By South Park In Tenor
Introduction
Hi, everyone! Konaqua-desu! Here's my entry for Splinterland's current Social Media Challenge.
This contest is designed to provide your experience and insight playing Splinterlands, a super fun NFT Deck building card game, where you can earn while you play!
Also, I would like to apologize for a lesser quality photo and format as I can only using my phone to post at the moment. Nevertheless, please enjoy my review of Sand Worm.
Lore
Huge Sand Worms have always lived in the desert of Draykh-Nahka, but with the recent uncovering of the various Untamed Prophecies, they have mysteriously grown even larger. They have also become more wild and free, somehow discovering how to escape from the Sands of the Dragon Splinter. Although it has never been witnessed, biologists believe that the Worms have learned how to swim. If they have indeed learned to burrow through water like sand, the Splinterlands will suffer greatly from their proliferation.
In Mount Mox battle, Sand Worms can swallow monsters of nearly any size with no need to chew. They can even snatch fliers directly from the air, extending out of the ground even higher than the arena walls.
Stats and Abilities
Sand Worm's damage is above normal. Even at level 1, he can one shot kill most cards with his ridiculous 5 damage. This is offset by his 1 speed so he misses quite a lot at lower levels but that 1 hit may be all you need to win the game.
The biggest downside of Sand Worm is his high mana cost of 9. This makes his appearance to games very limited but is advised to always run him in a 99 mana cap game as this downside does not have a negative effect on such situations.
Initially, Sand Worm has the sneak ability and this allows you to position him anywhere as he is allowed to attack even if not in 1st position. However, note that if you place him on the 1st position, Sneak ability is disabled and he would be targetting the opponent's monster in 1st position as well.
At level 6, Sand Worm unlocks the snare ability allowing him to pull down flying enemies. This ability neutralises flying abilities which adds 15% dodge chance if attacked by opponent without flying abilities.
At max level, Sand worm gains the best fitting ability of piercing. Normally, if you attack an opponent with armor, any lethal attack will only remove the armor. With piercing, any excess damage to armor damages the health as well. This is very good since Sand Worm has a pretty high damage and piercing allows you to fully utilize that damage.
Battle
Click on the link below to view the full battle:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_ba88a947f422ab5253071655c83501d8&ref=konaqua122
Mana Cap & Rules
This is a mid mana cap of 24. I don't normally use Sand Worm in mid mana but I thought he would be strong if accompanied by another sneak unit like Silent Sha-Vi or Tenyii Striker.
Standard - No changes on both rules and mechanics of the game.
Team Lineup
- Summoner:Thaddeus Brood: The minus health is good in any situation and the -1 on magic damage certainly helped this game.
- Monster 1: Cursed Windeku: I really like his thorns ability and he's efficient for having 9 health for only 6 mana.
- Silent Sha-Vi: Good Sneak ability allowing him to be positioned anywhere.
- Sand Worm: Same as Silent Sha-Vi but with a ridiculous 5 damage at level 1. He's capable of opening up the back for other sneak monsters to attack.
Battle Highlights
Below is the battle per round.
Round 1
- Khmer Princess dies from my Silent Sha-Vi's sneak.
- Goblin Psychic gets decimated by Sand Worm's sneak attack.
Round 2
- Mycelic Morphoid dies from Silent Sha-vi's sneak.
Round 3
- Cursed Windeku dies from opponent Unicorn Mustang's attack.
- Unicorn Mustang dies from Silent Sha-vi's attack when he went to the front.
Author's Notes
Not a lot of players in Bronze play Sand Worm but based on my research and people I watched in youtube and twitch, utilizing Sand Worm in high mana cap games gives them amazing result. These games are normally the 50 mana and up games. They normally use level 2 Sand Worm with 2 speed so I am not sure if that's the reason but their builds completely exterminate their opponent when they have the Sand Worm up. This is partly the reason why I wanted to review this card.
Disclaimer
- This post is encoded and edited in Ecency's Mobile app.
- Unless otherwise stated, all other photos are from Splinterlands.
Have a nice day!