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Card Highlights #12: Blood Maker
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" Military Glory, The attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood "
- Abraham Lincoln
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At first I felt that Scattershot ability was very weak. After all, it's an ability that targets random units. You don't have any say on whom it would damage and worse, sometimes, the unit that only has 1 health but 4 damage survives for a long time and kills your entire team just because your Blood Maker cannot damage it.
That's the story I have when I first started playing Splinterlands. I used all units (at least from Untamed and Chaos Legion since they're cheap to rent) and tried a bunch of combinations until I get to where I am now.
Until I went and tried a summoner that changed every thought about this. Use Blood Maker with a Yodin Zaku summoner and you will also change your mind.
Lore
Kninker sipped from the vial of blood and licked his lips. He felt the energy prickle down his throat and a warmth consumed his belly. It pushed the tired fog from his mind and sent a tingle into his fingertips.
It suddenly became clear to him, the red wire needed to attach to the green node, the white wire to the pink node, and the purple wire to the purple node. It was obvious; why hadn’t he thought of that before? It did leave the beige wire just hanging there, but then it was only beige. Those ones never really did anything anyway.
For full lore, visit this website:
https://next.splinterlands.com/card-detail/454/regular/3/?tab=lore
Buy and Rental Costs
| Blood Maker is very cheap. You can even get a level 3 for $0.14. No one uses it except for a few weird people like me. I do like him though since I regularly used Yodin Zaku in Bronze and got me a lot of wins. |
| If you think Blood Maker's price is cheap, like me, wait until you check his rental price. At only 0.30 DEC per day, you can rent a max level but if you play on Bronze or Silver, don't rent a 10 star one because you would only be able to use up to level 3 for Bronze and up to level 5 for Silver. Rent a lower level one based on your rank. You can rent a level 3 for 0.06 DEC per day which is the lowest rental you can get but it only gets you to Bronze. The level 5 is also for 0.30 DEC per day and at that point, just rent the max level instead. |
Card Stats
| Blood maker's stats are good enough as a level 1. The damage increases at levels 4 and 10 but the damage increase on level 4 is not really good. Even if the damage increased from 2 to 3, when you add Yodin Zaku's stat boost, the damage increases to 4. At 4 damage, the blast damage is still 2. So, whether you have a level 1 or level 4 Blood Maker, your blast damage are both still 2. |
Card Effects
Scattershot |
This ability can bypass the effects of Taunt and Fog of War. I like using Blood Maker for Fog of War for this reason because my opponents will not expect that I have a way of eliminating the units from the back and it gives me a good amount of surprise and sometimes, even destroying their line up for this unexpected strategy.
Cripple |
This ability is a good counter against heals. Abilities such as Heal, Tank Heal and Triage are all based on max health. Based on my understanding, it's about a third of the max health for every point of heal with a minimum of 2. So, if you hit an opponent with Cripple and you reduced their max health from 9 to 8, the Tank Heal from units like Merdaali Guardian will be down from 3 to 2.
Strengths & Weaknesses
| Blood Maker's strength comes from his 2 range damage and Scattershot ability. Yodin Zaku increases range damage by 1 making Blood Maker's damage up to 3. At 3 damage, the blast damage becomes 2 instead of 1 giving me a lot of fire power with one unit. In addition to that, Scattershot bypasses Taunt. This gives me a chance of eliminating a low health unit who is protected by another unit with Taunt. |
| Blood Maker's weakness comes from his range damage and health. He still has low health so you cannot use him in rule sets that inflicts damage like Earthquake or Noxious Fumes. Without Close Range ability, range units cannot attack from the front. If your tank dies and your units on the back gets exposed, range units cannot attack lowering your damage that you can do. |
When To Use
Fog of War |
Scattershot is not affected by Fog of War. Given this advantage, it's quite strong to have something that has the ability to attack the back especially when your opponent's Tank Heal or Repair unit will be placed at the very back. If you can reach it and kill it, that's the difference between you winning and losing that battle.
Holy Protection |
Scattershot is combined with Blast. Blast is good at removing Divine Shield ability because it hits the unit in front and back of that unit. With Scattershot, you have a chance of removing the opponent's Divine shield faster with Blast and allowing you to hit their health and armor earlier than it should.
Close Range |
This rule set fixes one of range unit's weakness. While it is very simple, it's actually really strong since you only have 6 units that you can use per battle. Even if your opponent has 1 melee damage and you have a range unit with 6 damage, your opponent will always win when you're both at the front since you cannot attack it.
When Not To Use
Armored Up |
While this rule set is not that bad, it's still a big disadvantage. Range damage does not pass through armor like magic damage. If you went against a team with a lot of magic damage, then you will be in a lot of disadvantage. In Armored Up, I suggest just using mages instead or counter the opponent by using Immortalis or Mimosa Nightshade for their Void abilities.
What Doesn't Kill You |
Enrage only increases a unit's melee damage and speed when they get damaged. While Blood Maker can still increase speed, the damage will be the same. The main problem with this rule set is usually, I partner Blood Maker with Yodin Zaku. One attack would most likely not kill your opponent's units from the back. If they aren't killed and only damaged, they get get enraged. If your opponent uses a lot of melee units with Opportunity and Sneak, you will have a lot of problems with their enraged damage as you try to damage them down.
Noxious Fumes |
Due to Blood Maker's low health, this is a bad rule set for him. It is more advisable to use units with high health in this rule set so they can take more hits before your opponent dies.
Battle Sample
Use as much range units as possible to abuse Yodin Zaku's increased range damage. Blood Maker's Scattershot - Blast combo was able to quickly take out Venari Seedsmith without getting any Scavenger points.
Final Thoughts
Blood Maker is strong when combined with right summoner. It's the same reason why a level 1 Chaos Dragon is weak but a level 2 Chaos Dragon is strong. Scattershot and Blast goes hand in hand and Scattershot can only be strong when there's a supporting unit or summoner that can give them the Blast ability.
If you have suggested combos or questions, feel free to comment it down below.
If you are planning to play and is inspired by my post, please consider using my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=kpgamingch
I do not own any of the photos in this post. All credits goes to:
- Splinterlands
- Peakmonsters
- Canva