One of my best Twitter accounts is Splinterlands. It keeps me informed about all the important news in the ecosystem and #Hive posting events like a media challenge. In my opinion, those challenges are an incredible way of increasing the pride of being part of this community, as every player shares his/her game experience with others, allowing others to learn about everyone's successes and mistakes. For this one, I bring an in-depth post about the last promo card that has come to the arena. He is the melee boss and his name is Arkemis! Hope you like it!
Arkemis & his place on the new meta
The first time I saw Arkemis I thought it was an ok creature, with his strengths in melee but a bit too expensive. As long as I reach higher ranks I need more specific resources that bring me additional solutions to certain combat rulesets. And this is what I like most about how is Splinterlands going: a game where assets have gone to a much lower price than they were, and the requirement of every player to know all in-game mechanics with the rulesets increase. Arkemis is one of these specific solutions, and this post is focused to show how can he outperform and boost your win rate. His hot points are shown in the picture that follows:
The first question that you have to answer is if you consider that your enemy will use melee. If so, he is your boy. All Arkemis tools are designed to control enemy melee damage. On the other hand, if you consider that your enemy will focus on a different kind of strategy, maybe you should begin to plan other options.
What could annoy you more than when your tank is hit by a Halving creature like Arkemis and sees his damage cut down by half (rounded down). Arkemis can transform a 5 Melee damage into a 2. When this happens, you know that something is not going well. When you halve your enemy tank, plans work.
Our friend fits perfectly with Chaos Legion Legendary summoners, especially with Grandmaster Rahe and Possibilus. The first one is the official Armor Manager of the current meta, as he transforms every single armor into Magic, and gives +1 Armor. The additional +2 added to Rathe's can keep one point if your army is Rusted (and this point sometimes is the difference between the glory and the hell). Referred to Possibilus, he can be an outsanding tank/offtank with trample. Both guyz take great profit from Arkemis.
Arkemis can play a role in high mana combats as support / debuffer. There are a lot of combinations that had no access to protect, that now have, especially thanks to his neutral condition. This means that he can fit every army. In high mana combats, sometimes one has to decide between another carry and a support creature. Arkemis can play both roles, so could be a smart choice to rent/buy him. In addition to this, melee creatures with support abilities are the key to victory in melee-only rulesets, as you offer your team more than only damage. That's why Arkemis can work like Gandalf in Moria and cry to your opponent: you shall not pass!
If Arkemis has an annoying ability like halving, he has another such disgusting to your opponent than the first: Blockshield. Blockshield destroys enemy plans when he wants to damage you. Every 5+ single attack will be turned into 1. That's the difference between life and death. There have been tons of combats with Miurat and Mycellic (both have block shields), and this ability has brought me enough time to win the battle. Nobody wants a 5 damage being turned into one. Arkemis does this.
For the first one, I bring you a duel vs Quix. It was a 30-mana Melee Only, Even Stevens with Opportunity. As we get used to the three rulesets, I would like to mention that Life has 3 great cards with very low budgets that fit perfectly: Vulguine, Harpy, and Fiend. If you manage Vulguine to survive first casualties his scavenge ability will load him with tons of health, Harpy is a natural Opportunity monster with True Strike. This saves on mana budget allowed me to summon 2 outstanding creatures: Arkemis and Chaos Knight. The board looked as follows:
Placed Arkemis as the main tank. He had different roles, first one, as this was a melee only, +2 Armor would mean overall survival for my creatures (added to +1 from Lux). Also, I was expecting a huge boss for my enemy's first position., so Halving would be useful
Chaos Knight performed a great duty as an off-tank, Inspiring my team (my opponent brought a +2 modifier from Lurker and Shark). Also, Shield would become
Thanks I choose life summoner I managed to place 3 more creatures with such a low budget of 4 Mana. Harpy for 2 attacks and True Stike, Vulguine with 3 attacks and loading health, and Finally Fiend to increase Speed. Also, This +1 Speed added to Flying and Dodge from Harpy and Vulguine had some increased evading from my side. Made a post speaking about this.
For the second one, I bring you both armies with a similar lineup. But as Splinterlands rules, Champion battles are decided by details. It was a 44-mana, non-magic & stampede battle. The board looked as follows:
For the duel of tanks, Arkemis outperformed vs DiemonShark. He halved his damage, protected his whole mates, and as battle advanced, enraged for the win.
Both summoners brought 3 identical creatures, Flying Squid for the Blind, Deeplurker because is such an Op card with opportunity and attack debuff, and Wavebrood to control the damage.
As my opponent chose 2 ranged carries I went for Angelic Mardarin to support Wavebrood. This was one of the keys to success. As general advice, it's very important to bring support to battle. So many times in high mana battles, one prefers to increase damage output rather than cheaper support. This is a serious misunderstanding of the game. This game is about planning how you will receive the damage from the enemy army, how you will mitigate first, and sustain then. And supports play a special role in this aspect of the game.
Hive - Splinterlands is a great ecosystem to grow in the Crypto world, we are in the best community and we play a game with a solid project and a great future. The only thing we've got to do is believe in the project and fight hard in the arena! Thanks for reading and feel free to share your thoughts. Happy weekend splinters!
In case you are new to this wonderful game here, I leave you my referral
