Hello, guys, how're you doing? In this weekly challenge, we were tasked to talk about the Crypt Beetle, and I must say, I have mixed opinions on this card, and in a moment I'll show you the pros and cons of using it. But before that, who is the Crypt Beetle? Well, it's a common Death monster from the Chaos Legion edition, which means that it's part of the base set, so everyone can use it!
Any explorers that delve too deeply into the crypts, mausoleums, and necropolises of the world will find a foe they are unprepared for. Not undead, not liches, and not other monsters that can be found in the deep. Instead, tales are told of the crypt beetles. Enormous insects that are found feeding on the corpses within. Most explorers think they are a mere nuisance and will try to scare them away from whatever tomb they are choosing to rob.
But things don't end well for those explorers. These large beetles will defend themselves and their food aggressively. And any explorer that makes it back out alive will have impressive scars to show from the crypt beetle's bite.
I was going to title this post "A Sturdy Little Guy", but after reading its Lore, I found out that the Crypt Beetle are not actually that small, which makes them even more terrifying!
What makes the Crypt Beetle stand out against all the other low mana melee monsters is its Shield ability, which allows it to take less damage from physical attacks (melee and ranged). Thanks to that, it can serve as a low mana tank, especially useful in Equalizer matches, since its main problem is only having 2 health points, making it quite frail against magic damage.
After leveling it up, you don't get much difference. It still only has the Shield ability, with only having increased stats, which is not bad, but it's nothing to write home about.
Here I'll show you a battle using Djinn Chwala, and a strategy that can be useful. I'll describe it as best as I can, but nothing beats the feeling of actually watching the battle, so in this link you'll be able to watch the battle yourself.
Because of the ruleset, I decided to go for a fully melee team, to target the backline, and I also used my ace to counter that same strategy.
| Card | Description |
|---|---|
| DRAKE OF ARNAK With +1 armor, it protects all my monsters from melee attacks, which I'm expecting. | |
| SHADOWY PRESENCE For only 1 mana, it has 4 health and 1 speed, making it a great secondary tank, for such a low cost. It's especially useful since I'm not expecting many attacks to the first position. | |
| CRYPT BEETLE With its low speed and Sturdy, it can come in handy in this battle, being one of the first monsters to attack, and not taking melee damage (if the enemy goes with melee as well). | |
| DISINTEGRATOR With Demoralize, it lowers the enemy's melee attack. Since I'm hoping for a lot of melee attacks against my main tank, this could be deadly for the enemy. | |
| CARRION SHADE Since I had 1 mana left, I chose the Carrion Shade to deal some more melee damage against the enemy. | |
| DJINN CHWALA My main tank. Whenever Chwala is attacked by a melee monster, the aggressor will also be damaged. Since it's in the last position, any melee monster that attacks it will be damaged as well. |
With only 2 attacking monsters left, and one on its last legs, I think this battle is already decided.
With the Cursed Windeku defeated, there's nothing much that the enemy can do.
With only 2 non attacking monsters on the enemy team, this battle is already over, since they can't defend themselves.
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