The Crystal Jaguar is a very strong tank that costs only 4 mana. Learn how to use him on battles to decimate your opponent!
This post is an entry to the SHARE YOUR BATTLE Weekly Challenge - Crystal Jaguar.
LORE
During the historic Obliteration of Light, a family of wild cats was napping deep in one of the caves of the Crystal Forest.
They were spared by the wave of destruction, and over time, with no competition for food, the cats grew incredibly large.
CARD DETAILS (Level 1)
Mana Cost: 4
Splinter: Life
Edition: Untamed
Rarity: Common
Melee Attack: 1
Speed: 2
Armor: 1
Health: 5
It's not easy to find mana-cheap Monsters with good tanking capabilities. Usually, cards that cost 3 or 4 mana have low Health and don't even have Armor, like the Magma Troll (Fire Splinter, 3 Health, 0 Armor), the Tortisian Fighter (Water Splinter, 3 Health, 1 Armor) and the Grumpy Dwarf (Neutral, 2 Health, 1 Armor).
But the Life Splinter have the Crystal Jaguar!
With a small Mana Cost of 4, the Jaguar has 5 Health and 1 Armor. This makes him incredibly tanky for his price and able to sustain the incoming damage for the first rounds of the match, while the rest of your team kills the enemy monsters.
Have in mind that, while having 5 Health / 1 Armor is indeed strong, the Crystal Jaguar isn't a full-fledged tank like the Shieldbearer (8 Mana, 9 Health, 4 Armor, and the Taunt ability) or the Clay Golem (6 Mana, 7 Health, and Void ability), both available when you play with the Life Splinter. In a high-mana match, you probably won't play the Crystal Jaguar as he can't sustain large amounts of damage.
In the other hand, the Jaguar is very strong on low-mana matches, in which you can't spend 8 or 6 mana to play the Shieldbearer or the Golem. The Jaguar only costs 4 mana, and the mana you'll save can be used to play stronger Ranged/Magic monsters in your backline that will be able to kill your opponents before they kill you.
Remember: the frontline tank job isn't to get kills! His job is to stay alive while your other monsters get the kills and bring home the victory!
Thus, the ideal game for the Crystal Jaguar is a low-mana match, and his position should be as the first monster of your team.
This match had a low Mana limit of 19: it'll be perfect to show the strenght of the Crystal Jaguar!
Also, it had two special rules: Holy Protection (all monsters have the Divine Shield ability, ignoring the first received attack) and Reverse Speed (monsters with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks).
The Speed of the Crystal Jaguar isn't high (only 2), so the Reverse Speed rule benefits him. And, in my experience, the Holy Protection rule favours playing several mana-cheap monsters, as the first attack of strong-and-expensive monsters (like a Sand Worm) will be absorbed by the Divine Shield, so it's better to have the attack of a weak-but-cheap monster being absorbed as at least you can play lots of those. As the Jaguar is a mana-cheap card, it's also a good rule for him.
The Crystal Jaguar was placed on the first place, in front of our other four fragile damage dealers (Elven Cutthroat, Feral Spirit, Venari Crystalsmith, Herbalist). Have in mind that the Venari Crystalsmith also has the "Tank Heal" ability, allowing her to heal our Jaguar each turn, increasing his tank capabilities even more!
And, as you can see, the opponent also played a Venari Crystalsmith! His strategy was that the Crystalsmith would heal his both 5-Health monsters: the Luminous Eagle and the Silvershield Knight.
The battle was a Success!
Due the combo we built (Crystal Jaguar high healthpool + Tank Heal ability from Venari Crystalsmith), the frontline was able to stay alive and hold the line for several attacks while the Feral Spirit was slowly killing the opponent's Crystalsmith, bypassing the tanks due his "Sneak" ability.
When the Crystalsmith was dead, the rest of the enemy team easily crumbled.
The Crystal Jaguar is a cheap card and, because of that, it'll be difficult to fit him in high-mana matches, in which you'll end up using several expensive (5+ mana) and powerful monsters.
But, in low-mana matches, he has a powerful role to fulfil: he's a very efficient tank with reasonable high Health and Armor, with a small cost in terms of mana. He'll be able to defend your team and absorb a few turns of damage, enough for you to win the game by killing the enemy backline!
And, if you're an experienced player, a Level 4 (30 cards) Crystal Jaguar receives the extremely powerful "Thorn" ability! Thorn will deal 2 damage back to any Melee monster that attacks him.
Playing a monster with Thorn is an easy-win unless the enemy is lucky (or smart!) to play several ranged/magic monsters; but if the opponent plays 3 or more Melee monsters, you'll surely win the match.
Thanks for reading this Battle Report, and until next time!
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Unless stated otherwise, all images are Unless stated otherwise, all images are 1) created and owned by me; 2) from the game featured in the post; or 3) royalty-free and usable for both personal/commercial usage from Pexels, Pixabay or Unsplash.
Drawing of a Rabbit Holding a Shield: PixaBay
