Here be dragons
I've just finished reading a book called The Cartographers by Peng Shepard, and I've been thinking about the imagination imbued in maps by their creators. The Cartographers story revolves around events that take place in the New York Public Library, which also happens to be home to the Hunt-Lenox globe where the famous saying hic sunt dracones (here be dragons) is engraved into a poorly explored region on the globe.
And in the Borgia map created sometime in the early 15th century features images of creatures flying the mountains.
Mapmakers would often fill the void of the unknown using images of imaginary creatures like dragons and sea serpents as a warning that because we can't really know whether dragons are lurking in these unexplored regions of the world there may be danger lurking there.
So, for this week's battle challenge I chose to feature the Void Dragon whose lore suggests that he spends most of his time in the clouds like the Borgia dragons and is as interesting and dangerous as a dragon can be!
Void Dragon
Reaching for the roiling fumes above, [Uul] scooped a generous portion from the sky and toyed with it, morphing the noxious cloud into different shapes. When a fell bat swooped by, he tossed the energy that had grown within the swirling mist at the creature, and the two collided in a fusion of angry hisses. What flew out of the resultant vapors was truly a marvel indeed. A sleek, almost feline body cavorted through the air; with multiple eyes and a peculiar bat-like snout, it was a dragon dissimilar to any that had come before.
--Void Dragon creation lore from Splinterlands.com
Abilities
The energy bat that is Void Dragon is a quick creature that does magic damage and has a fair amount of health. His void ability is really useful for magic lineups, as it absorbs the damage from these types of attacks. Additionally, like a lot of dragons he is a flying creature which in combination with his speed increases the chance for a missed attack.
I only have a level 1 Void Dragon, but as he levels up he gains additional health, followed by the phase ability which allows him to dodge magic, and an additional damage.
Lineup
Watch the Battle!
I chose Delwyn Dragonscale as my Summoner because he gives every monster an additional magic attack, and paired him with the water splinter.
I used Wave Brood in the first/tank position because he has the taunt ability and high health. This will help draw attacks away so that at least in the first round everyone in the back of the line can both attack and maintain their shields for a second round.
In the second position I placed Djinn Oshannus because he is quick, does a lot of damage, and also has void. After the loss of Wave Brood he makes a solid tank, although the damage will be spread out because of the ruleset.
Nerissa Tridawn is a heavy hitter especially combined with Delwyn, but less speedy, and I decided to put her in the third position.
In the fourth spot the Wavesmith provides two additional armor to everyone, and still does magic damage. Because of the Equal Opportunity ruleset I thought that my opponent may use some heavy melee or ranged damage and opted for him over the additional damage that I could have done with Magi of Chaos.
In the fifth spot, it was a toss up between Tortisian Chief and Magi of Chaos, I had enough mana and they both fit the brief, but I went with the Chief because he fit the beach theme of the rest of my lineup better.
Finally, the Void Dragon waits. I kept him back here in case my opponent decided to get sneaky. Void Dragon has a decent amount of health combined with a high chance at evasion making him good sneak protection.
Analysis
I leaned into magic damage to subvert any armor that could be a good protection against melee or ranged opportunity while buffing my own armor. I also included two void monsters to help ease the pain of potential magic damage. Dragon worked really nicely here because it gave me the opportunity to use Delwyn to buff magic of the water monsters. I also considered pairing with earth, but Oshannus and Nerissa's damage and health were the deciding factors. (When I put the earth lineup that I was considering into Splintertools it predicted that I would have been completely demolished.)
In the first round all the damage went to my Wave Brood, but he survived the onslaught. My opponent also directed round one damage to Kraken, but magic was able to slip underneath the shields and remove him from the battlefield.
At the top of the second round, super speedy Phantom of the Abyss took out my Wave Brood. Because Kraken went down early Void Dragon was able to take out Crustean King, eliminating the heal. My Oshannus missed his doppelganger because of the Phase ability (I need that!), but my shields came in handy protecting both Wavesmith from opportunity and Void Dragon from sneak allowing Tortisian Chief to remove the Pelacor Bandit. The rest of the opportunity damage was aimed at Deeplurker, but he held on by a thread.
In the third round Void Dragon removed Deeplurker. Unfortunately, my Oshannus is still flailing at the front of the line and misses again. Then Nerissa and the Chief worked together to knock out Phantom of the Abyss.
All damage in round 4 went to the opposing Oshannus, who still managed to survive. And in round 5 my Oshannus misses yet again! But the doppelganger eventually goes down.
I ran the battle through Splintertools and had a 100% win rate. So my all magic strategy paid off.
I think the Void Dragon is really useful for protecting against sneak damage although it relies on evasion. It is even helpful against potential for sneak magic damage (available with Coral Wrath). I also use the Void Dragon as a tank in moderate mana combined with a magic nerf if there is a strong potential for my opponent to use magic or as a second for magic blast damage if that is a strong possibility.
Best of luck on the battlefield where there are actually dragons.