For those not familiar Fabino is a rare summoner card which costs 5 mana and has a tactic of either poisoning one unit or granting two units +2 melee damage. Either is pretty fun. I've used the poision to take out troublesome units quickly however, I find it far more fun to make some units hit real hard. Tactically, not always the best though. However, when you've got a serious tank like endless ape, it's a bit of a no brainer since that beefy guy is gonna stay standing for quite a few rounds.(most likley. sometimes people can pull some pretty intense stuff)
When to use them?
I love pairing these two with the enrage rule set. That extra boost to damage and speed turns an already potent combo into something nigh unstoppable. I'll show you in match.
It was a fairly high mana fight with enrage. I don't love the limited amount of people, but I coped. I had the Folen flame eye first in line since he's got decent attack, decent health and his flank ablity allows the Endless Ape to attack as well.
I chose Rune archaist because she does decent damage and lowers the opponents health by one. And then the Fenmoor wood troll becuase blind is a great status effect when expecting a melee centric team.(Which I didn't get, but no regrets) plus two damage is decent.
So lets see how the fight shook out.
I was a bit worried at this pint as it's not even through round one and Flame eye was zapped out. I was hoping they'd at least last one round. Shock troopper is a def a potent card. That is a lot of damage from a card that only costs four mana to play.
however the combined might of the Fenmoor troll and the Rune archavist took out the grimbaulen fighter.(Whose a great card betedubs)
The relief is short lived though, as my endless ape nearly goes down, but thanks to the 1 health from their tank going down, the endless ape holds on.
However, i breath a little easier when the combination of Electrified, and my backliners, take out my opponents Great Bear druid(great card from the foundation set), I breath easier.
Then the ape takes out their shocktropper gaining yet another health. And then the poor Chaos Adjunct goes down to the Rune archivist.
Battle link https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_5032529ad7314631a60848074f52f26a?ref=artofkylin
What are the downsides of this Duo?
The first and most obvious downside of this duo is the mana cost. Fabino costs five mana and endless ape costs 8, so a total of thirteen mana means it's not at all viable for low mana matches.
The other major downside is that Endless ape only has 2 speed. This is a pretty serious downside as it means a lot of units will go before him. This was part of why i put Flame eye in front, and why I like to pair him with the enrage rule set as it beefs the speed, but it makes the fact he's likely to get hit before he goes less of a bad thing.
The last downside is that it's all melee damage so units with shield will slow it down a lot as shown in the example fight.
Other good rule sets?
I also like really like this pairing in the super sneak rule set as it often means that a lot of units get picked off quickly beefing up endless apes health even more. The broken armour ruleset, which means no armour for anyone, is also great since that means the damage from the boosted units goes straight to health.
The reverse speed ruleset is also great for these two as it goes from Endless ape being one of the slowest to one of the fastest.
Bad rule sets?
Putting aside those that eliminate the possibility such as keep your distance or little league, briar patch which gives everyone thorns is not awesome for these two. I prefer to do a mostly ranged or use Bella for that rule set. Endless Ape is also a strange one to take into the born again rule set as it does mean a potential double health boost with units dying twice, but, as they revive with one health, the ape gets limited bonus from it. That said, I've done it and gotten him up to 16 health due to units dying multiple times. It was silly.
Final thoughts
In the right ruleset and battle conditions, but by no means is the best choice all the time. But it is a great choice some of the time.
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