Gem Meteor might at first sight looks like a weak card, since it cost 5 mana but only have 1 ranged damage. In addition it always a bit complex to use card with Scattershot ability (but this perception isn't entirely true, as we will see in our analysis below). Scattershot is quite a rare ability since there's only 7 monster have it across all Splinterlands collections (one for each Splinter). Gem Meteor is a middle mana card costing 5 mana which is very versatile to be used in almost all mana cap.
So let's focus our study to the pros and cons below:
| 1. High speed at lower level, which means this card will have earlier initiatives, better accuracy, and better evasion. | 1. It's a complex card which require deep thought on deployment. A lot of random number factor are in play. First, it has Scattershot ability which randomize the target, making attack less focused on certain row. Second, its a Ninja card, which depend on high speed for evasion rather than health for protection. |
| 2. The card have a shifting role. At earlier level, the role will be more of Sub-Tanker and with low damage enough to chip some health. But at latter level (with damage grow tremendously), the role will shift into powerful Striker. | |
| 3. Neutral splinter make this card flexible to be combined with other splinter. | |
| *Reference for Archetype term : Striker --> Superior Damage / Tanker --> Superior Health / Ninja --> Superior Speed. |
These past weeks there's been a price down surge impacting all cards across all splinters. Gem Meteor price also show a downtrend both for regular price and gold foil price. As this post was written, the regular price is $0.49 and gold foil price is $4.62. Gem Meteor is expensive since it's a Epic type card. But it have low price compared to other Rare type card from Chaos Legion edition (only Hunter Jarx, Insidious Warlock, and Temporal Master have regular price below it). As Neutral splinter, Gem Meteor will be more flexible to be used combined with other splinter. All this superiority make Gem Meteor a preferable card to be purchased.
The regular-gold price ratio still hit 1:9 to 1:10. While the regular-gold bcx ratio needed to reached equal level around 4:1 to 5:1. With this figure, in my opinion purchasing gold foil will be more beneficial and less costly.
Epic type have limited progression steps that is a total of 5 steps. Level 2 doesn't give much growth as 4 speed is quite high and moving to 5 speed won't give much advantage. But after that, Gem Meteor have very interesting growth. Starting from Level 3, Gem Meteor started to evolve into effective Striker card. Damage grow consistently level-by-level up to 4 damage, only interfered by Piercing abilities on Level 5. A damage-mana ratio at 0.8 is a real power-house, and become more threatening when supported with accuracy at 5 speed and Piercing abilities.
| Ruleset | Strategy |
|---|---|
| Super Sneak, Equal Opportunity, and Target Practice ruleset will be less useful for card with Scattershot ability, since this ability always takes precedent and override all other target modifying ability. | |
| As happened to other card. Reverse Speed will jeopardize all the speed benefit from Gem Meteor. | |
| Gem Meteor have high evasion and decent health; this make it suitable to be a Sub-Tanker for the front row. Close Range ruleset not only take benefit Gem Meteor as Sub-Tanker but also its high damage gained at latter Level. | |
| Scattershot will give around 50% to 75% chances for attack to hit the middle row. The middle row is the most effective target for in Explosive Weaponry ruleset to gain the maximum two blast damage. |
Here's one of my battle experience with Gem Meteor in my formation. Click Here for the battle link. The battle have 32 mana cap, with Reverse Speed and Briar Patch ruleset. For my formation, I used:
| Position | Card Name | Level | Mana | Health | Armor | Speed | Damage Type | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summoner | General Sloan | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1st Row | Pelacor Conjurer | 4 | 2 | 5 | - | 4 | - | - |
| 2nd Row | Time Mage | 3 | 4 | 3 | - | 4 | Magic | 2 |
| 3rd Row | Venari Crystalsmith | 2 | 4 | 4 | - | 3 | Ranged | 1 |
| 4th Row | Gem Meteor | 1 | 5 | 5 | - | 4 | Ranged | 1 |
| 5th Row | Pelacor Arabalest | 2 | 6 | 3 | - | 2 | Ranged | 2 |
| 6th Row | Portal Spinner | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Ranged | 2 |
My opponent formation:
