Monster's Week: Nephket

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

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^{The tips and possible advises in this article are designed for Silver League, in which I am in right now.}

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

I found a really interesting character when I was renting. This monster is a bit expensive to rent but the artwork and ability set looks interesting so I ought to give him a try.

At first, I really did not need Nephket because my base lineup with Bera Dallin is solid. Then, there was this battle where I found the opportunity to do so. It wasn't as problematic as others but it would certainly make my time easier.

So, with this battle, I had Bera Dallin take in charge of defense as Nephket gets to offense. Let's check what happened after.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Nephket is a very offensive monster focusing on big damage than strengthening your team's defenses. He has low health for a 7 mana cost monster but has great damage dealing 5 total damage per round without the abilities.

I really cannot decide what is the best ability among the five because the combination of Sneak, Stun, Knock Out and Piercing abilities is really good. I also like the fact that Nephket has two attacks, range and melee, which means that it is possible that he can Stun an opponent on the range Sneak attack and then do double damage with Knock Out on the melee Sneak attack.

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💊 Abilities 💊

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Sneak: [Target Modifier] The attack priority of this monster's attack is changed to "The opponent's monster that is on the last position."

Stun: [Negative Status] Monsters attacked by this monster has a chance to get Stunned status. Stunned Monsters have their next turn skipped. All abilities that activate at the start of that monster's turn are also disabled for that round.

Knock Out: [Damage] This monster deals double damage to opponents with Stunned Status

Piercing: [Attack Modifer] Any excess Melee and Range damage on the opponent's armor are passed through their health.

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Pros

1. High damage. Initially, Nephket can deal 5 total damage with his two attacks but this can quickly ramp up since both of these Splinters have monsters and summoners can increase the melee and range damage.
2. Good set of abilities. Like I mentioned, the combo of Stun and Knock Out abilities on one monster with two damage types are very smart. This means he does not need to rely on other monsters to inflict Stuned status on the opponents for his Knock Out ability to work and he can do it all on his own.
3. Dual Splinter. Nephket is both Life and Water Splinter. Both Splinter has good back line combos with Water's Deeplurker and Life's Dumacke Exile. Both Splinter also have good summoners and monsters that can increase melee and range attacks which complements Nephket.

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Cons

1. Low Health.
   Nephket only have 5 health which means at high level, he would be a target of Opportunity attacks most of the time if not defended properly. At high level, 5 health is considered low. Just imagine this, a 2 mana cost monster, Xenith Archer, has 5 health as well. So, for a 7 mana cost monster, it should be around 8 health or at least have armor with him.
2. Shield can be devastating.
   Nephket's Range and Melee damage can be halved by Shield ability. This means it can be countered easily if the situation arises. On top of that, his range damage is only 1 which means a shield can completely negate the damage.
3. Reliant on Speed.
   Both Range and Melee damage can miss depending on the Speed difference. Nephket only has 3 speed and most of the Rebellion monsters have 3 speed and higher. Without additional speed from summoners or monster abilities like Swiftness, his attacks has a high chance of not hitting his opponents.

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Rules of Combat	Description
	Aim True	All monsters cannot miss their attacks: With Aim True rule of combat, all of his attacks will hit without fail. This fixes the problem that the attacks can miss. This is a good rule of combat because Nephket has high damage and this can make those high damage consistently land.
	Equalizer	The Max Health of all monsters on the board will be equal to the Max Health of the monster with the highest max health: With Equalizer rule of combat, the chance of him being targetted by Opportunity abilities goes to 0. This rule of combat helps with his low health as a weakness. Nephket also has high damage which is what I consider good in this rule of combat because you need high damage monsters when the opponents all have high health.
	Explosive Weaponry	All monsters on the board gains the Blast ability that inflicts half the damage to the monsters beside the target: Any monster that can attack multiple times in one round is compatible with Explosive Weaponry rule of combat. This rule of combat gives the monster Blast ability which activates per attack which means Nephket can deal more damage every round.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Rules of Combat	Description
	Armored Up	All monsters gain +2 armor for this battle: Even if Nephket has Piercing ability, it would still reduce his damage to the opponent's health since both of his attacks doesn't bypass armor.
	Briar Patch	All monsters on the board gains the Thorns ability that inflicts 2 melee damage to monster with melee damage attacking this monster: The melee damage can be bad when attacking an opponent with Thorns ability because Nephket has low health. This is also the same for Fire & Regret rule of combat but Thorns on Briar Patch has higher return damage than the range attack.
	Fog of War	Removes the Snipe, Sneak and Opportuniy abilities for this battle.: With Aim True rule of combat, all of his attacks will hit without fail. This fixes the problem that the attacks can miss. This is a good rule of combat because Nephket has high damage and this can make those high damage consistently land.

