Welcome back to another fresh and juicy Splinterlands post everyone, and I hope all of you are doing great in your lives and enjoying a wonderful and energetic day with your family and friends. For those of you who are actively playing this amazing web3 card-based strategy game daily in your free time and constantly expanding your NFT cards and other assets and tokens collection, I believe most of you are currently busy climbing up the ranked trophy ladder and collecting as many rewards as possible on the way. The new ranked season is still relatively fresh, with around 11 days and 19 hours remaining before it comes to an end, which gives all of us plenty of time to push toward our trophy goals and hopefully secure some valuable rewards along the way.
Talking about my own progress in the frontier mode of this game, I am currently competing in the highest Gold I league tier and sitting at 2,820 trophies. As usual, my primary objective remains reaching the 4,200 trophy mark first, and after that, I will see if I have enough battle energy and time left to make a serious push toward the leaderboard, so let's hope for the best.
On another note, I had quite an interesting experience with the Frontier Wheel today. During my first spin, I was fortunate enough to receive a free spin along with 575 (75 extra as a streak bonus) Sparks. Then, on the second spin, I received another Pit Challenge, along with 200 more sparks. Anyways, this time I selected the second boss and managed to defeat it quite comfortably once again, earning another 500 Sparks for completing the challenge. These extra Sparks are always welcome and help make the daily grind feel even more rewarding.
Looking at the weekly raffle progress, I currently have 15 entries collected so far. With around 4 days and 18 hours remaining before the raffle ends, I am once again targeting somewhere between 54 and 57 entries. Apart from that, I also opened 8 Foundation Packs recently. The results turned out pretty decent, as I managed to pull 1 Legendary card, 2 Epic cards, and 8 Rare cards including 3 Archons, while the remaining cards were Common cards. Overall, I am quite satisfied with the outcome.
Now moving on to today's featured monster, I would like to introduce another interesting card from the newest Escalation mini card set. As you have already seen in the title and thumbnail above, today we will be taking a closer look at the Grimshield Hexpriest.
The Grimshield Hexpriest is a monster card from the newest Escalation mini cardset edition. This monster belongs to the Death element and it comes from the Feliform bloodline. It is classified as a Rare card, meaning players need a total of 115 CC cards to fully upgrade it to its maximum level. This monster costs 9 mana to deploy and uses Magic attacks to deal damage directly to the enemy's health. Besides its impressive offensive capabilities, it also comes with a respectable armor and health combination that allows it to survive longer in battle. At maximum level, this monster gains three abilities that work together surprisingly well, especially against magic-heavy teams. Let us now take a closer look at its stats and abilities across different leagues to find out more about this beast.
At level 2, the Grimshield Hexpriest possesses 2 Magic attack, 3 Speed, 3 Armor, and 6 Health. At this level, it already gains its first ability called Apex Strike. This ability is extremely useful because it allows the Grimshield Hexpriest to focus directly on the most dangerous enemy monster instead of wasting attacks on weaker targets.
APEX STRIKE – Targets the enemy unit with the most power.
At level 4, the monster improves to 3 Magic attack while maintaining 3 Speed, 3 Armor, and 6 Health. At this level, it unlocks another powerful ability called Magic Reflect. This ability immediately makes the Grimshield Hexpriest much more threatening to enemy magic attackers.
MAGIC REFLECT – Returns 50% of the attacker's magic damage (rounded up) whenever hit by a magic attack.
At level 6, the Grimshield Hexpriest becomes even stronger, reaching 4 Magic attack, 3 Speed, 4 Armor, and 6 Health. No new ability is gained at this level, but the substantial increase in offensive power allows it to hit extremely hard while continuing to target the strongest enemy monsters.
At level 8, the Grimshield Hexpriest reaches its maximum form with 4 Magic attack, 3 Speed, 4 Armour, and 7 Health. At this level, it gains its final ability called Void. This ability perfectly complements Magic Reflect and transforms the Grimshield Hexpriest into a nightmare for enemy magic-based lineups.
VOID – Receives 50% less damage from magic attacks (rounded up), while magic attacks with only 1 power deal no damage at all.
Last but not least, I think the Grimshield Hexpriest is one of the best anti-magic monsters introduced in the Escalation mini set. The first thing that catches my attention is its powerful magic attack. Reaching 4 Magic damage at higher levels is already impressive for a 9-mana monster, and when combined with Apex Strike, it becomes capable of hunting down the opponent's most dangerous attackers very quickly. Another aspect that I really like is its defensive profile. The combination of decent armor and health allows it to survive multiple attacks, while its magic attack continues to pressure enemy monsters every round. The real highlight, however, is the combination of Magic Reflect and Void. These two abilities work beautifully together. Void significantly reduces incoming magic damage, while Magic Reflect punishes enemy magic attackers every time they target this monster. Against magic-focused teams, this combination can completely change the outcome of a battle. Finally, Apex Strike deserves special mention as well. Being able to directly target the enemy monster with the highest attack power often allows this card to eliminate major threats before they can cause too much damage to your team. Overall, I believe the Grimshield Hexpriest is a fantastic monster for players who frequently encounter magic-heavy lineups. It combines strong offensive power, excellent survivability, and some of the best anti-magic abilities available in the game. If you enjoy countering magic teams, this is definitely a monster worth keeping an eye on.
