Wanted to do a bit of gameplay analysis on what is definitely my new favorite card. I'm playing at the Gold Level, and Baakjira is, in my opinion, the most versatile card in Splinterlands right now!
For only 6 mana he's almost a must play when going with the water splinter. You'll see four battles in which I use him in four completely different ways to get the win.
Battle #1: Blast Soaker
In this first battle I had an opponent that played this exact lineup every single time water was an available splinter, so I decided I would focus all their damage to the back with my Wave Brood and then use Baakjira to soak up all the blast damage from the Rule Of The Seas and the Pirate Archer. The void on both the Wave Brood and Baakjira would also cut down on the magic damage being put out from the Ruler Of The Seas and the Djinn.
As you will see from the video, my Wave Brood survives just long enough for us to take out the Kraken and the Baakjira wins us this match in fatigue.
Battle #2: Secondary Tank
In this second battle my opponent loved to play earth, but would frequently switch between archery + snipe and magic plays. Luckily, the Baakjira has us covered for both!
I used him as a secondary tank to soak up and heal himself from any snipe damage with the idea he would slide into the first position if they went full magic and my Diemonshark got destroyed. As you'll see from the video, Baakjira takes a snipe and then soaks up a ton of damage once he slides into the first position, giving just enough time for our main damage dealers to get the job done!
Battle #3: Main Tank
In this third battle I must admit I was caught completely off-guard. My opponent had been spamming water magic in all of his recent battles, so I wanted to use the Baakjira and its void to soak that up. However, he went with a combination of magic and range, and even nerfed my range, which was most of my damage!
The Baakjira only got to heal once before he was afflicted, but his high HP (and a little bit of luck) bought us enough time to get the job done!
Battle #4: Cheese Play!
This one was a fun one! Wanted to try out a complete cheese play in this low mana match to see if my opponent could get out enough damage. Reminds me a little bit of a modern cube (without the scavenge). Could definitely see this card becoming a poison meta in the modern format!