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Monsters	Description
	River Hellondale	Nephket is an offensive monster. Increasing his damage is better than getting defensive ones. River Hellondale is compatible because this mosnter has Inspire ability.
	Chaos Knight	Same as River Hellondale but for Life Splinter. Chaos Knight has Inspire ability that is compatible with Nephket.
	Igor Darkspear	To make Nephket's Knock Out ability more consistent, another monster with Stun ability can be added. One of the best monster that is compatible with him is Igor Darkspear, a 2 mana cost range monster with Stun ability from the Water Splinter.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

This is a Bera Dallin composition that I already discussed last week. But on this battle, I added an extra firepower in the form of Nephket. I added Nephket because I saw the opportunity of Sneak because this opponent used a lot of Earth Magic Team on his previous games and is placing the support monsters towards the back. This worked perfectly in my favor.

Lineup

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^{Avina of the Wolf}

I had Bera Dallin on my team this battle so the Heal was given to her. If no monster needs the Heal ability from Avina of the Wolf, you can give the extra 2 Speed to Nephket for more consistent damage.

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^{Bera Dallin}

A really strong tank from the Life Splinter. The combination of Taunt, Shield and Void Shield abilties are really good. Since it would be supported by multiple Repair abilities.

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^Junker

A melee monster with Repair ability to support Bera Dallin.

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^Nephket

I added Nephket from the opportunity I realized on the opponent's recurring gameplay. Nephket is added in order to take care of the opponent's support, Goblin Psychic, starting from the back.

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^{Adelade Brightwing}

Has both Repair and Resurrect abilities to help increase the defense on my team. Also has Swiftness that can increase my team's Speed which benefits Nephket. The higher his speed is the less chance he would miss.

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^{Venari Crystalsmith}

A low mana cost monster that has Tank Heal for Bera Dallin. Venari Crystalsmith also have Dispel to remove positive buffs from the opponent's tank.

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^{Celestial Harpy}

I have extra 2 mana so I added a really good 2 mana cost monster with Opportunity ability. Celestial Harpy would be helping Nephket deal havoc on the back line of my opponent's.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

After eliminating the opponent's Mycelic Slipspawn in the middle of Round 1, it only took a few turns for Nephket and Celestial Harpy to kill the opponent's back row starting from Goblin Psychic. Due to the amount of support Bera Dallin have, she stands tall and protects everyone with Taunt. An easy win for me with my Bera Dallin defending my team as Nephket and Celestial Harpy strike their back row one by one.

^{> > Click here to view the full battle < <}

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Nephket is a niche monster. He is good at doing this job but I can't call him overpowered. At low level, even with somewhat low damage, he can be really useful though since he already have Sneak and Stun even at level 1. That is a plus if you use him as a high mana cost filler for your team but not as a constant unit for your build.

Nephket's best lineup would be something that complements his playstyle instead of a defensive team like Bera Dallin's. A bunch of Opportunity and Sneak monster with summoner, Kelya Frendul, for that speed and extra armor, that is, to me, his best team.

Whether you add Nephket as an extra for your team or build around him, it doesn't change the fact that the set of abilities he have is good on high level. He's a niche monster that can be used whether alone or with others.

• This post is an entry for Splinterlands Social Media Contest.
• Animated Banners and Dividers are edited in Canva Pro.
• Other sources that I do not own are cited under their respective photos.
• Some of the fonts used are from instafonts.io

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