Welcome back to another fresh and juicy Splinterlands post guys, and I hope all of you are doing pretty well in your lives and spending a energetic and wonderful day with your loved ones. For those of you who are actively engaging with this amazing web3 strategy-based card game and trying your level best to improve your NFT card and asset collection, I believe most of you are currently fighting intense battles in the ranked season arena because the season is now almost at its end. If we take a quick look at the season timer, only around 1 day and 1 hour are left before the season reset finally happens. So those of you who are still chasing your goals and trying to secure a higher league tier or pushing for a leaderboard spot, I wish you all the best for the remaining battles.
Now talking about my own progress in the foundation mode of this game, I am currently playing in the Gold I league tier with a trophy count of around 4,180. My main target was to reach the 4,200 trophy mark first and then attempt for the leaderboard position. However, with barely a day left before the reset, I honestly do not think the leaderboard dream will be fulfilled this time. Still, reaching close to the target itself feels pretty satisfying. On the other hand, if we take a look at the weekly Frontier raffle, I currently hold only 15 entries, and there are still around 4 days and 1 hour left before the raffle draw. So this time I will once again try to grind my way toward around 54 to 57 entries and improve my chances a bit more.
Apart from that, today I also opened a total of 9 Foundation packs that I had collected over the last 3 days from playing regularly and completing missions. The outcome turned out to be pretty decent, as I managed to pull 2 Epic cards, 1 Gold Foil Rare card, 2 Gold Foil Common cards, 12 Rare cards, and the rest Common cards. Definitely one of the better openings I have had recently.
Now moving forward, let us come to the main topic of this post, as today I will be discussing another powerful monster from the newest Escalation mini card set. As you have already seen in the title and thumbnail above, today I will be talking about the Empusan Darkguard. So if you are interested in learning more about this monster card, let us take a deeper dive without any further delay.
The Empusan Darkguard is a monster-type card that was introduced in the game with the newest Escalation mini card set. This monster belongs to the Earth element and comes from the Fiend bloodline. By rarity, this card is a Rare monster, so you will require a total of 115 CC cards in order to upgrade it to its maximum level. If you want to use this monster in battles, you need to spend a pretty high 9 mana, which makes it more suitable for medium to high mana limit matches. The attack type of this monster is Melee, and apart from its monstrous attack power, it also comes with a huge combination of armor and health, making it extremely difficult to bring down quickly. At its maximum level, this monster gains a total of three abilities, and all of them are highly useful in different battle situations. Let us now take a closer look at its league-wise stats and abilities below.
At level 2, this monster already possesses very powerful stats that consist of 3 melee attack power at 3 speed with 5 armor and 6 health. Apart from these massive defensive stats, it also gains two abilities from its early levels called Opportunity and Shadow Focus. The opportunity ability makes the monster hunt down weak enemy cards directly instead of attacking the frontline, on the other hand, the shadow focus ability is extremely unique because it gives camouflage to this card depending on its placement, if in the last position.
OPPORTUNITY – Targets the enemy unit with the least health.
SHADOW FOCUS – When in the last position, gains Camouflage, cannot attack, and all allied units gain +1 power and Determined ability.
When you upgrade this monster further to level 4, its stats improve and it now holds 4 melee attack power at 3 speed with 5 armor and 7 health. Even though it does not gain any new abilities at this level, the increased attack and health make it much more deadly in battles.
As this monster gets upgraded further and reaches level 6, its stats improve once again and it now carries a terrifying 5 melee attack power at 3 speed with 6 armor and 8 health. The increased armor and attack power allow this monster to destroy medium-health enemy units with just one successful hit.
Finally, when you upgrade this monster to its maximum level of 8, its stats improve even further and it now possesses 5 melee attack power at 3 speed with 6 armor and 9 health. At this level, it also gains another extremely powerful ability called Resurrect. This ability can completely change the outcome of a battle by bringing back an important ally at the perfect moment.
RESURRECT – Resurrects an allied unit once per battle with 1 health and 100% armor. All magic debuffs are removed, and all magic buffs are reapplied. Resurrected units skip their turn.
Last but not least, I think this monster is an absolute beast in many different battle situations. First of all, having the Opportunity ability combined with a massive 5 melee attack power at maximum level already makes this card feel like a trump card. Even though its mana cost is quite high, its attack power is enough to eliminate many medium-health enemy monsters with a single hit. Another major advantage is its gigantic defensive stats. At max level, this monster carries 9 health along with 6 armor, making it very difficult to take down quickly. On top of that, the Shadow Focus ability becomes active if you place this card in the last position. It then gains Camouflage and stops attacking, but in return all allied units gain +1 power and the Determined ability, which is honestly a very interesting strategic trade. Finally comes the Resurrect ability, which is one of the strongest support abilities in the game. Bringing back the first fallen ally with full armor can completely turn the battle around, especially in long high mana fights. Overall, I think the Empusan Darkguard is a monstrous melee beast with deadly attack power, insane survivability, and abilities that make it dangerous in both offensive and support roles. What do you think?
