Splinterlands Card Review - Venator Kinjo
Hello everyone!
Lester here! How's your end of season rewards? Also, have you read the latest Town Hall Summary? If not yet, check their post here -
Splinterlands Town Hall Summary - June 13th, 2022 - 1PM Eastern! for the latest updates in Splinterlands.
For this post, let's review one of the newest cards in Splinterlands -
Venator Kinjo! Are you one of those folks thinking that Venator Kinjo is a useless card? Well, before jumping to conclusions, let check first this card's stat and lore.
Edition: Reward
Rarity: Legendary
Element: Neutral
Attack: Melee
Abilities: Level 1: Reflection Shield, Camouflage, Level 2: + Immunity, Level 3: + Slow, Level 4: Amplify
Few have heard about the secret mission of the pious order, The Bloody Envoy. These devout monks spend their young lives living within the Hidden Cloister, a monastery that is said to be somewhere within Abbots Marsh on Praetoria, and beholden to no other. Taken at an early age, these children are the unfortunate offspring of women that have been used for entertainment by vampires at their lavish parties. After being brought into their new family, the children spend their time studying and praying, learning to live with the dhampir affliction that has taken their bodies. They are taught that to drink the blood of a human is the ultimate sin, and they sustain themselves upon the livestock they keep... (Venator Kinjo Lore)
Abilities
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 | Reflection Shield - This Monster is immune to all indirect, or reflected damage. That means that it will not take damage from Blast, Thorns, Return Fire, or Magic Reflect. |
 | Camouflage - This Monster cannot be targeted for attacks unless it's in the first position. |
 | Immunity - This monster is immune to negative status effects. |
 | Slow - Reduces the Speed of all enemy Monsters. |
 | Amplify - Increases Magic Reflect, Return Fire, and Thorns damage to all enemy monsters by 1. |
Is Venator Kinjo Useless?
Let's see why some people say that this card is quite useless. At level 1, Venator Kinjo has 1 Melee Attack, 2 Speed and 1 HP. And it has the ability of Reflection Shield and Camouflage.
Looking at the Camouflage ability, this card is invisible to the opponents direct attack when not in the first position. And if that is the case, given that it has 1 HP only, you would not want to put this card in the first or second position of your line-up. However, since this card has melee attack only, it cannot deal damage also to the opponent unless it is in the first position. And it will be just a waste of slot in your line-up. Maybe if it has Sneak or Opportunity wherein it can attack in any position or like in Rulesets MELEE MAYHEM, EQUAL OPPORTUNITY and SUPER SNEAK, maybe this card can be useful.
But, if you consider its other skill in Level 1, which is Reflection Shield, you can maximize the potential of this card and can lead you to victory. It says in the description of Reflection Shield - "This Monster is immune to ALL indirect, or reflected damage. That means that it will not take damage from Blast, Thorns, Return Fire, or Magic Reflect." Please continue to read to see why this card is not useless, and in fact, very helpful in you line-up.
How to use Venator Kinjo
To prove that this card is not useless, you need to have the perfect opportunity to unleash its potential and maximize its Reflection Shield ability. Let's check these battles to showcase what Venator Kinjo can contribute to your line-up.
Battle 1 - Explosive Weaponry Ruleset
In this battle, one of the rulesets is Explosive Weaponry wherein All Monsters have the Blast ability. So what I did here is to put Venator Kinjo in the 2nd position. In this manner, my back-line attackers will not be affected by Blast ability because Venator Kinjo will nullify the effect and will not receive any damage from it.
The opponent's line-up has Deeplurker with its Opportunity and because Venator Kinjo has Camouflage, Deeplurker will not be able to target it.
Looking at this round, the attack from Water Elemental created a Blast effect but inflicted zero damage to Venator Kinjo. If Venator Kinjo is not there, Beatrix Ironhand will suffer from Blast and probably will die first in this battle.
And in Round 2, you can see that the attack from Pirate Captain targeted Beatrix Ironhand but still, no damage to Venator Kinjo. So in this battle, Venator Kinjo provided an invisible wall between Flesh Golem and Beatrix Ironhand and protected these 2 attackers from Blast ability.
Here is the full replay in Splinterlands and Youtube.
(Unsupported https://youtu.be/AJkJQ2j58hw)
(Unsupported https://youtu.be/ERCTUpCDEiw)
(Unsupported https://youtu.be/nujqJSUNj7c)
