Hello, Splinterlands warriors!
This time, it’s Sheng Xiao, the Legendary Summoner from the Dragon element featured in Conclave Arcana.
Sheng Xiao is an ancient dragon whose appearance, in my opinion, truly deserves to be called intimidating. Especially with the new full-art format, he looks like a creature that didn’t come to the arena to make small talk. He came bringing poison and destruction.
What’s interesting is that Sheng Xiao only costs 5 Mana. As a Dragon Summoner, he also offers plenty of flexibility because we can combine Dragon cards with monsters from different Splinters, including Neutral monsters. For players who enjoy experimenting with cross-element combinations, this is certainly quite tempting.
And of course, Sheng Xiao is Legendary. That means reaching max level only requires 11 BCX. Compared to lower rarities, the number of cards required is certainly much more manageable.
But then I took a closer look at his abilities.
That’s where things get interesting.
Sheng Xiao grants two abilities to two friendly monsters: Poison Burst and Corrosive Ward.
There are no new abilities unlocked at higher levels like there are with regular monsters. These two abilities are already available from the beginning and remain Sheng Xiao’s core abilities all the way to max level.
In my opinion, Corrosive Ward makes a lot of sense in the current meta. This ability allows attacks to wear down the opponent’s armor.
Armor can often be a problem, especially when an opponent deliberately builds a tank with heavy defenses or uses a strategy that takes advantage of Armored Strike.
With Corrosive Ward, the opponent’s armor no longer feels like an impossibly high wall. It can be chipped away little by little until the monsters behind it can finally land more meaningful hits.
But honestly, my attention lingered much longer on the second ability.
Poison Burst.
Now this is interesting.
Poison Burst has the potential to spread poison to up to three enemy monsters. Once the poison starts doing its work, the battle can turn into a race against time.
What I like is that this ability is a Tactic. So we don’t have to simply activate the ability without considering what is happening on the battlefield. We can wait, observe the opponent’s formation, and then decide which two monsters are most deserving of the ability.
Does the opponent have Sneak?
Is there a Snipe targeting a particular monster?
Or perhaps there’s a support monster with low Health that could become a major problem if left alive?
This is where Sheng Xiao feels like a Summoner that asks its player to think a little more.
Even so, I can’t say that Sheng Xiao has immediately become my favorite Summoner.
There is one thing that bothers me.
Poison Burst is only given to two friendly monsters.
And this limitation is precisely what prevents Sheng Xiao from being played carelessly.
We have to choose carefully who receives the ability.
In my opinion, monster selection becomes an important part of the strategy. We don’t want to give the ability to two monsters only to realize that they are in the wrong positions or never get the opportunity to apply maximum pressure.
I like Sheng Xiao, but not because he immediately makes me feel invincible.
I like him because he makes me think.
With a 5-Mana cost, Dragon flexibility, Corrosive Ward to deal with armor, and Poison Burst that can become a serious threat when placed on the right monsters, Sheng Xiao has earned his own place in my collection.
My strategy is simple: don’t rush to use the abilities. Read the battlefield first. Choose the two right monsters, then let poison and corrosion do the dirty work.
Because in Splinterlands, sometimes it’s not the number of weapons that determines victory.
What matters is whether we know when and to whom those weapons should be given.
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