The most effective use of the Carrion Shade is to make a pun in your post thumbnail and to be punched in the face while more useful cards do their job.
Being punched in the face is a great job, ask Amir Khan, it just isn't as exciting as some of the other cards in Splinterlands, but for 1 mana what do expect, flying!? Oh, he gets that at level 3, sweet that is useful, especially in the earthquake ruleset but in the bronzest of bronze leagues that isn't useful, yet.
Let's take a look at Woody Woodpeckers' evil cousin
Best Uses
The most frequent use I have for the Carrion Shade is either a sneak attack/opportunity attack blocker particularly useful in low mana games, where the death deck shines in the lower leagues.
So once I read the challenge post by Splinterlands I had a cup of tea, pulled my socks up and got cracking.
Pre-Battle
General Ruleset-18 Mana-All Splinters
This is exactly the kind of mana range that I was looking for, I saw my opponent used fire in the last 3 of their 5 matches, so I took an educated guess that they would use fire again.
My Line Up
| First Position | Second Position | Third Position | Fourth Position |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
Due to my overwhelming fear that they would use living lava I figured I would go for a concentrated sneak attack.
With 18 mana if they pick Living Lava with Tarsa that only gives them 7 mana remaining which means they can either go Serpentine Spy (3 mana) or Tenyii Striker(5 mana), they can't be greedy and have both.
My sneak monsters both with 3 speed, I felt like I had a chance.
Round One
I'll tell you my first reaction when I saw this line-up, 💩
Ok, I'll say it, what is Brightly doing in the novice league!? That is a $23 card, you should be trolling elsewhere good sir.
So quick maths tells me that Fire Hair is going to blow up my Badger and my Danger Noodle is going to ruin his Rioting Goblin but Cursed Windeku vs He-Whos-Name-I-Can't-Remember looks bad, real bad.
Round Two
So it looks like fire hair doesn't have enough to take out the Curse Windeku so Danger Noodle will take her out next. I'm starting to think Carrion Shade was a poor choice.
Round Three
Ok, it's going to happen...the punched is going to become the puncher, how the tables have rotated. Carrion Shade won me the battle! I never doubted them, the most dangerous and scary Pidgeon in Splinterlands.
Did your strategy work?
Yes, but more by accident than design, it seems like Carrion Shade is He-Whos-Name-I-Can't-Remember's weakness which I didn't see coming.
Do you like the CARRION SHADE? Why or why not?
I think Carrion Pi..er...Shade is a great card. It does the thankless task of taking hits and very occasionally winning matches.
This is my first post of many about Splinterlands, thanks for taking the time to read it. If you have any advice or feedback give me a shout.
