Just Keep Swimming - Using Kulu Swimhunter in Battle!

This week's Share Your Battle challenge features Kulu Swimhunter! This is another one of the cards that is in the starter set but doesn't normally get a lot of play from me, so it's a great opportunity to try some new things out this week.

Kulu Swimhunter is a super cost efficient ranged attacker. At level 1, for just 4 mana you get 2 ranged attack, along with a respectable 2 speed and 4 health. The 2nd attack point is what makes Swimhunter great, as not many other cards will get you that second point of attack on a ranged monster. So I was on the lookout for a battle with a low to mediumish mana cap, where I can use Kulu Swinhunter to pump out some extra damage.

If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup? Read on further!

First up: the ruleset. This was a decent ruleset for Kulu Swimhunter because 34 mana is the sweet spot where a cost-effective ranged attacker might be able to help out our team. The Equal Opportunity ruleset is nice too, since it means that all of our monsters should be focus firing on whatever is weakest on the other side of the map - that means that Swimhunter's 2 damage will count as much as possible!.

Kelya is a great all-around summoner, and since Kulu Swimhunter is a water monster we need to pick a water summoner anyway. Kelya works well with this ruleset because the armor buff helps the weakest monsters on my team to live just a tiny bit longer. The bonus speed is always helpful too - being able to attack sooner and possibly get an extra dodge or two in can make all the difference.

I started my team with my tank and secondary tank. Serpent of Eld is amazing as a tank any time you don't expect your opponent to use heavy amounts of magic damage. It works extra well in Equal Opportunity because its low (for a tank) health will make it become a target relatively early, which lets it put its Dodge ability to good use and (hopefully) waste as many enemy attacks as possible. Djinn Oshannus is an all-around good card - I used it here as my hedge against my opponent using magic attacks, and its 5 speed plus 2 magic damage means it should stick around for a while, and do decent damage the whole time.

My midline was a mix of stalling and damage. Torrent Fiend was a free barrier to try and soak up a bit of damage - with just a single hit point it should get targeted first, and Kelya's summoner bonus will give it an extra point of armor. Nerissa deals out a beastly THREE magic damage, and should pile on the hurt from the middle of my lineup. I should note here that I did get a little lucky with my rentals - I just so happened to have Nerissa in gold foil for this battle, which is not always the case.

My back line also came with a mix of damage and evasion. Our guest star of the week, Kulu Swimhunter, gives us 2 ranged attack for the bargain cost of 4 mana. With opportunity, it'll hopefully be hitting where it hurts. Ice Pixie, like Torrent Fiend, has a single health point and should be an early target. She isn't an EASY target though, as with 3 speed and flying she's pretty difficult to hit!

With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I am hopeful - my opponent has brought a lineup heavy on melee damage. That means that Kelya's bonus armor will help my team absorb some extra hits, and that my evasion skills with have a chance of working. On top of that, my magic damage will bypass the enemy armor and Shield abilities too!

round 1.png

Opportunity battles tend to start off with a bang as the weakest monsters quickly get picked off, and this one was no exception - in the first couple of rounds down goes my Fiend, along with the opposing Scorcher and Bruiser. My ice pixie is just barely hanging in there, but other than that it's just the big boys and girls left. The battle is definitely looking good for me, as I still have all of my magic damage left plus Kulu Swimhunter, which should make quick work of a Fire lineup which hasn't brought any magic mitigation.

round 3.png

It did take a couple more rounds for the battle to be decided, but in the end it wasn't close at all. In fact, I didn't even lose my front tank! And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.

round 5.png

My plan of spreading the enemy lineup's damage across low HP and evasion monsters while some heavy hitters push out the damage ended up working perfectly. Kulu Swimhunter did solid work in this battle, sitting in the back and helping my lineup to pick off the enemy monsters one by one. While my water lineups to date haven't included Kulu Swimhunter much since I usually go with compositions heavy on melee or magic damage, after getting to try it out some more this week I think I'm a fan - it's very cost effective, and does fit well into certain rulesets!

Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:

I Made it to 15K Collection Power, and You Can Too! - Tips for Setting and Achieving Goals - How to effectively set goals and achieve them, in Splinterlands and in your life.
This Match Was Not So Radiant - Using Radiated Brute in Battle! - This past week's battle challenge, featuring Radiated Brute!
Splinterlands Economics: Moral Hazard - An introduction to the concept of moral hazard, and how being aware of it can help us in Splinterlands.

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All images used in this article are open source and obtained from Pixabay or Unsplash. Thumbnail borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Canva.