Hi guys,
this weeks Battle Challenge is with Djinn Inferni. I have a battle in high Gold league for you that I'll be going over in detail, explaining my strategy and discussing the card in general.
Djinn Inferni is a magic attacking monster from the Chaos Legion set. With its high base magic attack and speed it makes for an amazing damage dealer in the back line.
It also has 2 abilities:
Giant Slayer has become more important since the Riftwatchers edition, since there are more high mana battles and cards now. Dealing double magic damage, ignoring the armor can be really powerful at times.
Stun is arguably one of the strongest abilities in the game and can win battles by itself with a little bit of luck.
Overall Djinn Inferni has very powerful offensive capabilities, however for 7 mana it is quite expensive and it needs to be protected very well due to its low health and no defensive abilities.
At current prices I'd say the Djinn is quite cheap, but so are all the other cards. In comparison to the rest of the Chaos Legion epics it is somewhere in the middle. Level 5 is probably what any gold and above player should aim for and that's still roughly $18.
I went with Quix as my summoner, because it gave me more options to chose from and summoners didn't have any effect anyways.
For my tank I chose Onyx Sentinel, because he has no attack and can't kill itself with Thorns while also having Shield and Void, which is a strong defense against all kinds of attacks. Behind the Sentinel I put a Void Dragon as a second tank. With its high speed, health and Void ability it makes for a solid tank while dealing a bit of magic damage at the same time.
For my Damage I chose Djinn Inferni in the middle of the line up so it wouldn't get sniped and Supply Runner and Countess Sinash for the double speed buff and ranged attack.
Finally I put Chaos Dragon in the back spot for extra damage and just in case my opponent would play sneak monsters.
The strategy was to not play any melee attacks to not get hurt by the Thorns and protecting myself from magic and ranged attacks. I also wanted to have enough speed so that my damage dealers would go first.
My opponent went with a magic heavy Obsidian team. They did use the Pelacor Mercenary as tank, but other than that they also didn't bring any melee attackers.
Void Dragon and Djinn Inferni start firing their shots against the Mycelic Slipspawn (because of it's Taunt ability) with their high speed. Regal Peryton goes next and deals only 1 damage to my Onyx Sentinel, because of the Void. Countess Sinash and Supply Runner follow up on the Slipspawn and take it down and Chaos Dragon lands a nice Scattershot on Goblin Tower, dealing Blast damage to the adjacent Djinn Biljka and Goblin Psychic.
The enemies monsters return fire at my Onyx Sentinel, but because of its Void and Shield they don't manage to take it out this turn. Goblin Tower also misses its attack entirely.
Round 2 follows the same procedure as round 1 with Void Dragon and Djinn Inferni going first, hitting the Pelacor Mercenary for 5(!) and also stunning it. Regal Peryton its the Onyx for 1 again. Countess Sinash unfortunately attacks the Goblin Tower, because of her Opportunity ability, but only hits its armor, while Supply Runner attacks the Mercenary.
Chaos Dragon lands another beautiful hit on the Goblin Psychic however, taking it out before it's able to heal or attack and also kills off the wounded Goblin Tower with the Blast damage.
Djinn Biljka finally manages to kill off my Onyx Sentinel.
Round 3 is done in the blink of an eye: Void Dragon and Djinn Inferni take out the Pelacor Mercenary. Regal Peryton gets off its attack, but Void Dragon can handle the one damage easily. Countess Sinash then takes the Regal Peryton out and Supply Runner does the same with the Djinn Biljka. All over before they could attack.
As you can see from my rating I'm quite high up in gold league where battles tend to get really tough towards the end of the season. To be honest this was one of the hardest Battle Challenges I ever did and I lost around 5 games using Djinn Inerni, before finally winning one.
The card itself is not bad, it's problem is that there's not so much synergy within the fire splinter, because Tarsa gives +1 Health and +1 Melee Attack, both of which doesn't really help the Djinn that much. There are also no real support monsters, like Taunts, Protections, Resurrects, Blinds, etc. to protect the Djinn properly. This way it's really easy to take it out and for 7 mana its use case is also limited. I tried using it in all kinds of rulesets.
The best one would probably be the Equalizer ruleset with high mana, because that way it gets the defense and survivability it needs. I also don't own a Jacek so that could be another potential play, because of the speed buff. In the end that's what I found is what it comes down to: Speed. You need to make it go first and have follow ups to completely take out an enemy monster, before they have a chance to attack. This can be done quite well with the double speed buff from Supply Runner and Sinash and Jacek would fit that combination very well I think.
None of this is financial advice. This content is for educational purposes only and might fall out of date as both Splinterlands and the Crypto Market in general are subject to constant change.
Check out my push into gold league: Part I, Part II
Check out my Bronze league strategy guides: Part I, Part II
Hope you enjoyed the read. Have a great day and until next time!
Pinkman45
