One of the best parts about Splinterlands is that nearly every card available can be used at some point due to the rulesets, mana caps, and your opponent.

The Carrion Shade is one of those cards that you don't really think about until you find yourself with 1 mana left and need something to fill the spot. Sometimes, however, you find the perfect setup for it and it pays off.

For this weekly challenge, I'll be showcasing the Carrion Shade and how it can help you win.

The Carrion Shade is a low mana, low attack card that generally isn't thought about or used too often. Compared to other 1 mana cards, the Carrion Shade does have 2 speed and 2 health. At Level 3 the Carrion Shade also gains flying which can be useful, especially if you're putting it at the end as a meat shield. With flying and a speed above 1, you may be able to get your opponent to miss which can turn the tide of the battle.

Since it is part of the new Chaos Legion set, it is very affordable. It is currently selling for $0.0033/BCX.

Today's Featured Battle

Battle Ruleset

• Equal Opportunity : All Monsters have the Opportunity ability.
• 12 Mana Cap
• Earth, Life and Death splinters

Strategy Highlights

• Equal Opportunity
  • Causes all monsters not in the first position to attack the enemy monster with the lowest health
  • Melee monsters without any special abilities (reach, opportunity, or sneak) can now attack from the backline
• Equalizer
  • You generally want to be the quicker attacker
  • I chose Thaddius Brood for this because I can reduce the enemy's health and hopefully use a lot of monsters to dish out damage
• 12 Mana Cap
  • Very low mana cap which usually only leaves room for 1 decent monster and some support

The main ruleset that determined my lineup for this battle was Equal Opportunity. Knowing that everyone gets to attack from the backline (including melee), I wanted to pack my lineup with as many low mana monsters as I could.

My though was that if I could outnumber my opponent, I could pick them off before they got to me. Also, since Thaddius reduces the opponents Magic damage, I could potentially survive a few attacks, especially since Magic is generally slow.

The Lineup

1. Crypt Beetle - very cheap monster with the shield ability. If my opponent used with melee, Crypt Beetle could potentially escape with no damage
2. Carrion Shade - 1 mana monster who can attack but also had decent health and speed for a low cost
3. Furious Chicken - using it in the middle as "opportunity" bait to keep my other monsters alive
4. Corpse Fiend - similar idea as the Furious Chicken except it can also attack. Placed behind the chicken in hopes that it can get off an attack
5. Venari Bonesmith - relatively fast and when paired with the health reduction due to Thaddius, it would hopefully be able to take out some low mana monsters while also giving itself a boost in health with Life Leech

Let's Battle!

• Opponent chose to go with Magic which was countered by my choice of Thaddius Brood
• They chose a quick monster in the Regal Peryton (wise choice) but
• I was able to "outgun" my opponent and got the victory

Final Thoughts

Overall, my strategy with this battle was decent. A higher cost monster with shield would've held on much better but it's possible my Venari Bonesmith would have taken them out anyways.

The Carrion Shade did a great job and definitely would've gotten a kill if it was able to attack before the Corpse Fiend. I should have leveled it up to 3 to gain flying, however.

Since I never really looked at this card before, I didn't realize it had that ability. Next time, I'll have it leveled up. With flying and 2 speed, it can potentially cause a few misses from slower monster. For that reason alone, I really like the card.

Thanks for reading!

Referral link : https://splinterlands.com?ref=atbui89