New Meta - Still Dominate
Seeing that your opponent played the Water splinter used to mean only one thing...magic. The Water splinter has become much more versatile with the release of Chaos legion, and is no longer about just spamming or countering an all out magic team. My daily quest today was the water quest. I was able to win 5 out of 6 matches to complete it in under 10 minutes! Hopefully through these battles, I can show just how versatile and powerful the Water splinter can be with the release of Chaos Legion. I am currently building a bronze league deck in this account, and usually end the season in silver 3 with a rating high enough to be silver 1 by season end. I have to delegate a 10k Collection Power (CP) monster to get into silver, but this could be done by renting the CP each season. Finishing in silver 3 each season means, of course, that the account will wind up back in bronze 2 at the beginning of each new season. I find that having a level 2 summoner and some important monsters not available starter deck, or monsters from the starter deck leveled up makes getting back into silver so much easier. Besides, card prices right now are insanely cheap compared to what they were a month ago!
Key Cards
- Kelya Frendul - level 2:
cost: $23 - 26 / rental cost: 4 - 10 DEC/day - Demented Shark - level 1-3
cost: $.50 - 8. / rental cost: .1 - 1 DEC/day - Frost Lion - level 1-3 (although really good at level 3)
cost: $.45 - *. / rental cost: .1 -.41 DEC/day - Djinn Oshannus - level 1
cost: $9 - 11 / rental cost: 2 - 3 DEC/day - Pelacor Bandit - level 3
cost: $ .70 - .80 / rental cost: .15 - 2.5 DEC/day - Venari Wavesmith - level 1
cost: $.22 - .26 / rental cost: .24 - .3 DEC/day - Uraeus - level 2
cost: $3.20 - 4.00 / rental cost: 1.2 - 1.8 DEC/day
Note: the last 4 cards are rewards cars, and can be earned for free in reward chests...if you're lucky!
Match 1
Ruleset: Healed Out, 32 Mana, all splinters available
My opponent had been using Obsidian in most matches and spamming magic.
Most magic monsters are slow and have low health points. An Earth magic team will usually have a high health point tank up front or the Slipspawn with the taunt ability embedded in the lineup, and something with the thorns ability in the front position. For this reason, I decided to put a low cost meat shield up front that doesn't attack followed by Djinn Oshannus to avoid the possible thorns. The majority of my assault utilizes sneak and opportunity monsters to get to the weak magic monsters at the back of the opponents lineup.
Click to watch
Match 2
Ruleset: Weak Magic, 16 Mana, Water/Life/Dragon available
My opponent had been using primarily the Life splinter in previous matches, and using a similar strategy of deploying sneak and opportunity monsters.
The protect ability adding +2 armor to all monsters is extremely valuable in this match due to the weak magic ruleset. For this reason, the Venari Wavesmith is worth the 5 mana cost in a such a low mana match of 16. The 4 mana summoner and 5 mana Wavesmith, only left me with only 7 mana to spend. Putting the Pelacor Bandit in the back is the safest bet since it has high speed and the flying ability. This will help defend the back of the team from the opponents similar strategy.
Match 3
Ruleset: Healed Out/Stampede, 19 mana, Life/Water/Death available
My opponent had been using the Life splinter with the Truthspeaker monster to give +armor to all monsters.
For this reason, I decided to use all magic monster to avoid the enemy teams additional armor.
Match 4
Ruleset: Melee Meyham, 13 mana, Fire/Water/Earch/Life available
My opponent had been using Earth with Obsidian for magic in recent matches.
I decided to use the Demented Shark in this match since all melee monsters can attack the front from any position, even though I only have 3 mana remaining after using it and the 4 mana cost summoner. This leaves me with enough for the Hardy Stonefish and Frost Lion. The Frost Lion can be very helpful in low mana matches when an opponent uses magic often. The Frost Lion's Void Armor ability can make it a very strong tank versus magic teams once it gets Kelya's +1 armor, and if you use the Venari Wavesmith as well it gets and additional +2 armor. This can result in a level 3 Frost Lion having 2 health and 5 armor for a total of 7 hit points against magic for only 2 mana cost! Adding the Scavo Hireling to the lineup, with the repair ability, can sustain the Frost Lion for multiple rounds.
Conclusion
The Water splinter is no longer about spamming magic. Kelya's +1 armor and +1 speed make it a very versatile and powerful splinter that can be used against many different team compositions. The powerful magic monster are still available that can counter those pesky Mylor Crowling teams with thorns everywhere. Captains Ghost having the affliction ability can prevent Life teams from double healing a Shieldbearer forever. The Frost Lion, Djinn Oshannus, Torhillo the Frozen give a player multiple options for countering magic spamming team compositions. The +1 speed and armor can be a nightmare for melee heavy teams at high or low mana matches. Overall, Water may not have Alric available to spam magic at a team, but its still a meta defining splinter that will definitely be a staple in the upcoming modern format.
Disclaimer: My 15 year old son made this account name, then quit playing the game. So I'm stuck using the IGN: impro2006....wonderful choice buddy ;)