With Chaos Legion out for a few weeks now I am starting to build my future decks. I already covered the building of the Life splinter deck. In the meantime, I decided that I will not go for Life Splinter as I am not satisfied with the performance of that deck in the game. Yes, in some situations General Sloan can be really good but I just don't want to invest over 350 USD in Lorna Shine so I could have one competitive deck in the Silver League.
Instead of buying level 4 Lorna Shine you can build decent Water or Earth deck at this moment. Yes, you don't even need to wait for General Sale. I could use Mother Khala as a cheaper solution, but it is simply not good enough. That's why I will invest my Life Splinter money into Earth Splinter. Even better, I will make it my second splinter, just behind the Water splinter because it can be very versatile.
So let's get started:
In this article, I will cover Earth Magic build and Non-magic build. I will focus only on cards that are affordable which means I will not look at cards like Kron or Llama as I don't have that much money. I will aim to create a deck worth around 300USD - 400USD. Some cards are going to be optional so the price might be even lower.
And remember:
I am planning to build a Silver deck and my goal is to be competitive in the Silver league. So I will be looking at maxed-out cards for the Silver league. Those cards may not be good for the Bronze league or leagues above Silver.
Magic Earth Deck
With the new summoner, Obsidian, we have a very interesting situation in Earth splinter. The meta with "play as many small magic monsters as you can" repeats itself. The situation is a bit different than before because with Chaos Legion set we don't have that many small magic monsters, at least not starter ones. But even without investing much, you can play a decent magic team.
For the Earth magic team, tanks are very interesting and we do have a lot of solutions that we can play in every situation. That is why I really like Earth splinter in Chaos Legion. One of those tanks is Mycelic Slipspawn. This card costs only 0.60 USD per BCX and I think that it will go way down once General Sale hits the market.
On level 4(max level for the Silver league) you will get Forcefield ability that will reduce attacks with damage equal to or higher than 5. Just an amazing ability when combined with Taunt. With some healers in the back, this could be a real MVP of Earth Splinter.
Of course, Mycelic Slipspawn will be used in mid to high mana matches but it will be one of my main tanks for Earth splinter, especially when buffed with +1 magic damage. Another tank that is overlooked is Regal Peryton. This is not a classic tank but one that comes with speed meta. Either way, on level 4 this card is a real beast. 2 magic attack, 6 speed, 6 health, and Flying ability. This card screams "hit me if you can".
The other way is to go for "small" tanks like Hill Giant. In the Silver league with Hill Giant you can get 8 health for only 3 mana and that is pretty good. I often follow up Hill Giant with Failed Summoner in the second spot. On level 5 Faild Summoner also has 8 health which is amazing. On the other hand, his price is 5 USD per BCX so I take this a little bit too expansive to level up all the way to level 5. Thats why I am planning to use only level 1 or level 2 copy of this card. That money could be better spent in some other areas.
There are a lot of good cards in the Earth Splinter. Some came in the previous expansion and some came in Chaos Legion expansion. One of the best cards is Queen Mycelia. An amazing legendary card with the Protect ability and magic attack.
Magic attack means that Queen Mycelia is synergizing well with Obsidian, new Earth summoner. What makes this card that good is Protect ability. When played with Obsidian your small monsters will get needed protection inf form of +2 armor. She could be also played with Maylor Crawling summoner where additional armor means that your opponent will take more damage from all melee attacks. On top of that Amplify ability can be used to further enhance damage returned from Thorns. If you don't have Mylor Crawling there are few monsters that have good synergy with Queen Mycelia, like Failed Summoner, Centauri Mage and Venari Knifer.
Fungus Fiend is another cards that is very good in the Earth Magic build, especially in matches with low mana. You can use this card in the various positions, as a tank, snipe target or sneak target. When buffed by Queen Mycelia he Fungus Fiend can soak 2 or even 3 attacks. That is amazing for 0 mana monster.
Other cards tat I find interesting are Goblin Psychic and Khmer Princess. Both of those cards are healers though Goblin Psychich can heal on level 1 while Khmer Princess should be upgraded to level 4. With Mycelic Slipspawn as a tank it is great idea to have some healers in the backline so your tank could survive longer. Goblin Psychic is a card that you must have and I recommend at least level 3 for extra health. If you are planing to play in the Silver league like I am you should aim for level 5 because of Affliction ability that will disable enemy heal. Khmer Princess is an amazing card and if you do have some extra money this could be amazing card for your Silver deck. She has Tank Heal ability on level 4 while this cards cost only 2 mana. That is a lot of difference in mana between those 2 healers, but money difference is even bigger. If you are not planning to upgrade Khmer Princess to level 4 I suggest playing her as a damage dealer as it deals 2 damage when buffed by Obsidian.
The last card that I recommend for Earth Magic team is Djinn Biljka. One of the cheapest legendary cards but I don't think that it will stay like that for the long time.
A card that costs 3 mana with 3 magic damage when buffed is absolutely amazing. Camouflage and **Void ** are abilities that will keep this card protected and i the battle for long time. I see Djinn Biljka being one of the core cards in the future of Earth Magic builds as it is cheap in mana for what it provides.
There are a few interesting Neutral card that work well with Earth Magic build. One of those cards is Magi Of Chaos or how I like to call him "Loki". On level 3 Magi of Chaos has 3 magic damage which is just amazing because when buffed this will go up to 4 damage. If you have extra money, Doctor Blight could be a great addition to your magic team though price is very high, especially if you want level 2 with Affliction ability.
In the end I must mention a card that is often overlooked and that is Spirit Druid Grog. On level 2 he is very interesting with Ressurect and Life Leech ability. When you buff him up, his 3 magic damage are not a joke. He could see some use in the new meta.
Tactics
I will show some tactics that I play sometimes. I hope that these examples will help you in your future battles. If you do have some better ideas, please let me know down in the comments.
This is a build that you want to play against melee teams because of protect ability that Queen Mycelia provides. She is esential as your team is very slow and I don't see this working without her. Cards like Fungus Fiend and Hill Giant are here to soak attacks while your magic attackers will deal with the enemy. Even melee teams have a great counters to this team like Tusk the Wide so be careful when you are playing this composition. Venari Knifer could be used in the first spot to counter that melee attacks even more. He will also benefit from the Amplify ability.
I often play this team when I see that my opponent is playing magic teams often. Failed Summoner is not needed but sometimes I like to protect my team from the Snipe attacks. The real star of this team is Unicorn Mustang that will tank all that magic damage from opponent. Second card that you must play is Goblin Psychic so you can heal your tank and give your team time to kill the enemy. Other cards are optional but you want to focus on magic damage. Once again Queen Mycelia is nice so you can be protected from melee and ranged attacks as well.
I like this team a lot as we do have some heavy hitters. Mycelic Splipspawn is used as a tank with Taunt and Forcefield abilities. On the second spot I have another tank(Regal Peryton) which is more oriented on speed and dodging. Other cards are there just for the damage and Tank Heal. Insted of Djinn Biljka you can use another healer, like level 4 Khmer Princes. That should extend the life of your tanks.
Summary
This is the first part of the Earth splinter where we focused on magic. I think that Earth splinter is again one of the best splinters as it is very flexible. When playing only Earth Magic you can play a lot of variations to counter various teams and builds. I think that this is the reason why it is a good idea to invest into the Earth Splinter if you are planning to play Splinterlands. It gives you a lot of possibilities with only few carefully picked cards.
Related Articles
If you missed first part of this "guide" you can find it bellow:
Chaos Legion - Life Splinter Deck Building PART I
Chaos Legion - Life Splinter Deck Building PART II
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