I'm really excited about this week's battle challenge!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE DRAGONS!!

What's not to love, right?! They stand on their own, or work with any splinter and neutrals! They're the best of everything!!

Let's watch the match!

https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=0de497beea27045a4f7f73d9d42e68b8a003c674&ref=sinistry

Byzantine Kitty is probably my favorite summoner. She's pricey, mana-wise*, but I think she has the most useful summoner buffs in the game. Every monster she summons benefits from 2/3 of her buffs and everyone benefits indirectly from Tank Heal by not ending up in the tank position.

*She's pricey money-wise, too. At the time of writing the lowest price for a single bcx card is listed for $415. The max version I'm using is listed for over $3500.

HOLY GLITTER POOFS!! That's one pricey piece of pussy CAT!

...but it is dragon-blooded so I guess you gotta factor that in.

Tank Heal each round goes without saying, but since we're here I'll point out that using it with a tank that has shield, void, or both goes a really long way to keeping it in play a LOT longer than normal, especially when matched with another tank healer..., which I didn't do here, but isn’t uncommon.

PRO TIP:

Crustacean King, which gives both the Tank Heal AND Protection abilities, is an amazing card to add to any Water Splinter lineup!

---

Starting with my lineup...

I'm really excited to be getting more use out of Frost Giant. For the longest time it was one of my least used legendary cards.

It's slow, and even though it slows opponents as one of it's abilities, it still is often difficult to get an attack to land,... which makes the Trample and Stun abilities useless.

The only thing it had going for it was Shield and even that was little help if the opponent went all in on magic. I liked it but it was mostly just for looking at.

---

ENTER THE KITTY!!

Byzantine Kitty changed all that!

Now, FG starts the battle with three (3) speed and slows opponents by one. That's a speed adjustment factor of three (3) right out of the gate! It's already shaping up to be a serious force to be reckoned with, but wait! There's so much more!

Now, in addition to being able to attack sooner, it also has True Strike. This COLOSSUS ALWAYS HITS NOW!!

Now that Stun ability packs a much harder punch, too, and Trample is guaranteed!

Frost Giant went from a trophy card to a power player over night with the addition of Byzantine Kitty to my deck.

Next up...

Kelp Initiate

This is one of my most used Water Splinter cards. It doesn't look like much with no attack, but Cleanse AND Triage for just two mana, and competitive speed* and health make this one of my go to cards when the opportunity is present.

You can see here how beneficial it is straight away with the cleansing of Poison from FG so that's one less concern throughout the entire match!

It also keeps that pesky Cripple from taking hold in this match and that's likely one of the main factors that contributed to this win, although Triage seems to have pulled most of the weight today.

I chose to use it in the second position for two main reasons:

• It's fast on it's own so it's a great card to draw sniper fire in any battle, but with the +2 speed bonus from BK it’s damn near impossible to hit with melee and ranged. Then factor in the -1 from FG’s slow ability and this little guy becomes a BIG deal, quick. And…

• It has enough health to take a few hits, which is significant since it can heal itself, prolonging it's time in the game.

PRO TIP:

*Speed: I will likely use my last breath to preach the gospel of SPEED! There's just nothing more satisfying than watching the opponent miss attack after attack, while even the weakest of your monsters nibble away at your enemy’s team.

On good days you can feel the disturbance in THE FORCE when they smash their PC and curse their god for forsaking them. 😋 It's a special kind of magic...

You'll also notice Triage playing a very big role in this match. More on that in a moment.

Following KI is Sandworm. This thing is a beast, and again, the True Strike ability ensures it takes a HUGE BITE out of whatever trails the enemies team.

Even that quick little Flame Monkey can't escape the ravenous jaws of a Sandworm with True Strike,... although with those speed factors that came up earlier there's not much that's fast enough to run away, any how. 🤣

I chose the third position for this glorious bastard because I didn't want my Mermaid Healer, and ranged attackers to end up without at least some muscle holding the line if FG and KI got taken out.

Mermaid Healer is one of my favorite Water cards. She's inexpensive and brings something to the table for everyone,... and another Triage AND Strengthen are always welcome additions to any team, but they are especially useful in the Noxious Fumes ruleset.

Also, it's always a good idea to have some magic in your lineup. I mean, seriously, why are you even showing up to a wizard's duel with no magic, FFS? AND there's dragons! I'm not sure you're really grasping the severity of the situation if you're showing up at a dragon wizard dueling arena without a storm slinger. You're probably doomed. You should just go home and play with Legos or master the style of self abuse you'll carry with you throughout life. You're not gonna make it here.

Moving on...

I put her in the fourth position essentially because it was the only place that made sense. Having only ranged attackers remaining eliminated her as a candidate for positions further back and everything ahead of her seemed like a better fit.

I think Scale Doctor is probably the best support card in the Dragon Splinter and maybe the whole game. A third Triage makes a HUGE difference in this match, and while Rust or Repair didn't factor in this time, Rust a very nice debuff to toss out onto your opponent, and you just can't go wrong with Repair. Regenerating armor? Yes, Please!!

I think between the two ranged attackers on this team it's apparent that SD should take up the fifth position and let LD cover the rear. It's faster, flying, and can benefit from Triage to cover rear guard pretty effectively as long as nothing comes along to Ensnare it, and even then it's still formidable.

And finally, we get to Lightning Dragon. I play this card as often as I can. It's the only max alpha card I have and I use it for that sweet DEC bonus each match, but that isn't to say it isn't a powerhouse. Flying, Piercing, Stun, and Blast are all great abilities, and again, with the guarantee of True Strike and the extra speed factors, it's doing some significant damage early on and throughout the entire match while being very difficult to hit by anything other than magic.

All in all, I had a fairly weak team, that took pretty good advantage of the rules in play, and defended well enough against the opponent, and the environment, to allow the power hitters I did have do enough damage to eventually win the day,... but really, how hard is it to win with dragons? They bring it all and throw it hard.

If you found this interesting, informative, entertaining, or otherwise enjoyable consider giving me an upvote and following me. I need friends!

😁