The challenge this week was to showcase Spark Pixies, from the Fire Splinter.
Slight problem
The Fire Splinter is my 'duff splinter' - here's my summoners....
Because I'm leveling up my decks on a budget, I long ago sacrificed the Fire Splinter, trading my cards from that deck in for others, and I usually sell all my Fire Reward cards, so I simply never play Fire.
I do have a playable deck atm, because I recently bought 80 packs of untamed cards, most of which I decided to hodl, irrespective of splinter, and I buy the odd Untamed fire summoner as an investment (it's all about the summoners!) The problem is, even with all my fire cards combined, I've only got a level 2 deck, whereas my other decks have summoner levels 6-8, which has me firmly in the Diamond Leagues, and so there's no way I'm going to win with a level 2 fire deck until I tumble way back down the league tables.
Enter the alt account
However my alt account @self-track just happens to be right down in the very bottom, beginner leagues, and has a set of level 1 summoners sitting in that, along with a few other cards, so I put my Spark Pixies from this account on the market and bought them from myself, to avoid the cooldown period that comes with transferring. Nice!
Playing Spark Pixies down the levels
I can't really comment on rule sets, because down here all you seem to get is 'no modifications', which I guess makes sense if you've cards which don't yet have their buffs.
So here is one 'no modifications to gameplay' battle in which Spark Pixies at level 1 came in useful. Careful, blink and you'll miss it.
For starters, Spark Pixies offers the highest damage against this opponent - whose death splinter neutralizes the +1 melee attack buff I get from Fire.
Secondly, the flying ability means increased chance of evading attack, which is very useful down here as everyone plays sneak including me (that much I do remember from when I started out, that hasn't changed!).
Did my strategy work?
Yup - in round one, Sparkies go first and take out the Dwarf's shields, then Cerebus finishes him off.
Then my opponent's snipe attack misses Sparkies, thanks to flying, then it's all over... the Giant Rock takes out the elf, now in the front row, leaving my opponent with one ranged attack for to finish off in round 2.
How important was Sparkies?
Useful in this battle I think, but needs to be combined with the others. So very useful as part of a wider line up.
The 4 mana is pretty cheap for a 2 ranged attack down here, although an obvious weakness is his/ her health.
In another relatively high mana battle here I opted for the cyclops at the back, as he has 5 health - and he nicely soaked up my opponent's double sneak attack, one of which was magic (Earth Splinter), so Pixies would have been wiped out round 1!
How useful would a maxed out Spark-Pixie's card be higher up?
At max level, for four Mana, you get a lightening speed card with 3 attack, and stun, which kind of goes with the 'Spark', nice touch! This means it is almost certainly going to hit first on, and maybe stop a tank from attacking and healing, which could be a game-winner right there.
It also has both flying and dodge, which means there's a good chance it might evade a couple of sneak attacks and do repeat damage and stun, possibly to your opponents second card in the second round.
I don't play fire, but I like this card, but I can really see this card being useful in mid-mana battles, and I won't be happy man if I see a maxed out spark pixies in my future opponents' line ups!
Final thoughts - playing down at the lower levels - some very short battles!
I haven't been down in the pre-bronze leagues for a while! Talk about a different experience!
Firstly, I found most battles simply have 'no modification' rules in place, fair enough when there's no buffs and people are just starting out, but it does make the game quite 'routine'.
Health, or lack of it can be a real problem - Pixies fit in here, and my neutral flying Pixie got sniped in round 1 practically every battle.
EVERYONE plays Double Sneak!