With Chaos Legion out for a few weeks now I am starting to build my future decks. I decided to cover a few splinters and Life is one of them. At the moment I am crafting m decks in theory and then renting the most important cards to see how they work in the current meta.
In my last article, I covered Ranged Life Splinter with the use of the new summoner, General Sloan. If you missed that article you can find it here:
@vjekich/chaos-legion-life-splinter-deck-building-part-i
In this article, I will cover Anti-magic or Amplify Life Splinter Build. This build utilizes Magic Reflect and Thorns abilities to return damage back to the attacker. If we add Dragons to the mix then it gets more interesting with Djinn Chwala and summoners like Drake of Arnak, Brighton Bloom, and Quix the Devious.
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.
Anti-magic Life Deck
Amplify is a very interesting ability. It increases damage from Magic Reflect, Thorns, and Return Fire by 1. That means that sometimes the attacker will get more damage back than he will deal to the target. In this kind of build, you want a lot of health for as little mana as possible. That is why I suggest using Mother Khala as a summoner. If you can try to use Djinn Renova as well, because of her Strengthen ability.
Remember, I am building a deck for the Silver league so some cards are not going to be that useful in the Bronze league. One of those cards is Blinding Reflector. You want to use this guy at level 5 because that is when he will get his Magic Reflect ability.
When using Mother Khala and Djinn Renova this little guy will have 7 health with 4 armor. Not bad stats for a tank that you paid only 3 mana. With Amplify ability he will return 1 more damage to the attacker and with 7 health he can do this a few times.
The downside of Blinding Reflector is a lack of Shield or Void ability, but what can you expect for only 3 mana. That is why on the second spot I am planning to use backup in form of Pelacor Conjurer.
I will not repeat myself as this guy has the same strengths as Blinding Reflector but I will only through additional strengths and those are Speed and Flying ability. I will use Pelacor Conjurer in the second spot so he can reflect attacks once Blinding Reflector is dead. He will also soak some Snipe attacks and I hope for some dodges due to high speed and a 25% chance to dodge because of Flying ability.
I would use both of these cards only when I am expecting a heavy magic team from my opponent. In other cases, I would probably use only one of these cards as both Reflector and Conjurer have nice health when buffed.
The core of this build is Dax Paragon. You need this guy on level 2 because of his Amplify ability. I am not planning to go over that as I don't see any real benefit in the Silver league and I would spend 10 USD more for 1 health. Not worth it, I would say.
It is very easy to get this guy into any team due to 2 mana cost. It is nice that he is a magic user so he will ignore armor. Every piece of damage is nice but I will use him mostly for Amplify.
How to fill the rest of the team is situational. Life splinter does have some good cards but all those cards are not very fast and not great damage dealers. Personally, I will go for a sustain which means I will be healing my tanks and repairing their armor. Cards like Venari Crystalsmith, Lone Boatman and Adelade Brightwing will be essential to me.
Of course, there are some good damage dealers like Prismologist, Pelacor Arbalest or Evangelist but I would rather use them with General Sloan.
Thorns Life
We can play the Thorns strategy the same way as the Magic Reflect strategy. With Amplify, Thorns ability will return 3 damage to the attacker. In this case, I am planning to use 2 cards one of those is Djinn Chwala. Of course, that means I would have to play Dragon summoner where Quix the Devious comes into the play. Even with current prices, you could have a maxed copy for Silver league for only 120 USD which will allow you to play any splinter that you leveled up.
Djinn Chwala with Quix is not a bad combination. Chwala will have a better chance to hit because of reduced speed and she will receive reduced damage from ranged attacks which means that melee attackers will have to hit more often.
Another option is Crystal Jaguar though you will need a level 4 copy of this card. Djinn Chwala seems like a way better tank but you could use both cards, one in the front and one in the back, especially in Sneak rulesets.
Tactics
I will show some tactics that I play sometimes. I hope that these examples will help you in your future battles.
An interesting team that could be used against magic teams. Magic Reflect is an amazing ability that is very effective against monsters that don't have a lot of health like Globlin Psychic, Khmer Princess, or Djinn Biljka. Pelcaor Conjurer is on the second spot as a replacement if Reflector dies fast and as a meatshield for Snipe attacks. Dax Paragon is here for Amplify ability. He can do some damage as he is the magical attacker. For only 2 mana cost this is a great card.
Crystalsmith is an amazing card that will keep your tank alive for a few more turns. In the back, we have some damage dealers like Stitch Leech and Celestial Harpy. Uraeus could be another addition that could be even better than Celestial Harpy because of armor. With Celestial Harpy, we rely on speed and Flying ability to dodge some attacks. With Uraeus we are 100% sure that armor will soak one attack. Fiends are a good addition to any Low Mana team so if you are planning to play Life splinter check out Soul Fiend.
A variation of Magic Reflect team but only with Thorns. This time we are using Dragon summoner, Quix the Devious. This enables us to use Djinn Chwala, an amazing reward card with Thorns ability. Behind this card, I used some interesting cards in Hero of Beyond and Prismologist. I like Hero of Beyond because of Close Range ability, so there is no fear that my ranged card will not be able to attack from the first position. Venari Crystalsmith is here to heal our tanks, a card that you can not leave out when playing Life Splinter.
When playing high mana matches you can be very flexible. Chaos Knight is an amazing card with Shield ability and he can benefit a lot from Heal and Repair abilities. Giant Killer is amazing which means that he will deal 6 damage to cards with 10 or more mana cost. The only downside is that this team is weak against magic teams as 5 health is not enough to survive 2 magical attacks. Prismologist is an amazing card especially in Snipe ruleset or with General Sloan as a summoner. Lone Boatman is becoming one of the best cards for the Life Splinter but his cost follows that path as well so there will not be a lot of players that could afford maxed out Silver copy of this card
Summary
Life splinter with the use of Amplify can be really fun and powerful. Unfortunately I am limited by my budget so I can't go for cards that I would love to have. For example Lone Boatman, Lorna Shine, Lensmaster, Thunderbird and so on. Even without those cards I think that Life splinter can be really powerful with Chaos Legion and new reward cards. In Chaos Legion we got some heavy hitters but it seems that healing and repairing is still the way to go with Life splinter.
Related Articles
If you missed first part of this "guide" you can find it bellow:
Chaos Legion - Life Splinter Deck Building - PART I
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