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Card Highlights #23: Kulu Mastermind

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'Oh, the squid,' they said, glancing at me sidelong. 'There's an old game quote that goes: "If it moves, shoot it. If it doesn't move, squid it.
by 'Inkling Waters' by Emily Caldwell
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I was very lucky to get this unit during one of my grinds. Due to how strong Kulu Mastermind is, it's really amazing that they released such a creature. Whenever I have huge mana in battles, I always use thi unit as it's always a sure win for me everytime he is one of the units in my team.

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Lore

Kulu masterminds are expert strategists and tacticians. They are found in war rooms drawing up operational plans as well as on the battlefield directing consortiums of kulu against their enemies.
They are also masters of the martial arts, harnessing the power of their bodies—including their tentacles—in both submerged and surface-based combat.

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^{For full lore of this card, visit this website:
https://next.splinterlands.com/card-detail/516/regular/10?tab=lore}

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Buy and Rental Costs

This card is soulbound. It is unable to be transferred, rented/delegated, burned, bought or sold until the cards go out of print. It is tied to the account that has earned it through gameplay/chests. Gladiator cards are also Soulbound.

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Card Stats

Kulu Mastermind has one of the greatest stats ever. Just like The Kraken, Kulu Mastermind is very balanced. He has great damage, great health and speed. In addition to that, the abilities are as deadly as his stats.

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Card Effects

Weapons Training

Adjacent Units gain half this Unit's attack if they have no attacks themselves

Kulu Mastermind's Weapons Training is probably the weakest among the types as it only gives other units Melee attacks. Melee units can only attack when in the front or have abilities or rule sets that alter the attacks that allow them to attack while at the back.

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Opportunity

Units with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy Unit with the lowest health

With 4 melee attack and Opportunity, he' a scary unit to fight against.

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Shield

Reduced damage from Melee and Ranged attacks

This is actually a strange ability for me since Kulu Mastermind's Weapons Training makes him positioned in between two units to maximize the effect. Therefore, you cannot use this unit to be at the very back or at the very front or else you sacrifice one side of the Weapons Training.

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Enrage

Has increased Melee attack and Speed when damaged

Now, this is an ability I can go with. With high speed and melee attacks, both of these complement Enrage increasing these stats by half when Kulu Mastermind get hit.

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Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths
The combination of stats and abilities makes Kulu Mastermind a strong asset. Just like why Deeplurker is a scary enemy, a 4 damage unit targetting the lowest health unit in your team is always a scary thing and will kill your team if you are not prepared.

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Weaknesses
All strong units come with a cost. Kulu Mastermind both has high mana to use and very limited combos. Since the Weapons Training gives the same attack to other units, some rule sets make this unit completely unusable.

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When To Use

What Doesn't Kill You

All Monsters have the Enrage ability.

Even though Kulu Mastermind will have Enrage, units under the effect of Weapons Training normally does not and this rule set is a good support for them.

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Up Close and Personal

Only Units with Melee attack may be used in battles.

Since Kulu Mastermind is a melee unit, the units affected by Weapons Training also get melee attacks. Therefore, none of them are affected by this rule set.

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Melee Mayhem

Melee attack Units can attack from any position.

This rule set allows units with Weapons Training to attack from the back. This gives your Kulu Mastermind a good flexibility on where you want to position him since everyone can still attack regardless of his position.

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When Not To Use

Equalizer

The initial Health of all Units is equal to that of the Units on either team with the highest base Health.

When everyone has the same health, the effect of Opportuntiy disappears and they just target the one in the very front.

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Briar Patch

All units receive the Thorns ability at the start of the battle. Enemy units that use melee attacks receive damage back.

Since Kulu Mastermind and all the units affected by Weapons Training are melee, the Thorns from Briar patch is very problematic for Kulu Mastermind.

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Reverse Speed

Units with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks.

Due to Kulu Mastermind's high speed, this rule set would make him miss a lot of his attacks and flip the benefit of having high speed.

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Battle Sample

^{https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_9cc17d797cda208c30daa3ee7087ed0b&ref=kpgamingch}

For this battle, since the mana is kind of low, I decided to use Prophet Rosa's Shield on Kulu Mastermind and placed him at the back to avoid Sneaks. I then had low mana units along with Venari Wavesmith to delay the enemy advances as Kulu Mastermind picks on them one by one.

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Final Thoughts

I actually like this unit especially after I wrote this blog. I normally don't use him because I prefer those with magic attacks as it bypass the armor and attacks health directly. I have some idea on how to mimic this and I'll probably do some experiments if the hassle would be worth to do it.

If I have some units with Rust ability, I can dissolve the enemy's armor which gives me access to their health. This idea combined with Possibilus the Wise's Trample ability would probably make a good combination. This is something I realized after making this blog.

If you have Kulu Mastermind, I encourage you to use him as it would give you good advantage in your games especially if you can use them well.

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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
• Giphy