Its a strange part of the forest. Its dark, but instead of high towering tree with thick foliage hindering the sunlight; a tall chunk of stone surround the already withering pine tree. The stone have strange feature. It have some outgrowth on the upper side. And its surface, it looks patchy with some spore texture, as seemed its breathing through it. But beneath it, a living creature reside. Its the Mycelic Infantry! A solid gargantuan, standing as the frontline guardian, where beneath the deep forest, the Queen Mycelia would summon them to their calling.
There's not many option for Tanker in Earth Splinter making Mycelic Infranty as a Tanker card stood out among others. It cost 8 mana, a high mana which surely guarantee a strong card. It has armor and huge health, and even reinforced by Shield ability. And 3 melee damage at only Level 1 is no mere damage. But one thing to remember. Speed is its Achilles Heels! A victory determined not only by strength, but also by speed and wits. This card might be a gargantuan warrior, but what if its merely just a pawn? Lets find out our curiosity.
| 1. Huge health, with some armor, and Shield ability is all the good things you would wanted to create the best Tanker. | 1. Speed become the greatest enemy of this card. It started at 1 speed and never go beyond it until max level. This card will be outpaced by other faster card. |
| 2. High damage give this card some chances to combat the front rows. | 2. Again speed become a drag to its already high melee damage as it will missed more of its attack. More to it, its pity to have the 2nd and 3rd abilities are very related to melee attack. |
| *Reference for Archetype term : Striker --> Superior Damage / Tanker --> Superior Health / Ninja --> Superior Speed. |
Although its not the cheapest card among Rare type cards, but it's ranked on lower tier making this card quite affordable. As per this post was made, the regular foil price is $0.11 and the gold foil price is $1.73. This will cost around $12.65 to attain the max level. Both regular and gold price have been in downtrend since past months (which happened to the whole market). But the current regular-gold price ratio is still very high, making gold card seemed too costly. In my opinion, purchasing regular card seemed the best choice, while keeping wait-and-see on gold price to see possibility of further price fall.
Mycelic Infantary started at Level 1 with a very solid status for a Tanker card. As Rare type, this card have 7 progression steps. The overall growth seemed less efficient for several reason. First 3 out of 7 steps consist solely of +1 health growth, which seemed a very diminished compared to the high starting health. Even Level 7 which would cost some fortune to reach after, give a +1 health only. I expect there should be additional status growth accompanying this; take for example at Level 7 there should be +1 health and +1 armor.
And the next point is armor. There's no armor growth at all. As a solid Tanker, armor should growth in parallel with health growth, not merely as nice-to-have status. At Level 6 and above, there are more cards with higher damage, and its necessary to have extra armor at least sufficient to block more than 1 attack.
Beyond status, there are 2 abilities gained at Level 5 and Level 8. Giant Killer is an ambivalent ability. It's use is very situational only if cards costing more than 10 mana are deployed. The higher the mana cap on a battle the higher we expect to encounter 10 mana cards. The problem is the same thing happened with our formation that we might better utilized the mana by deploying higher mana card. Luckily Mycelic Infantry with a 8 mana cost are in the threshold balance between those consideration.
Enrage is the cutting-edge ability. It gives Mycelic Infantry the status boost to its already destructive melee attack. But still this ability is fall behind compared to other cards having it. Some cards gained this at Level 4 or 5, or even at Level 1. And then some cards with more balanced damage and speed, have full benefit; while the speed multiplier become wasted on this card as it only have 1 speed.
| Ruleset | Strategy |
|---|---|
| Aim True would solve one out of two Mycelic Infantry's problem. That is 100% accuracy for its destructive attack. The late attack order still pose a problem, since it would be a waste for the damage to hit any leftover armor or health. | |
| Shield ability itself is the best answer for Earthquake ruleset. And the armor and health of Mycelic Infantry will make opponent exhausted in battle of attrition. | |
| Melee Mayhem give Mycelic Infantry a better roles as a secondary tanker. Place this card in the 2nd row or even last row to protect against Sneak attack. | |
| If Aim True solve only one problems, we could say Reverse Speed solve all the problems. Better accuracy and earlier attack order, and more to it is the better chance to evade incoming attack. |
Here's one of my battle experience with Mycelic Infantry in my formation. Click Here for the battle link. The battle have 17 mana cap, with Standard ruleset. For my formation, I used:
| Position | Card Name | Level | Mana | Health | Armor | Speed | Damage Type | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summoner | Wizard of Eastwood | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1st Row | Mycelic Infantry | 1 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 1 | Melee | 3 |
| 2nd Row | Khmer Princess | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | 1 | Magic | 1 |
| 3rd Row | Goblin Thief | 1 | 4 | 2 | - | 2 | Melee | 2 |
| 4th Row | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 5th Row | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 6th Row | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
My opponent formation:
| Position | Card Name | Level | Mana | Health | Armor | Speed | Damage Type | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summoner | Tarsa | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1st Row | Living Lava | 1 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | Melee | 3 |
| 2nd Row | Goblin Fireballer | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | 1 | Ranged | 1 |
| 3rd Row | Scavo Chemist | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | 2 | None | - |
| 4th Row | Xenith Archer | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | 1 | Ranged | 1 |
| 5th Row | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 6th Row | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
A glance look on both formation, we can say this is going to be a ram fight between two giant. Both Mycelic and Living Lava have armor and Shield ability. Its's a matter who strike first and who will stood last. Supporting card play important role to bring help bring down the Tanker. My formation totally gained the upper hand, as the Shield ability null both Goblin Fireballer and Xenith Archer attack. Meanwhile Khmer Princess magic will penetrate Living lava armor, while Goblin Thief with Sneak ability would bring down the ranged cards.
At Round 1, Wizard of Eastwood open the battle by effectively debuffing Living Lava armor at exactly 2 armor. This open a chance for Mycelic to directly strike at Living Lava health. Living Lava lost 3 health and left with 4 health. Goblin Thief hit Xenith Archer, but lucky it survived with 1 health remaning.
My formation repeat the attack pattern for Round 2. Living Lava again sustain another damage and now left with 1 health remaining. Goblin Thief strike to finish Xenith Archer. Living Lava down of its luck as it wasted its attack only to destroy the remaining 1 armor of Mycelic Infantry.
Once entering Round 3, the fate is already sealed for my opponent, as the final attack destroyed Living Lava and there's not a single chance for the remaining cards to able to attack.
My strategy worked very well, even when Mycelic Infantry have to face an equal Tanker card. But what contributed to winning is the correct choice of Summoner. My Wizard of Eastwood break down the all the armor of Living Lava. Shield ability worked very well to fend off all incoming Ranged attack with 1 damage. Previously I mentioned that Speed could become the greatest weakness. But facing enemies with 1 speed, Mycelic Infantry find no difficulty to land any attacks.
Mycelic Infantry will be my primary choice for Tanker in the Earth Splinter. The card work very well if combined with magic card for the back row to counter against full-melee formation (usually for battle with mid-mana cap). But care need to be taken as 8 mana cost could turn costly if this card is destroyed earlier.
