Splinterlands is an exciting blockchain-based game that is easy to learn but difficult to master. Part of that excitement comes from uncovering hidden gems: The strategies, cards, and combos that people often overlook, but that can be absolutely crucial to securing victory in the right circumstances. In today's post, I want to highlight Shock Trooper. This is a card that is often overlooked but can be an absolute game changer in the right circumstances.
On the surface, Shock Trooper looks like an amazing water unit. For only 4 mana, it can pump out 4 damage. It has 5 health and 3 speed, which means that it can get a 1st round attack in pretty quickly.However, Shock Trooper also has an absolutely massive downfall. It has the Electrified Debilitation, which deals 1 damage to all ally units starting on round 2 and continuing to each subsequent round. If you're not careful, you can accidentally obliterate your own team with Shock Trooper. This makes Shock Trooper an absolutely massive double-edged sword.
One of the great things about Splinterlands is that the different rule sets means that almost every card eventually gets its chance to shine. Shock Trooper might not be the best card to put in your back line during a standard rule set, but it absolutely dominates in the back to basics rule set. In the back to basics rule set, units loose all abilities. This can be devastating for units who get most of their value from a special ability, but for Shock Trooper, the back to basics rule set is a huge benefit because it removes the Electrified Debilitation.
In other words, a rule set that makes other cards worse makes Shock Trooper much better. For only 4 mana, we get a unit with high health, good speed, and no significant downside. Just to compare, lets see how much mana would we have to spend to find a unit with comparable stats? The short answer is that there really is no comparison. It doesn't matter how much mana we want to spend, or even if we're able to afford some old, Alpha/Beta cards. The simple fact of the matter is that there is not a single monster on the blue team that can deal 4 magic damage output.
Even when we expand our selection criteria to consider all of the different splinters, Shock Trooper still stands head and shoulders above the rest. The closest comparable unit is Mahkah Hemlig. This is an Earth Splinter unit that deals 4 damage, but it has slightly lower health and just a little bit higher speed. Notice that it costs 9 mana. In other words, the closest comparable monster costs more than double the mana of Shock Trooper.
Ok, so maybe calling Shock Trooper a tank is a little bit of a stretch, but it can still make a great first position unit. If you put Shock Trooper as your first position unit, it can use its massive magic attack and deal a significant amount of damage to the opponent's tank. But, there's a pretty high probability that your opponent will be able to deal enough damage to knock Shock Trooper out of the fight by the end of the first round before it can start dealing any damage to your friendly units.
To illustrate how effective Shock Trooper can be in the right context, I want to share a match that I recently played. As you'll notice, my opponent has some really strong units and they even have a leveled-up summoner. However, I'm using Shock Trooper in the first positon to demonstrate how powerful it can be.
Notice that my Shock Trooper gets a one hit KO on my opponent's first position unit. There are a lot of strong units in Splinterlands, but not many of them can stand up to 5 magic damage in a single attack.
As soon as Shock Trooper has accomplished its mission, it immediately gets knocked out of the fight as well. The way I look at this, it was a two-for-one victory. On one hand, I knocked out my opponent's monster. Also, Shock Trooper served as a damage shield that prevented damage from hitting my Giant Alpine Skink. Since Shock Trooper was knocked out by the end of the first round. I didn't take any friendly fire damage to my own units. All of this was accomplished for only four mana.
Despite facing an opponent with a higher level summoner who was rated almost 100 points higher than me, my team was able to carry the victory and earn the SPS as well as Glint rewards. Talking about SPS and Glint rewards brings up another interesting point. Splinterlands isn't just an exciting game that requires strategically using your units in the right context to maximize their abilities. It is also a game that can reward users for winning matches with cryptocurrency and NFTs. If you are intrigued by the possibility of earning rewards for a game that you enjoy playing, then I'd encourage you to join me in Splinterlands using this referral link.
As a US resident, I am required to disclose that I might receive a benefit, such as reward or incentive, if you join using my affiliate link. All image credits belong to Splinterlands. Nothing is financial advice.
