They don’t all fly, and they don’t breathe fire, but the dragons in Splinterlands are as fearsome as any of legend.
This week’s “Share Your Battle” feature is dragons. The dragon splinter is unique in the game of Splinterlands.When using a dragon summoner you can use members of the dragon splinter and members of one other splinter of your choosing. This can make for some very interesting combinations.
But for this battle I went off script and fielded an all dragon team. It’s a dragons challenge, right? So why not do it up all the way!
Curiously, I believe this is the first time I have ever used a team with all dragon members. And that's not surprise. Being able to use members of a second splinter is one of the dragons greatest strengths. But for the battle I fought, I firmly believe all-dragon was the way to go.
While playing with my “Spellbook Only Challenge” account, I drew what I thought would be a good match to give the dragons a whirl. The battle was played under the Even Stevens rules, where only combatants with even summoning costs can be used. The match had a maximum mana of 15, and fire and water splinters were disallowed.
I usually make it a point to carefully check my opponents last five matches. This time I was lazy about it, thinking that with the current rules the previous matches wouldn’t provide much insight. And perhaps, that was true. But I should be more disciplined and check. If there were a low mana match there where my foe used all even cost combatants, then that is something I’d want to know.
With the low mana and limiting rules, it’s hard to build a team around a cohesive strategy. But it’s never difficult to place a powerful tank on the field and hope it can carry the day. And for this match, the dragons have a real beast with an even summoning cost.
In the role of summoner, I used the Drake of Arnak. And the reason is two-fold. First, I wanted to play dragons. And more importantly, the Drake is the only dragon summoner available to me. Case closed.
I said that the dragons have a beast of a tank with the ability to carry a whole match, and after renting one, I have very much enjoyed playing with it. The beast in question is the Djinn Chwala. Costing a decidedly even eight mana points, the Djinn is soaking up most of the mana available to me for this match, but with heavy armor, high health and the thorns ability Chwala is a force to be reckoned with.
Filling the second, and final position on my team is the Naga Assassin. I don’t see this rare reward card played much here in the bronze league, and I often wonder why. With a blistering 5-speed it’s an archer that doesn’t miss and an anchor that can give a sneak the slip.
Light led by Mother Khala. That’s promising. A Khala team at this mana level isn’t going to have a whole lot of attack power and my Djinn might be too much for them to handle.
Hmmmm, looks good at first sight, but how much does being slowed complicate matters for me? The lead archer is just there because it has an even casting cost and will only be a one round speed bump. In round two, my fast archer and tank's thorns will bring down the Harpy. In the process, Djinn will absorb four points of magic damage bringing it down to five.
So far so good, but here’s where things get interesting. Round two will near its end with my slowed tank last to act and facing off with my opponent’s Elven Mystic who will have four health. Since my team can only deliver three points of damage per round, the Elf will certainly get another shot off in round three, but I can’t afford for it to have a shot in round four as well, so I need my now glacially slow Chwala to land a 90%-chance-of-landing shot in either round two or three. If Djinn lands one, at worst my Assassin will defeat the elf before it acts in round four with my tank having three health remaining.
Lurking behind the Mystic is the Time Mage with four health. Assuming my big guy comes through, the temporal pest will start round five by lowering Djinn’s health to two, leaving me two more attacks before my archer is uselessly in the lead position. With two tank-hits against the elven magic user, my Assassin will bring the Mage’s health down to thee in round four, and its assured hit the next round will bring it to two. Meaning my leadman will only need one of two 70%-shots to fell the Time Mage, but if Chwala leaves the Mystic's killshot to my Assassin by only hitting the elf once, then my archer only gets one attack against the Time Mage and Chwala will need two hits in two chances to erase its remaining three health.
Wheew! Speed matters in Splinterlands! And owing largely to the fact that my assassin is fast, the odds are in my favor, but it’s by no means a gimme. The introduction of the Time Mage casts a lot of uncertainty on how events could unfold.
How did it go? You can see for yourself here.
Here we are at the end of round two and only my Djinn is yet to act.
A hit! That simplifies the situation for sure!
And another hit in round three. My Djinn is on a roll. Just one more hit to go and two chances to get it.
I wasn't worried my tank might miss, was I? I guess being slowed only made it mad this time. Three for three, and it's all over but the mop up.
My Assassin takes the honors, but it was a shot it couldn't miss.
This match demonstrates the power of both the Djinn Chwala and the Maga Assassin. Both handy members of the dragon splinter.
Even in a match not suited for it, both slowed and facing magic users, the dragon splinter bruiser held the line admirably. That’s no surprise and there are few Splinterlands players who wouldn’t want to have a Djinn Chwala in their deck.
But in this match, Djinn couldn’t have done it alone. Even slowed, the Naga Assassin was nearly always guaranteed a hit in this match. Had my tank’s support failed to score hits against either the flying Harpy or the fast Time Mage, then this match could have gone to light. The Naga Assassin is one of the few 2-mana cost cards that could have gotten the job done so reliably. And that’s exactly why I play the Naga far more often than I see it played against me.