This season, I am focusing on my Death splinter!
This splinter is my weakest right now, and I want to convert it to one of my strongest! Similarly to my post on best entry-level Dragon summoner I will run through each of the available Death summoners, diagnose their strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately choose my top one or two recommendations for new summoners.
My situation is a bit different from last season when I was working on my dragon deck - my card collection now has specific strengths and weaknesses that I have noticed over the last season which I want to address. As I wrote about in my last post, I have found that I am very weak in the following types of matches:
- No dragon or earth - I don't have a 3rd splinter to back these 2 up, and having both of these splinters ruled out is fairly common
- No melee and no earth - If melee is banned then my dragon deck is useless. So it's earth or nothing.
- No magic and no dragon - if magic is banned then my earth deck is useless.
- Non-Legendary, Untamed only - my Llama is legendary and Daria is a Reward cards which means that they cannot play in the Untamed only non-legendary tournaments. I need to make sure at least one of my summoners comes from the untamed pack.
- 4's and below games are not great for me, especially if dragons are also banned. If dragons are allowed I can sometimes pull off a win w/ Dragon/Fire using the Serpentine Assassin w/ +1 attack.
So, let's get into the Death summoners! There are 6 to choose from.
Contessa L'ament
Stats:
- Rare Summoner
- Untamed Edition
- Power - Ranged -1
- Market Value - $0.343
- Fully Leveled - $39.45
Pros:
- Cheapest per BCX and cheapest fully leveled
- -1 range power would fit in relatively well with my dragon deck which is melee. - Battles when I am not using that deck will tend to be battles where ranged attacks are favored - hence the -1 range will be useful.
- I need a good Untamed summoner that isn't legendary for the untamed tourneys that don't allow them.
- Still being printed - price could go up
Cons:
- -1 range isn't especially powerful
- Fully leveled price is very high
Owster Rotwell
Stats:
- Rare Summoner
- Dice Edition
- Power - Magic Reflect
- Market Value - $0.446
- Fully Leveled - $51.29
Pros:
- Magic reflect is a cool power - could easily tilt games that have a heavy magic component.
- Power would fit in well with my existing melee dragon deck for the same reason as above - games that penalize melee or favor magic are likely to be games that I don't want to use the dragon deck and so will be using this one.
- Still being printed - price could go up
Cons:
- I may be wrong, but magic reflect seems like it could be a good low-level skill (b/c health is lower) but not scale that well at high levels.
- Power would fit in well with my existing melee dragon deck for the same reason as above - games that penalize melee or favor magic are likely to be games that I don't want to use the dragon deck and so will be using this one.
Zintar Mortalis
Stats:
- Rare Summoner
- Beta Edition
- Power - Melee -1
- Market Value - $0.470
- Fully Leveled - $54.05
Pros:
- -1 Melee can be quite good - probably marginally more useful that -1 range
- I see a lot of players using Zintar
Cons:
- -1 melee doesn't stack especially well with my dragon deck, since if Melee is favored then I will probably be wanting to use the dragon deck
- Beta edition is out of print, and so probably already priced up
Jarlax the Undead
Stats:
- Epic Summoner
- Beta Edition
- Power - None (but 2 mana)
- Market Value - $1.074
- Fully Leveled - $49.40
Pros:
- 2 mana is always useful, especially in low mana games
- Cheap on a fully-leveled basis
Cons:
- No powers
- Beta, so price may already be high
Mimosa Nightshade
Stats:
- Legendary Summoner
- Untamed Edition
- Power -1 range, Void, Affliction...but 7 mana
- Market Value - $7.75
- Fully Leveled - $85.25
Pros:
- Great powers, effectively takes out ranged and magic - so in rulesets w/ no melee this would be deadly
Cons:
- Expensive
- 7 mana, too mana expensive for some rulesets
- Did I mention expensive?
Crypt Mancer
Stats:
- Legendary Summoner
- Beta Edition
- Power -1 melee, -1 speed, -1 health...but 5 mana
- Market Value - $13.50
- Fully Leveled - $148.50
Pros:
- This guy is a beast...-1 melee, -1 speed, -1 health really takes out the enemy team. And for 5 mana, not 7.
Cons:
- Way out of my price range
- Price is likely maxed - don't see it going up any higher from here
Conclusion
So, which should I choose? I am tentatively leaning towards either Contessa and Jarlax - both seem to fit in well with my current decks, and they're at a price that isn't too terrible. Let me know if you have a favorite Death summoner in the comments, and see you next time.
-Brucolac