DJINN INFERNI : INFERNAL FLAME

While Djinn Apprentice stand guard at the mouth of the giant volcanoes; Djinn Inferni - the eldest among them - stood as the last guardian on the gate to the underworld inferno. Djinn Inferni have lived for thousand years. They're born as Djinn Apprentice, but able to survive in the harsh environment of the volcanoes depth. Thus it has outlive most of its peers. And under continuous exposure of intense heath, it skin slowly blackened and turned hard. With a resistant skin, the old Djinn Inferni are able to descent into the deepest part of the volcanoes, where the heatwave will burn any particles in second.
It arrived at the mouth of a giant cave, a gate to the underworld inferno. What lies beneath it? Djinn Inferni harbor the temptation to dwell deeper. What lies beyond it shouldn't be disturbed. Djinn Inferni choose to guard the gate, cast out anyone coming before they hurt themselves.

Just as the lore above has spoke, Djinn Inferni is the stronger form of Djinn Apprentice. If we compare both cards we will find both card have many similarities. No armor, same speed, same type of attack, almost equal health (Djinn Apprentice is higher), and almost similar abilities (both can cause double damage). And then there's also distinguishing aspect between both card, which is the damage value (Djinn Inferni is higher) and the Stun ability. Both of which seemed to justify the mana difference between them. To learn more about Djinn Apprentice, I've previously written posts about it, that you could find here.

Djinn Inferni play important roles as part of magic card in the Fire Splinter. As we have saw from the traits mapping of Fire Splinter (please refer to my post here), its rare to find magic card in the Fire Splinter. Djinn Inferni is strong having 3 damage at Level 1 and could grew to 5 damage; but very fragile having only 5 health. Let's just continue with our usual analysis.

Pros & Cons

1. Rare and yet powerful magic Striker, having 3 damage at Level 1 and 5 damage at Max Level (the highest damage among Fire Splinter magic card).	1. Very low health (4 health) for a 7 mana card, making this card a very risky card to deployed.
2. Djinn Inferni have fair amount of speed (3 speed), which although looks standard are still very important since a magic card will require speed to gain early turn order and decent evasion.
3. Djinn Inferni is one of few number cards possessing Giant Killer ability. Although the ability is rarely used since its rare to see card with 10+ mana evenmore to see it deployed.
*Reference for Archetype term : Striker --> Superior Damage / Tanker --> Superior Health / Ninja --> Superior Speed / Support --> A Lot Number of Abilities.

Market Price Analysis

They past 2 days, there's been a 7% - 10% rise in the Hive token price. The trend seemed to have impact on the overall cards price. Based on PeakMonsters, the List Prices of my whole collection have rise around 15%. It seemed this conditions have also impact the price for Djinn Inferni. As per this post is wwritten, the regular foil price have reached $0.79 (the day before is $0.617); meanwhile the gold foil price have reached $5.00. Both foils have shown price downtrend from the past 4 months, with the current price is the lowest price so far. Calculating the total bcx required to reach max level, it will cost $36.34 for regular foil and $50.00 for gold foil. The price gap are swill wide enough, and purchasing regular foil might be the best choice to save budget. But in investment perspectives, considering the opportunity for future uptrend, then purchasing regular and gold on a dollar-cost-averaging would be a good strategy.

*Notes: Djinn Inferni have very similar figure to Djinn Apprentice. If you have limited budget, you might as well purchase Djinn Apprentice. But take notice that Djinn Apprentice is the lesser one costing 5 mana instead 7 mana.

Progression Analysis

Analyzing Rare and Legendary type card are less fascinating, because they have less progression steps which inline with the Summoner level. Thus there'll be less room for growth. In addition the price per bcx made leveling up rather costly.

