Another week, another Share Your Battle Challenge. This time the Monster in the spotlight is one of the tanks from the Chaos Legion set,a proud member of the Water Splinter, namely the Diemonshark. It is a great tank against anything but magic and even then getting the occasional magic hit to trigger its Enrage Ability while still having a ton of armor could be really devastating for the opponent.
Now before we get into the stats discussion of the Diemonshark, let's have a sneak peek into its LORE
So apart from it being a fierce beast which is obvious just by looking at its name and picture, it is actually used for transportation of stuff by the Chaos Legion. I would not have suspected that.
Alright, we've got some idea of what an Diemonshark is, after glancing at its lore. Let us have a look at its stats and abilities at different key levels now.
Our Rare Monster starts off with the Trample Ability (When a Monster with Trample hits and kills its target, it will perform another attack on the next Monster on the enemy Team). Its base stats are 2 Melee Attack, 4 Speed, 6 Armor and 7 Health points.
At level 3 it gains an additional melee attack point for a total of 3.
At level 4 it gains its second ability - Enrage (Has increased Melee attack and Speed when damaged).
At level 7 it gains its 3rd and last ability - Retaliate (When hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker)
Finally maxed out at level 8 it has 4 Melee Attack, 4 speed, 6 armor and 10 health. Paired with it 3 abilities which are pretty good for a speed-meta tank, the Diemonshark really shines for the Water Splinter.
Now that we know what the card does (or doesn't do) at the different levels of play, let us have a look at the battle I have chosen to showcase.
The rulesets for this battle are Healed Out (All healing abilities are removed from Monsters and Summoners) and Holy Protection (All Monsters have the Divine Shield ability). The mana budget is above average - 40, so I have a bit more freedom to choose what Monsters I pick. The Splinter choice is limited to 2 Splinters (Water and Death), and the whole point is to showcase the Diemonshark so I will have to go with the Water Splinter.
The main tank for this battle will be the Diemonshark as expected. Hopefully the opponent will not go with an all-out Magic setup. We will see how it goes.
The 2nd place in the line-up goes to the Deeplurker. Another favorite Monster of mine. I think most people are in love with it, not because of its appearance obviously, but because it can really wreak havoc across the enemy team should it get the "Opportunity" to do so. Its 4 Melee Attack is really deadly for low-mana/support Monsters.
The 3rd place in the line-up goes to the Venari Wavesmith. It's yet another Monster I play relatively often. Additional armor could always turn out to be very useful on a variety of occasions.
The 4th spot goes to the Monster I expect to carry us to victory in this battle. Runemancer Kye is one of the most powerful legendary Monsters we've seen so far in the Riftwatcher set specifically due to her Lifesteal ability paired with 3 Magic Attack. It has the potential to stack tons of health points give enough time to work.
5th in the line-up is the Supply Runner. Some more Speed for the team can never be a bad thing unless it's during the Reverse Speed ruleset. It is not the case this time so the Supply Runner with definitely help.
The last spot is reserved for the Torrent Fiend. It's a great Monster for taking a hit or two from the "Sneakers" or Monsters with Opportunity Strike.
It is time for a quick round by round analysis:
The Summoner I am going with for the battle is my level 6 Kelya. Kelya is still the better Summoner compared to Aquatus in my humble opinion so I still rely mostly on her. It turns out my opponent has decided to go with a level 6 Kelya as well. It seems I'll be up against a decent foe this time around.
After 1 round, bot Diemonsharks have taken hits, however, my enemy has a Scalvo Hireling, so that is why theirs has a bit more armor, on the other hand mine has more health.
At the start of Round 3 the enemy Diemonshark has fallen but mine is also on the brink of death, sitting in the middle of the battlefield at 1 hp.
Start of Round 4 - my Diemonshark has obviously perished almost a round ago and now my Deep Lurker is trying to hold a line for a bit. The enemy Flying Squid is still hanging in there.
Both tanks from the last round are down and now my Venari Wavesmith has been sent to its death vs the enemy Deep Lurker in the middle of arena.
Round 6 - we've come to the end of the line for my team - it's now or never. Runemancer Kye has to clean up the rest of the enemy team with the kind help of the Supply Runner from the backline.
Round 7 - Kye still in control of the situation, thankfully it seems that the enemy team does not have enough dps. More over the enemy Dr. Blight is not at level 3 so it does not have Scavenge, which is very good news for my team.
Fast-forward to Round 12 and the final blow to the enemy Dr. Blight is about to come. A pretty interesting battle at first and a decisive victory for me in the end.
The Diemonshark is a great main tank for the Water Splinter and it definitely sees a ton of play when it fits the ruleset(s) of the battle. The Diemonshark is currently valued at $0.44 per BCX, so there is literally no reason not to pick it up and level it to the level of the league you compete in.
