In a splinter full of relatively cute cards (see Rexxie... and not the Brownie...), the Nectar Queen is a bit of a nasty looking character. Or maybe I just have a bit of aversion to being stung by bees... there was this one time that I was little, and there was a bee sitting on a ball that I was picking up....
Anyway, the Nectar Queen is a high mana cost (9 mana) Common card that is slow, with a relatively strong attack and high health. On the other hand (at the current card level of 3 for me), it is short on skills with only a flying ability on hand at level 3. This means that despite having high health, it is going to get hit quite a few times before it will have a chance to strike... and there aren't any skills that would enhance the effectiveness of that single strike (it could be nullified by a single point of armour!). Of course, the flying does give a chance to dodge non-magic attacks... but I would rely on that always happening!
So, as a front line tank... it is really quite a bad choice. Rexxie costs less and has a better attacking skill, the Flesh Golem can self heal, the Stone Golem has armour and is resistant to physical attacks... and the ever present Lord Arianthus is a passive-aggressive piece of annoying!
Why why why why... would you even consider playing the Nectar Queen?
The Battle
After a bit of tinkering around and getting a feel for the Nectar Queen (and often failing spectacularly due to the Nectar Queen being a poorer tank than the ones that I listed previously).... I finally found the perfect battle condition to play the Nectar Queen in a surprise role! The battle was a high mana (44 mana limit), Earthquake and no Healing battle.
No healing meant that the usual self healing tanks were less useful, and the Flying skill would mean that I could place the Nectar Queen as a second position sucker punch behind another hard hitting tank (the Goblin Mech). The Health Bonus from the Summoner would give them a hefty amount of health each... which would buy time for the guys at the back to do some serious damage.... and the sheer melee power of the Goblin Mech and Nectar Queen would add to the front-line carnage.
The plan was that the Goblin Mech would lead the way, doing as much damage as possible... and when he would go down, there would be the Nectar Queen playing the same role, but protected from Earthquake damage by the Flying skill!
Brownie went in the 3rd row support position... I need to be as fast as possible to let my two giants actually get a shot in... and the bonus to melee damage was going to make them real killers if they could land a hit!
The Screeching Vulture was the next up... hard hitting (with the Brownie Bonus) and causing a gutting of low health monsters, this has become my favourite Earth Splinter card! With the Scavenger skill he gets even more survivability and the Flying skill keeps him safe in the Earthquake battle condition.
Lastly, I bring up the rear Guard with the Mushroom Seer and Javelin Thrower. In hindsight, I probably should have put the Mushroom Seer in the third position... The Mushroom Seer was present to blunt any Magic attacks (which the Goblin Mech is vulnerable to...) and the hard hitting 3 damage from magic and potential poison is really quite welcome as well! The Javelin Thrower brings up the rear to help with any armour based monsters... as well as having the Dodge skill to defend against rear attacks. There is nothing more satisfying than NOT getting hit!
Round 1
Oddly enough, the opponent has played two monsters that normally are self healing whilst I deliberately avoided them... I figured that those monsters wouldn't have the same power when stripped of their best skill. Also interesting was the choice for NO flying monsters... this will give me an ongoing attrition advantage as the Earthquake will sap their health.
Sadly, I don't get a Poison landing on Rexxie... but it isn't needed, the 6 attack of the Goblin Mech is adequate to take him out after being cut slowly by the other monsters. My Screeching Vulture targets the enemy Mushroom Seer... it will be good to get that guy off the table, I really dislike the magic debuff and the Poison!
I am more than a little bit surprised that the Goblin Mech actually survived the first round! I was expecting him to go down faster than that!... as a bonus, the Earthquake takes out the enemy Mushroom Seer! YEAH! Two kills in the first round for me!
Round 2
Ah well, that nasty strong Mitica Headhunter took down my Goblin Mech before he had a chance to swing in the second round... still, that is 5 damage that is wasted on a Goblin Mech that was on it's last legs anyway!... which brings up the NECTAR QUEEN!... in full Health and ready to land a hit!
... aaaah, that Scavenger! That Opportunity skill is great for gutting the weaker monsters and getting some easy kills! Down goes the last hard hitting enemy Magic monster!
SMACK! Nectar Queen, lays waste to the Flesh Golem with a powerful strike... which brings the Mitica Headhunter to the front position! NEUTRALISED!
From here it is game over, as the ranged monsters of the opposing team are brought to the front position and are nothing better than rag dolls for my monsters to practice on. I do lose the Brownie to the Earthquake... but he isn't needed anymore!
Conclusion
Well, I did finally find a good use for the Nectar Queen in this battle.... serving as the second hard hitting tank behind the Goblin Mech. The Flying Ability was crucial in this battle, as it allowed the Nectar Queen to join in a later round without being damaged by the Earthquake. The speed and melee boost from the Brownie made these two big guys into killing machines that were able to also absorb so much damage from the opposite team.
I would have to say that the star of the show was still the Screeching Vulture... it managed to take out some of the harder hitting enemy monsters (the magic ones) at crucial points... which meant that the two tanks could survive for just one more hit!
I'm still not completely sold on the Nectar Queen as a front-line tank... however, in battles with lots of mana to spare and conditions like melee attack from anywhere and Earthquakes... I can see that she has some use as a high health, high damage monster... just not in the first position!
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