There are some combinations which just seem to go together; tomato and cheese, bread and butter, and the other obvious one, the BLAST ability and Deeplurker In this blog, I want to explore this powerful combination, as it is a match made, well and truly, in an under-the-sea heaven!
To do this, let's start with Deeplurker:
On it's surface, this is a pretty awesome card. It has 7 health, which is solid enough in a backline, especially when paired with Kelya Frendul, who will give him +1 speed and +1 armour. That 1 armour will mean this card will keep his health and be hard to knock down quickly.
Speaking of hard to knock down, the card initially has +4 speed, so it is fast - and likely to be one of the first to get a hit in during a battle. Especially as, again, Kelya Frendul will push his speed out to +5 - it also means he is unlikely to miss an opponent.
Then finally, his attack, +4 Melee. That's huge! It's enough to completely wipe out an opposing card's armour, or, if they don't have armour, to kill them in one hit.
The key part of this card is also his opportunity ability, this means he will hit the opponent on the opposing team with the lowest health - which is often a pesky support card that helps out a tank - so this guy will destory the backrow, while the remainder of your cards remove the tank.
This guy is amazing!
My card is Level 5, and it is leveled so I can make use of it in in my Silver league battles, but I did want to check out it's complete stats, just for some perspective.
In the end, I was incredibly impressed. This is one hot card, even at Level 1 - it's 3 melee attack is amazing!! At present, I have this card 23/40 on the way to having a Level 6. I can't play a Level 6 yet - but it gets pretty awesome, having the ability to poison an opponent.
To celebrate the card, I decided to buy the remaining 17 cards. They were a bit more expensive than I remembered at 26 cents each, so perhaps I am getting a bargain by buying them before I actually need them. Will call it an investment (and, I pulled 1450 DEC from a daily chest yesterday, so in my mind, that balances out nicely)
The next consideration is how to make this DEEPLURKER into a very, very strong strategic weapon in the BLAST ruleset.
This ruleset can be absolutely suited to DEEPLURKER - BLAST means that whoever you hit, the cards on either side will take damage, albeit somewhat reduced. For a monster like DEEPLURKER, his opportunity will mean he's hitting in the backrow, and damaging cards on both sides (3 cards will take damage), while if you hit the tank only the tank + 1 card will damage (2 cards, instead of 3).
Hitting with 4 damage means that the cards either side will also take +2 damage on - enough to ruin a shield, or start to eat away at health. The key here, is high attack, quick boots and the opportunity skill.
It brings me to my final piece of the strategic puzzle. That puzzle is speed:
In the blast strategy, I keep it simple.
- I value speed. If my cards are hitting first, I can take down many of my opponent's cards before he gets a hit off.
- I value high attack. I want to hit and cause carnage.
Kelya Frendul helps with that strategy by giving me the speed, and a BLAST protection with the +1 armour.
So let's get to the BLAST + DEEPLURKER Battle:
This ruleset is very interesting, and not one you see often. The 'Earthquake' skillset is always interesting, and tempts opponents to go into a flying line-up, which sometimes can be weak. For this battle, my strategy is to keep is really simple. Go in with a heavy attack, go with speed, and ignore the earthquake. I don't want a long battle!!
To help me out, I put my DIEMONSHARK out the front. This is my go-to tank in water, and I play it with DEEPLURKER a lot! Again, with the BLAST ruleset, I value this guy because he has huge speed, with Kelya - it pops to +5 boots. He is also incredibly meaty - with 6 armour and 8 health, this guy doesn't mess around. Also - his trample skill is sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. If my opponent puts a 1 mana nothing card out front, he'll kill it, and keep going. His enrage ability will also pop his melee attack to +5 - and he'll beast his way through an opponent's lineup.
My Backrow:
Looking at my backrow, you'll note that the mana limitations this week have meant my team doesn't have a lot of depth. Instead, I was happy to pay a higher mana price in order to meet my aggressive speed attack.
25 Mana:
8 for Tank, 7 for off-tank, 6 for Deeplurker, 0 for my back-shield.
There are two parts of this line that I like.
The first is The Flying Squid
Like the other cards, his speed will be raised up to +5. This means all my attackers will have 5 Speed and look to really get aggressive in hitting first. With BLAST - I'd hope Deeplurker would hit 3 cards, Squid 2, Diemon 2. That's perhaps 7 hits total before my opponent starts. In short - I want him weak before he even begins.
The Squid has the REACH ability, this means that he is able to sit in the off-tank position, with his high health to protect him from BLAST, and hit my opponent's tank. He's basically a second tank and with that +3 Melee, he will work well in partnership with the DIEMONSHARK to attack hard from the front, while the DEEPLURKER goes around the back.
The 0 mana TORRENT FIEND has one singular purpose: if my opponent plays SNEAK or OPPORTUNITY - I want the FIEND to take the hit and die, and give my other cards a bit of protection. As he will have 1 armour and 1 health, he'll be able to take 2 hits before he falls out of the battle - as far as purpose goes, his purpose is to get smashed!
This is how the battle gets underways:
Ok, let's have a look at how the battle went, have a look at this video. Trust me, it's short!
As you can see, this battle was on from the start. My opponent played a gold foil team with a lot of depth. But, I could see how this battle would be won. His mistake was playing his 1 health ooze in the second last position, this means my DEEPLURKER will hit him, and the two on either side of him. Had he put the ooze in the final position, his cards would be far more protected.
At the end of round 1, you can see, the initial hits have taken a lot of armour from both sides, and I've lost my rear defense:
But then the EARTHQUAKE kicks in, and my opponent's position was weakened far more than me. At this point, I deserved to be confident, knowing my high melee attacks would take 2 cards at a time. You'll see also, the DIEMONSHARK is set up to TRAMPLE - with no armour left on the cards in front of him, and all with health lower than his own attack.
So what's the verdict?
- DEEPLURKER and BLAST are really a dream team. The potential to decimate opponents and earn a quick win is something to be valued - if the battle drags on, you need a better strategy than 'hit quick and hit hard'. I like to keep it simple, so this worked a treat.
- Regarding the battle and the way it played out, I think my opponent differed to me by playing 4 attacking cards, to my 3. This lowered his ability to really hit hard, as a higher mana card may have done, or had longevity. He splits his attack also - 2 attacking with SNEAK, and 2 attacking the tank. Perhaps he should have considered four tank facing cards to concentrate his damage.
- And now my DEEPLURKER is Level 6 - I can't wait to get to the gold league, to level up my Kelya Frendul and play him with POISON!! Imagine that, if I had poison AND earthquake working in tandem!
Thanks for joining me, for another Splinter Chat! This blog was put together as part of Splinterlands' weekly 'Share-Your-Battle' challenge. Have you put yours together yet?
LordTimoty
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