When you think about tanker card from Water Splinter, the first thing come to mind would be Diemonshark. With a solid 6 armor and 7 health (and the enormous 4 speed!) at only Level 1, makes Diemonshark a primadona tanker not only in Water but maybe across all Splinter. But is it really Diemonshark the right choice as a tanker? Here we will take a closer look of Diemonshark stats and abilities.
Melee card is card type with the most vast collection, including in Water Splinter which prominent in card with high speed. As you can see in the above chart which maps the Damage per Mana and Health per Mana of various melee card; Diemonshark started at level 1, with mediocre rating. The damage output is outpowered by most melee card, and the health is still in the mid to high range (although it's much far better when calculating the 6 armor). What more surprising is at Max Level, Diemonshark was so far left behind from other cards. Here we get to the first fact, that Diemonshark is great at lower level but falter behind at higher level. But this is not entirely true, as we will outline the strength and weakness of Diemonshark.
(Notes: The above chart focus only on health and damage which tend to scale parallel with mana. Speed are not included because varies for high or low mana. Armor and abilities are also not included since its rather complex to be compared. This chart looks a bit ugly as some card placed offside from the grid. There's miss-calculation of how far melee damage-mana ratio might stretch out. This shall be remedied in the further post).
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| 1. High armor, health, and speed. A powerful tanker and ninja card. Opponent melee and ranged attack not only have to deal with the armor but also with accuracy. | 1. Magic is the only thing that penetrates a thick armor. Thus Diemonshark won't last facing high magic damage. |
| 2. Various abilities was added to compensate the lower stats growth. Trample is good enough, but Enrage was magnificent, and then Retaliate just make the full circle. | 2. The overall stats grow are low, and happened only on health and damage. This cause Diemonshark more and more vulnerable at higher level. |
Market Price Analysis
Market price for Diemonshark looks quite stable in the past 180 days. As per this post was made, the regular price is $ 0.43, and the gold foil price is $ 4.90. With regular and gold foil ratio still floating at 1 : 10/11; it's ambivalence to pick between both. But considering the regular already hit almost half dollar, your personal budget should become considered first. For the gold card, as the price haven't touch double the budget for regular card to reach the gold foil with the same level; then purchasing gold foil still affordable.
Progression Analysis
As been mentioned befoer. Diemonshark don't make much stats growth. But this slow growth compensated by the various abilities it attained. First is Enrage. While other card only benefit from damage boost, Diemonshark make double time, by boosting damage from 3 to 5, and speed from 4 to 6. It's very slick! And then there is Retaliate. It is like backup plan, where every damage landing Diemonshark will make the counter-attack. This traits concludes one thing about Diemonshark. It's a Tanker at lower level, but a Striker at higher level.
Here are some of the battle experience
Battle 1
Battle 2
Battle 3