a solid Obsidian counter. Taking 1 health from all enemy monsters also enables Stealth monsters to make kills with single hits.
THADDIUS BROOD is another good choice for nerfing strategies, teamed for example again with DISINTEGRATOR and QUEEN OF CROWS. He is also a great pick to generally lead a Chaos Death team. I like putting him together with CURSED WINDEKU at the front, followed by ARACHNE THUG. Together, they do very well protecting the frontline.
OCTAVIA SHADOWMELD is a soulbound reward summoner with the Conscript ability. Bringing a gladiator into ranked battles is a lot of fun, especially when you have good gladiators. I am happy to report that I have a BCX of the legendary gladiator, XULAX NIGHTWIND, a great tank in the first position. Apart from my personal mascot, TRAPP FALLOWAY, there is also LIZA FOX. She is a great midfielder with tons of range power and good speed. KOTRIPHUS BAYNE is a good emergency tank with super high health. OCTAVIA is still at level 3 (RF), which restricts the combat power capabilities of the entire team, when you play in gold league. She is great in bronze frays for brawls, where it becomes possible to field 2 gladiators. Other than that, she doesn’t get much work at the moment and will become a lot more interesting, when she reaches level 6 and beyond. I am waiting patiently…
I was really excited, when ASTRAL ENTITY first came in the airdrop. I didn’t score a BCX and waited for ages before I bought him. I rented him lots of times in the mean time and worked out a strategy for him. As a speed fanatic, my exctitement primarily had to do with Dodge to all monsters. If that wasn’t wow enough, there also came Resurrect, which is not an ability I have worked much with before. Normally I would focus on speed, but because Resurrect is not an easy ability to work with, I basically built my strategy around NIGHT GHOUL, to make sure he is the one, who gets resurrected. In certain other circumstances, like Back to Basics, tanks like DJINN MUIRAT also do the job. In Lost Magic cases, the EVER-HUNGRY SKULL is also a good option.
There are so many options. ASTRAL ENTITY is one of my favourite summoners but is also a niche summoners. I cannot rely on his attributes to win me a majority of battles. OCTAVIA keeps us waiting and ZINTAR MORTALIS is an old man. THADDIUS BROOD is a great summoner and will probably have a lot to say, when I have to get ready to make a final decision about which splinters will level up. The death deck is my favourite splinter, I have lots of commons and rares just shy of maxing out but I am hesitating. The purple deck will contest for the second splinter for sure. I have another splinter in mind to check out first: the red deck.
See you in the next post!