| Position | Card Name | Level | Mana | Health | Armor | Speed | Damage Type | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summoner | Tarsa | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1st Row | Antoid Platoon | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Melee | 1 |
| 2nd Row | Disintegrator | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | Melee | 2 |
| 3rd Row | Gargoya Devil | 1 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Ranged | 2 |
| 4th Row | Uraeus | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Melee | 1 |
| 5th Row | Tenyii Striker | 1 | 5 | 6 | - | 2 | Melee | 2 |
| 6th Row | Scavo Chemist | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | 2 | - | - |
I made a serious blunder in this battle, by deploying Time Mage, since Speed Reverse just make the opponent formation faster from the debuff. Other than that my formation have firm card composition in overall. I choose to focus on ranged card, as melee card would suffer from Briar Patch ruleset. General Sloan is the best to boost ranged damage output. My favorite formation consist of tanker, sub-tanker, and the rest filled with ranged card. Venari Crystalsmith is main choice, as its heal ability could help survival. Back row will be filled by Portal Spinner for its armor might delay several Sneak attack.
To my surprise, my opponent use all-out melee card. This's very risky with the Briar Patch ruleset. And what more confusing is there's Disintegrator with its Demoralize ability which rather useless since there's less chance melee card will be deployed. Scavo Chemist positioning also seemed questionable, as it has no other use other than as cannon-fodder from Sneak attack.
Although my formation utilize only 30 mana, I have high confident as my formation have card with 2 to 4 level. Meanwhile my opponent was limited to level 1 card.
Both formation are boosted by respective summoner. Once the battle started, opponent with faster card launched serial attack to my front and back row. Luckily Conjurer and Spinner managed to survived. The speed advantage truly make an advantage, as my Spinner and Arbalest missed their attack. But the rest of the card still able to make major damage to Antoid Platoon. And the battle leveled even more with the Thorn damage chipping the melee card one-by-one.
Round 2 opened with exchanging blow between Conjurer and Antoid. Both card are eliminated. And then Spinner was eliminated from Sneak attack. But this attack cost a lot for Tenyii and Uraeus, as their health become thinner from Thorn damage. Gem Meteor launched attack which hit right into Uraeus with 1 health left. The battle ended with both formation have a lot of causalities.
The 3rd round doesn't turn good for my formation. Venari and Gem Meteor both missed their attack, only Time Mage managed to deal damage to Gargoya. Arbalest took the blow from Tenyii, but cost Tenyii damage from the Thorn.
Entering Round 4, there's no more hope for the opponent once Tenyii perished from Thorn damage. Opponent formation is left with only Gargoya as sole striker, yet there's no chance for it to strike back as Gargoya's damage is outpaced by Venari's heal. Time Mage final attack put Gargoya to its afterlife, and the fate's sealed.
My strategy did work because the appropriate card with the ruleset (and also because the unsuitable choice made by opponent). Gem Meteor make less contribution as most of its attack are miss. But there's one attack that put the last hit against Uraeus.
I rather use Gem Meteor tentatively in any situation. Gem Meteor attack is unpredictable, so its important that coherent strategy must be thought thoroughly prior to any deployment. The random targeting from Scattershot cause difficulty to focus attack on certain row. My strategy would first to secure several card with consistent target on certain position, and then deploy Gem Meteor as additional card to support the attack. It's always better to destroy card one-by-one rather than spread damage thinly across all card.
On other occasion, there're might be some middle row card which need to be eliminated as earlier as possible, and this is the goal of using Scattershot. So it's important that Gem Meteor attack to be precise and powerful enough to destroy the target card. Any miss hit, and there's might no chance to hit the same position twice.
Piercing ability synergize very well with Scattershot ability. Protect ability could jeopardize your strategy to destroy middle row card, and with Piercing and high damage, there's high chance to stay on track destroying target in one hit.
