A Fruiting Body
As an adversarial fungus I suspect the bright orange cap and woven textures of the Mycelic Slipspawn are only a small part of an extensive network of mycelia. Fungi are some of the most beautiful and interesting degraders and producers in the natural world. Mushrooms that spring up after it rains, as in a fairy ring, define the border of its broader underground parent.
Mycelic Slipspawn was first found on the edges of the swamps of Praetoria, in areas where the fetid waters meet with the forests and jungles. It is highly toxic and grows to a substantial size. Death is uncommon for those who touch its fibrous body however, the side effects of its toxins can cause a long list of illnesses and disease, leaving its victims severely debilitated. --Splinterlands lore
Fungi can exist as hyphae, mycelia, spores and fruiting bodies. And of course many are toxic! I like to imagine the feisty Slipspwn fruits not in the rain, but perhaps when it senses fear.
When the chaos portal opened and the creeping plague infected the land, the Slipspawn struggled to endure, being completely intolerant to the deadly pandemic. But then Queen Mycelia came, she touched the Slipspawn as she passed it by and it drank from her power, an enduring energy that ran deep and defiantly cast the pestilence of the chaos taint aside. The Slipspawn pulled its roots free from the ground and eagerly danced across the leafy forest floor after her, desperate to follow its saviour and stand by her in the times to come. -- Splinterlands lore
No one is safe. Happy foraging!
Abilities
This nine mana rare monster has the incredibly useful taunt ability, along with ten life, two damage and two speed the Slipspawn is an incredibly useful add to an Earth lineup. Leveling the Slipspawn up to level four will provide the Forcefield ability, and at max level it also has the slow ability.
Strategy
There are a few considerations when using the Slipspawn. First, it requires quite a bit of mana, but needs to be able to withstand the battering that it is going to take as a result of the taunt ability. This can be difficult because in high mana battles there are a lot of strong monsters. Second, in explosion rulesets taunt is extremely useful to spare other monsters, but it is important to place Slipspawn at the front of back of the lineup to limit splash damage. Pairing with a monster that has a reflection shield can also be good here. Third, there are quite a few good tank healers in the Earth lineup, and if Slipspawn is in the first position healing can help it last much longer. Lastly, the taunt ability subverts rules like Equal Opportunity and Super Sneak, allowing both weaker monsters or monsters in the back line to survive longer. Luckily Slipspawn is not susceptible to the Giant Killer ability, coming in one mana below the requirement, but it will be important to consider that it will be susceptible to the new Fury ability.
The lineup I have chosen to feature here comes from a Scarred Hand Novice Tournament which is a Chaos only, no Legendaries, and all Summoners and Monsters are played at level 1 which is a great place to make use of the Mycelic Slipspawn. The rules:
- Equal Opportunity: The lowest health monster is targeted by all which are not in the tank/first position. Monsters with Reach in the second position does not adhere to this rule.
- Odd ones out: Only odd monsters may be used in this battle.
- 30 mana cap: Moderate mana
- Earth, Life, Death & Dragon available: There is the caveat that Dragon is unavailable, because Quix is the only Chaos Dragon summoner and he is a Lego.
I chose Earth because magic damage subverts shields and the use of Mycelic Slipspawn should allow even squishy monsters to live longer. Additionally, there are pretty paltry choices for odd mana cards in Life and the does not have a taunt, and the available retinue for odds are fairly low health.
Lineup
Watch the full battle!
Obsidian is the Summoner and gives +1 magic damage to every monster.
In the first position I put the Chaos agent, who should not be taking much heat here, and serves as a low mana shield.
Mycelic Morphoid is another low mana monster who should not be taking much heat and serves mainly to fill the lineup and help divert tank attacks from the Mycelic Slipspawn.
Mycelic Slipspawn in the third position will be attracting a lot of attention diverting it away from and effectively shielding other monsters weaker monsters.
Hill giant adds additional damage and may be able to survive for a when if Slipspawn goes down.
The Disintegrator in the fifth position helps to decrease damage from melee attacks by -1, and will also be the target of Opportunity attacks after Chaos Agent, Morphoid, and Slipspawn go down. It helps that he gets a shield as well, because as you'll see later Demoralize is useless.
Finally the Regal Peryton is sitting back here elegantly, doing two magic damage with five speed.
Analysis
Rounds One & Two
My opponent had a similar idea, and also taunted me with a Slipspawn, but I had more attackers overall by placing Hill Giant as an Equal Opportunity attacker and placing Chaos Agent in the tank position was able to reduce the Slipspawn health more quickly, to start targeting the weakest monsters. My opponent did add the Meteor Gem, which has Scattershot and hit my Hill Giant making it susceptible to Equal Opportunity.
Rounds Three & Four
At the top of Round Three my Slipspawn finally went down. But the loss of the opponent Hill Giant left Meteor Gem in the tank position where it was no longer able to attack leaving only poor Peryton.
Rounds Five & Six
In the final rounds my Peryton and Disintegrator, who were shielded by Mycelic Slipspawn were able to survive and take out the Peryton.
Thanks for reading!