Hi!
This week Splinterlands battle challenge is starring a visitor from the sky, the Gem Meteor. My relationship with this Neutral monster is a non-existing one. I don't actually own the card so I rented one to try it out.
Let's check out what kind of card we are dealing with and like usual, I have an example battle for you including the Gem Meteor and friends!
These crystalline missiles splinter and crack upon impact, ricocheting into everything nearby and inflicting devastating damage. Sometimes the meteorites descend into such a frenzy that they become completely indiscriminate about who or what they fire their shards at.
While studying my opponent's battle history I noticed that they had used monsters with magic attacks quite often. Therefore I decided to choose Bortus instead Kelya Frendul, who would have buffed Armor and Speed.
Bortus will debuff the enemy magic attacks reducing them by one.
To give my opponent even more grey hair I chose the mighty TORHILO THE FROZEN as my tank unit. This bull has a Void ability, making it suffer less damage caused by the enemy bears.
Torhilo is also very good against the Ranged and Melee attacks because it has good Armor and lots of Health.
On top of all that, Torhilo can do some severe damage with its 4 Melee attack points. This frozen fun will cost 9 Mana, so it's not very ideal for low-mana battles.
WAVE RUNNER comes with a Reach ability so it's a solid choice behind the tank monsters.
This shark is also pretty fast and can take a couple of hits with its 4 Health points. It's a good support unit for Torhilo attacking the opponent tank with its 2-point Melee attack.
DISINTEGRATOR is a machine-like beast. It is armored up and when that is gone, it can still take some beating with 5 Health points. This slow creature does 2 points of damage with Melee attack.
The best thing about the Disintegrator is its Demoralize ability making enemy units lose one Melee attack point. I have placed it safely in the middle so I could benefit from the ability as long as possible.
Being a Neutral monster, Disintegrator can jump in with any Splinter.
This creepy-looking fish will target the weakest of the weak. Using its Opportunity ability, it will attack the one with the lowest health.
Damage done can be considerable since the DEEPLURKER has 3 point Melee attack. It's not very fast though but will compensate for that with a nice amount of health.
I just recently won this from a raffle and this is actually the first time I'm using this Riftwatchers card.
Costing 9 mana, COASTAL NYMPH, is definitely not suited for low-mana battles but is an excellent choice for these 99 mana battles. With her Scattershot ability, she will be targeting a random enemy each round.
Her 3-point Ranged attack will take out the weakest opponent monsters. She is a tough creature having some armor and plenty of health.
Of course in this battle, we'll focus primarily on GEM METEOR.
While being the fastest thing on my team, it has a pretty low attack power, only one Ranged attack point. It has a decent amount of health so I've positioned it in the last spot where it can possibly handle a few enemy attacks.
Just like the Coastal Nymph, Gem Meteor also has a Scattershot ability! This looks like our backline might be sniping out opponents who think they are safe and comfortable in the middle.
As I suspected, I will be up against the Life Splinter in this standard ruleset, 99-mana battle. These high-mana battles are definitely my favorites since there are lots of monsters and lots of things happening. Many buffs and debuffs can affect the game in the most surprising ways.
These are the kind of battles you'd want to watch again to learn about mistakes and also learn new tactics.
Now let's take a closer look at the opponent team led by the GENERAL SLOAN.
All enemy monsters will gain +1 Ranged attack point at the start because of General's buff. That will mean half of their team. Gladly I got their magic monsters rebuffed at least.
Here are a couple of interesting picks among the enemy ranks:
DJINN RENOVA will gift each enemy monster one additional Health point using the Strengthen ability.
Other than that, she shouldn't pose a major threat to my team since her magic is reduced to one. Also, she'll be targeting Torhilo whose Void armor will make Renova's magic completely ineffective.
VENARI CRYSTALSMITH can be a tricky one. She is a tank healer and in this case, will be healing Chaos Knight. Hopefully, my Scattershot monsters will find her as a target.
I wonder why she is put so close to the front before the magic monsters...
GARGOYA DEVIL is a pretty good choice for the second spot. It has both Flying and Close Range abilities.
If the enemy tank should fall, this monster could still fight in front with its buffed Ranged attack(+3), and also with that Flying ability, it could be a hard target to hit.
The opponent team also includes:
Welcome to the Scattershot battle! If you want to watch the whole thing, click this link. Otherwise, just continue reading!
ROUND 1
This was kind of a "get to know your opponent" -round. Nothing worth mentioning happened.
ROUND 2
The enemy tank unit(Chaos Knight) was struggling with only one health but unfortunately, Gem Meteors and Coastal Nymphs scatter shots hit another enemy. Finally, it was up to Torhilo to put the Chaos Knight down. Time Mage also left the arena making our monsters faster.
ROUND 3
Gargoya Devil stepped up front and was healed by Venari Crystalsmith. We also lost Torhilo. Dangerous Gargoya Devil and Portal Spinner defeated Wave Runner. However, the powerful Coastal Nymph and Deep Lurker paid it back and Gargoya Devil was down.
ROUND 4
The enemy healer was now in the tank position. Gem Meteor had its chance but its poor attack left the healer with one health point. The creature managed to heal herself but her lights went off immediately when the Coastal Nymph's scattershot hit the target.
ROUND 5
Disintegrator was now in my tank position and Djinn Renova was theirs. But not for long. Disintegrator survived the hits while Renova had to make room for Portal Spinner.
ROUND 6
At the beginning of the final round, it was our here of the day, the Gem Meteor who delivered the final blow to Portal Spinner and ended the fight.
Even though the Gem Meteor made the decisive hit in the battle I'm not entirely convinced about how useful it could be. Sure, it being a Neutral monster is a big plus since I can try it out with other Splinters as well and maybe come up with some new tactics. Then again, it's kinda hard to ignore the fact that it has only one attack point.
If we take a look at how the Gem Meteor would upgrade, things begin to look much more promising.
On level 3 it would get that desperately missed attack point and on level 5 the Gem Meteor will be equipped with Piercing ability. At this point, I can it becoming much more useful and dangerous damaging those armored monsters in the back!
The rent price was only 0.10 DEC/Day and if you want to own it, the cost is $0.49 so not bad in my opinion. Not exactly the shooting star I'm always looking for but definitely, one to watch and perhaps to upgrade in the future.
Thank you for reading!
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Other pictures are screenshots from Splinterlands
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