Welcome back to another juicy and fresh Splinterlands post, everyone, and I hope all of you are doing absolutely great in your lives and enjoying an energetic and wonderful day with your family and friends. For those of you who are still actively playing this amazing card-based game on a daily basis and continuously focusing on growing your NFT cards and asset collection, I believe all of you are currently busy battling in the ranked season arena and trying hard to secure better rewards before the season reaches its endpoint. If we take a quick look at the ongoing ranked season timer, there are only around 3 days and 20 hours remaining before the current season comes to an end. So for those players who are still trying to climb into a higher league or fighting for a leaderboard position, I wish you all the very best in your remaining battles.
Now, let's take a quick look at my own activities in the foundation mode of this game. As usual, I am currently competing in the Gold I league and trying to maintain my progress while steadily climbing higher in the trophy ladder. Right now, my trophy count stands at 3,900 and my immediate goal remains reaching the 4,200 trophy mark. After that, if time and battle energy allow, I may try my luck at securing a leaderboard position as well.
Moving on to the weekly Frontier raffle, I currently have 24 entries collected so far. With around 3 days and 19 hours left before the raffle draw, my target this time is a little more conservative at around 54 entries. Hopefully, that will be enough to improve my chances because sometimes even higher entry counts fail to bring any luck, just like in the previous turn. Apart from battling, I also opened 5 Foundation packs today that I earned from the last two days' daily missions. The results turned out pretty decent as I managed to pull 1 Legendary card, 8 Rare cards including 3 Archons, 1 Gold Foil Common card, and the rest were Common foil cards. Overall, I can't complain about those rewards at all.
Now moving forward, let us come to the main topic of this post, as today I will be talking about another interesting monster from the newest Escalation mini card set. As you have already seen in the title and thumbnail above, today I will be shining some light on the Shire Knacker. So if you are interested in learning more about this card, let us dive deeper without any further delay.
The Shire Knacker is a monster type card introduced with the newest Escalation mini card set edition. This monster belongs to the Death element and comes from the Halfling bloodline. By rarity, this card is a Common monster, which means you will need a total of 400 CC cards to upgrade it to its maximum level. In order to use this monster in battle, you need to spend only 5 mana, making it a very flexible choice for low, medium, and even certain high mana limit matches. The attack type of this monster is Ranged, and apart from its decent attack power, it also possesses a surprisingly good combination of armor, health, and speed. At maximum level, this monster gains a total of three abilities that add even more utility to its overall package. Let us now take a closer look at its league-wise stats and abilities below.
At level 3, this monster possesses 2 ranged attack power at 3 speed along with 2 armor and 4 health. Apart from these base stats, it also starts with the Snipe ability. This ability is very useful because it allows the monster to target vulnerable support units hiding behind enemy tanks.
SNIPE – Magic and ranged attacks target the first non-melee enemy unit behind the first position.
When upgraded to level 5, this monster maintains its 2 ranged attack power and 3 speed but improves to 3 armor and 4 health. At this stage, it also unlocks a new ability called Invigorate. This ability can become extremely valuable in battles where exhaustion effects are present, helping your entire team continue fighting at full effectiveness.
INVIGORATE – Allied units cannot become Exhausted.
As this monster reaches level 8, its stats improve further and it now possesses 3 ranged attack power at 3 speed with 4 armor and 5 health. Although no new abilities are unlocked at this level, the increased attack power and durability make it a much stronger battlefield presence.
Finally, when upgraded to its maximum level of 10, this monster gains another useful ability called Rust. Its final stats stand at 3 ranged attack power, 3 speed with 5 armor and 5 health. This new rust ability is particularly effective against heavily armored lineups because it weakens every enemy monster before the battle even begins.
RUST – Reduces the armor of all enemy units by 2.
Last but not least, I think this monster is a very well-balanced ranged attacker considering its mana cost. The first thing that stands out to me is its combination of attack power, armor, health, and speed. For only 5 mana, it offers a surprisingly defensive stat line while still being capable of dealing meaningful damage from the backline.
Another big advantage is definitely the Snipe ability. Many battles are won by eliminating enemy support monsters early, and this ability helps the Shire Knacker do exactly that. Healers, buffers, and fragile magic attackers can quickly become targets once this monster starts firing.
The Invigorate ability is also quite useful. While it may not be needed in every match, preventing allied monsters from becoming exhausted can make a noticeable difference in longer battles where every attack matters.
Finally, the Rust ability is a pure anti-armor tool and probably one of my favorite aspects of this card. Removing up to 2 armor from every enemy monster right at the start of battle makes it much easier for your team to begin dealing direct health damage sooner.
Overall, I think the Shire Knacker is a solid ranged attacker that offers both offensive and supportive utility. Between its defensive stats, Snipe ability, Invigorate support, and Rust debuff, it can fit nicely into a variety of different lineups. What do you think about this monster?
