I've been travelling a lot lately and haven't been able to play as much as I'd like. I've fallen to Novice league and am not terribly familiar with the new Chaos Legion cards or the current meta.
And that makes this week's Splinterlands Battle Challenge the perfect opportunity to jump back into the game. Here's why.
Card Spotlight - Shadow Snitch
This week's challenge card is the Shadow Snitch. This is a common card from the Death splinter that is part of the starter collection that all players have access to.
So, everyone can use this card in battle. That makes participating in a challenge like this super easy. It's a Chaos Legion card, and I definitely need more practice with these cards. And, it's from one of my favorite splinters to play. Let's check out the stats.
Shadow Snitch is a durable second position choice. It doesn't put out a whole lot of damage, and it's a little slow. But at only 4 mana it's v**ery useful for lower tier and low mana battles.
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Shadow Snitch has *Reach, allowing it's melee attack to hit from the second position, safe behind a good tank. At higher levels it gains Affliction, frustrating the enemy's healing ability and further vexing their tank. Finally, at level 10, it gains Dodge making it even more survivable.
And the artwork is very, very cool. It's a good, spooky Death monster that can give your opponent a hard time in a variety of ways. I like that.
How I Used Shadow Snitch
Being back in Novice League, the battles are fairly simple and low mana cost. In this battle, that was exactly the case. We have the Normal Ruleset, and only 13 Mana.
I don't know much about the current meta, but I know that Obsidian is the new Alric. So for one of my first matches back after a little break, that's what I prepared for.
My plan was to use one of my favorite tactics and just return damage. Fortunately there's a really good combo to do that in Death splinter right now: Owster Rotwell + Cursed Windeku
This combo is down right dirty. And I like it that way. Owster gives everyone the Reflect ability, kicking back a portion of magic attacks back to the attacker. Expecting Obsidian (who buffs magic attackers), this is a sound choice.
Cursed Windeku is similarly dirty as a tank with the Thorns ability that deals damage back to any melee attacker. As a tank paired with Owster, he'll return damage to anyone who hits him except for ranged attackers.
After slotting Owster and the Windeku, there were exactly enough mana points left for our cool little Shadow Snitch to join the fun, hide behind the tank, and reach out and slap someone.
And of course, if you have a chicken, you use a chicken. That was my lineup.
Did It Work?
It worked pretty well. I was expecting a lot of magic and Obsidian. But what my opponent served up was Wizard of Eastwood and a little magic.
I didn't play any armored monsters, so the Wizard's armor debuff was irrelevant. They played Unicorn Mustang as their tank. A formidible choice, especially if pitted against magic users. And they used Khmer Princess for a magic attacker.
Between Thorns, and the melee damage output of both of my monsters, I was able to deal 5 points of damage to the Unicorn each round. That's great against a high health monster like that.
Reflect took care of the Princess in 2 rounds as well.
That said, the Unicorn packs a punch and with no armor or damage mitigation on my team, it was a bit of a close fight. But in the end, Death reigned supreme!
Again, here's the link to the battleto watch it for yourself.
Final Thoughts on Shadow Snitch
I tend to play in the lower tiers. Even when I have a lot of time to play I tend to make it to Silver III.
I really enjoy the Death splinter, but it wasn't one of the more dominant teams in the previous meta. With these new Chaos Legion cards, that seems to have changed a bit.
I really like the combo I used in this battle, and I can easily see it forming the base of many future battles. It's a simple lineup. It works. And it's easy to add to for higher mana battles.
You can bet I'll be using the Shadow Snitch again, and again.
If you're not already playing Splinterlands, now is the perfect time to get started. Sign up using this link and I'll send you a few things to help you get started playing!
