This is my submission to the Splinterlands Weekly Battle Challenge. This time it is featuring "Water Elemental".
About the Card
Water Elemental is a rare card from the out-of-print Beta collection. If you are a new player in the lower leagues, I recommend getting a low level version from the market place. With two ranged attack, 4 HP and the healing ability from level 1, this is pretty powerful. Understandably, the 1 BCX versions are already traded at a minimum 0.70 USD bid price, which is higher than for many epic cards in the game.
Through the levels, the card gains ATK and HP and at level 5 it also unlocks the Dodge ability making it even harder to hit than it would be with its already fast 5 speed points.
With these early edition cards, the Splinterlands team still had to find the best balance of upgrade costs and added power for the higher and max levels. Some cards from the Beta and early Reward editions are just not worth levelling up when comparing the power of the upgrade to its costs.
My Water Elemental is happily levelled at level 6. I would have to almost double my investment in the card to get it to level 7 at which level it would lose(!) one HP. Being a card I often use to counter sneak attackers (due to its Dodge and high speed it can avoid attacks very efficiently), this would be counter-productive to my strategy.
Card Use-Cases
I already mentioned my favorite use case for the card above.
- All Sneak and Melee-Only: In these rulesets, Water Elemental can be used to frustrate your opponent. Its Dodge ability and its high speed will make some of their attacks miss and provide you with more time to counter attack before they break through your backline.
- Equalizer: I like using Heal monsters in Equalizer. Just like Protect, Weaken or other abilities changing the balance in hits before dying this can make quite a difference when you are even in terms of HP with your opponent.
- Noxious Fumes: In a ruleset where all monsters lose health each round, a monster that heals itself is an obvious choice.
This week's match
Click on the video ^ to play or view the original match on Splinterlands.
You will notice that this week's match does not belong to any of the rulesets mentioned above. Furthermore, it was an "Aim True" match, which renders the Dodge ability ineffective.
The match was a low-mana, no-legendaries battles and in this ruleset I love using Selenia Sky. Therefore, I used the Water Elemental to have a strong ranged hitter in my team to support the weaker low-mana ranged monsters I was using.
This week's lineup:
Furious Chicken: Must-use in a low-mana match. I decided to use it as tank to stall my opponent a bit before breaking through to my ranged monsters.
Kelp Initiate: The low-mana version of the Peaceful Giant. It sits there doing nothing and at the same time prevents the opponent from doing anything.
Halfing Alchemist: It will take a while before the opponent breaks through to my third position but when they do, they encounter this trap card. It is easy to kill but doing so will deal redemption damage to my opponent.
Pirate Archer: After the stalling cards and the trap card, now comes the first card for dealing serious damage. With Selenia's buff and its Blast ability, the Pirate Archer is not to be taken lightly.
Water Elemental: And at last the Water Elemental forms a solid backline. Even if it can't escape sneak attacks with Dodge, it should still take a while to kill it with its 7 HP + Healing. From this position the Water Elemental can do serious harm to my opponents frontline.
Conclusion
When I realized my opponent was using Mylor Crowling, I was glad to have picked a ranged team instead of a Malric+Sneak team, which is my alternative lineup for low-mana, no legendaries rulesets. Actually, I only made that choice because, luckily, Fire was inactive.
As matters stand, the fight turned out just as planned with my buffed ranged monsters overpowering my opponents. I liked the placement of their Scavenge monsters, though. Definitely worth to check out their team! Had I picked a Melee line-up the battle would have ended differently.
Want to join the fight?
Create an account at the Splinterlands today and fight me in next week's battle challenge!