The progression started with speed growth. A good addition considering Djinn Inferni already have 3 speed. Damage growth on level 3 turn Djinn Inferni into heavy Striker. But the health drawback is a major offset which could create dilemma whether to keep Level 3 or stay at Level 2 until enough budget gathered to jump to Level 4. Level 4 just refund the health drawback. Level 5 bestow the Stun ability, which although the bcx require looks too excessive for such ability, its very effective if used with high speed cards. The ultimate level give a very enticing damage growth (with no drawback).

In overall, Djinn Inferni doesn't show much growth other than the magic damage. We can conclude that this card is pure Striker, focusing strength solely to the magic damage.

Rulesets To Be Watched

Ruleset	Strategy
	Having additional armor will be useless without Void Armor ability, therefore its the best moment to use Djinn Inferni with its heavy magic attack.
	Djinn Inferni 4 health could still be considered low, and will have a better opportunity of gaining additional health from other cards.
	Blast ability are very effective with magic damage, since the blast damage will be in magic, and therefor will also bypass any armor.

WATCH BATTLE

Here's one of my battle experience with Djinn Inferni in my formation. Click Here for the battle link. The battle has 29 mana cap, with Standard ruleset. For my formation, I used:

My opponent formation:

The battle have a 29 mana cap, a mid mana which give much flexiblity of the cards I would deployed. The best strategy is to utilize the full row. I focus my formation on melee based, with main Striker are Living Lava, Serpentine Spy, and Tenyii Striker. Living Lava will also play the main Tanker with its Shield ability. Behind it, there's Chaos Legion which position will be a sacrificial lamb against any Opportunity attack. Ant Miners is a very cost efficient card which if positioned correctly could equal a 6 mana Tanker. Djinn Inferni is deployed as backup in case opponent focus on armored formation. In addition the 5th row give enough cover from non-direct attack.

My opponent deployed a Tanker with Taunt ability. Surprisingly where I except a full arsenal of magic and ranged card to barrage, I found only Pelacor Arbalest and Xenith Archer as the main threat. My prediction was right with opponent deployed Truthspeaker and its protect ability. Then there's Time Mage bringing additional debuff into the game. Buff and debuff are truly a game changing aspect, especially for this kind of middle mana battle with full fomation.

The battle started with full siege on both Tanker. Shield play important roles to sustain Pelacor Arbalest barrage. At the end Shieldbearer lost more because my melee formation launch stronger attack.

Round 2 started with both magic card hitting down other Tanker. And then come Pelacor Arbalest killing two birds in one shot leaving the formation to 4 cards. Ant Miner stood up as the main Tanker accumulating a total of 5 health. But Ant Miners have limited time without further additional health. The rest of the formation are only able to break down the opponent armor, hoping to strike down on the next round.

Djinn Inferni open up with heavy blow to Celestial Harpy. But then Pelacor Arbalest again make the incredible killing two birds in one shot, leaving Djinn Inferni and Tenyii Striker behind. Nevertheless victory still lean upon my formation, as opponent formation have very thin health. Tenyii previous effort to break down Arbalest armor now prove to be fruitful with tis attack finally eliminate Arbalest.

When the round open Djinn Inferni again score a hit to bring down Time Mage. And then the fate is sealed with only Truthspeaker stand as the main Tanker. When Djinn finally cast magic to end Truthspeaker, Xenith Archer stood silence without any fight.

CONCLUSION

Did your strategy work? What will you try differently next time?

I have to admit the 3 magic damage for 7 mana cost was really worth it. Djinn Inferni is a pure Striker card. Many time the full 3 magic damage, give certainty to do a one hit kill which save a lot of time. The Giant Killer ability isn't utilized at all in this battle. As previously mentioned, its very rare for this ability to be used, so the strong point truly come from its magic damage.

Do you like DJINN INFERNI? Why or why not?

I'm still in doubt when using Djinn Inferni. The high magic damage are really powerful, but there's other way to maximize damage output without paying 7 mana cost. In addition the low health make positioning become more difficult. At least having some armor would give some cover. But unfortunately Fire Splinter collection doesn't have Protect ability. So you must depend on Neutral monster.