This week's battle challenge involves the Disintegrator! The Disintegrator is a Neutral Melee card that in my opinion, is extremely situational. I don't use it that often but when I bring it out, it makes a world of difference.

Disintegrator Highlights

At first glance, the Disintegrator is a "meh," and almost bad card, all things considered. At 7 mana, it's high cost becomes prohibitive especially when you consider that it has low health, low armor, and slow speed.

It does, however, have the Demoralize ability at Level 1 and gains a few more as you go higher up.

	Demoralize : Reduces the Melee attack of all enemy Monsters (-1 to melee attack, it cannot be less than 1)
	Trample : When a Monster with Trample hits and kills its target, it will perform another attack on the next Monster on the enemy Team
	Knockout : Does double damage when attacking an enemy that is stunned.
	Retaliate : When hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker (50% chance of activation. Possibility of chain)

Since I play in Silver I, my max level for a Disintegrator is Level 5 which is where it gains Trample. I only have a Level 1 Disintegrator since it is such a niche card.

So when do I use the Disintegrator?

• High mana battles where I think my opponent will use melee attackers. Pair it with a monster that has the shield ability and sometimes your opponents can't do any damage do you.
• Equal Opportunity or Super Sneak rulesets will it can attack from the backline. Gives the Disintegrator a lot more utility when it can attack since it takes up 7 mana.

Today's Featured Battle

In today's battle, I went with Mylor Crowling as my summoner and used the Earth deck. My opponent went with Kelya Frendal and the Water deck.

Battle Ruleset

• Fog of War : Monsters lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities..
• Up Close & Personal : Only Monsters with Melee attack may be used in battles.
• 54 Mana Cap
• Water and Earth splinters only

Strategy Highlights

• Fog of War
  • No sneak means melee attackers are left with opportunity and reach as the only ways to attack from the backline
  • Monsters like the Disintegrator who debuff the other team (or those that buff your own team) can be kept relatively safe in the back although opportunity can still get to them
• Up Close & Personal
  • Since only melee monster are allowed, anything with thorns and demoralize are huge
  • This means the shield ability and armor is important
  • You can go heavy with opportunity attackers as it'll give you a lot more chance to attack
• 54 Mana Cap
  • High mana cap which means bring out your best and strongest monsters

My initial thoughts were to use Kelya since I can bring a couple opportunity monsters along and the shield would help me out greatly. However, Deeplurker is the only strong opportunity monster that I have so it wasn't the best.

I decided to go with Mylor Crowling because it gives everyone thorns and I have some very beefy melee monsters in my Earth deck. If my opponent went with Kelya, I would basically need high health and armor to take the hits because the +1 armor she provides will protect against the first round of thorns damage.

The Lineup

	Mylor Crowling : Earth Summoner that gives all friendly units the thorns ability. This ability causes up to 2 damage back to the melee attacker. Very powerful card when you know your opponent is going to use melee
	Mycelic Infrantry : Great tank due to the armor and shield ability. It's slow but that's oaky when you have thorns because you can still do damage. Pair this with the Disintegrator and you may walk away unscathed
	Unicorn Mustang : Ideally, I would put a strong monster with Reach in this position but I don't have one. Instead I packed my lineup with as many high health and armor monsters as I could and let thorns do the heavy lifting
	Grund : Melee only battle and it has double strike. What more do you want?
	Goblin Mech - High attack with armor which is ideal for this battle
	War Chaang : This is kind of a sneaky card because it can do both ranged and melee damage. In this battle, it is the only monster I have that can attack from the backline so I placed it near the back
	Disintegrator : Finally, we have the monster of the week. Without the fear of sneak, I placed this in the back with the hope that I could keep my enemy debuffed for as long as possible. However, it has the lowest health so it is susceptible to opportunity attacks

Let's Battle!

Full Battle Link :
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_fa065878bac72f50a9c851316242fda5&ref=atbui89

• My opponent had a very solid lineup. They also used the Disintegrator with a shielded tank upfront. They even had a Reach monster in the 2nd position with an opportunity monster as well
• My counter to this lineup worked perfectly. I was essentially able to return damage to my opponent without doing anything.
• My Disintegrator died early on due to the Deeplurker which I was afraid of.

Did it work?

Yes! I was able to perfectly counter my opponent get walk away with the victory. One weakness that I can see is that it's very passive. I wasn't dishing out attacks but know that it's a melee only battle, thorns were key.

Countering my strategy would require you to completely sell out to stop the frontline attacker. This would mean adding monsters with the Protect ability (all friendly monsters gain +2 armor) and the Repair ability (restores armor). With those 2 abilities, it would be extremely difficult for me to kill their tank.

Final Thoughts

The Disintegrator isn't a versatile monster but when the conditions are right, it can be an extremely powerful support monster. Luckily, it is part of the current starter set of cards so you can use it in those niche situations without having to purchase one. It is pretty cheap, however, if you want to own one for your own collection.

Thanks for reading!

Referral link : https://splinterlands.com?ref=at.bui89