I was planning to enter last week's Battlemage Secrets contest. The theme for that was Heavy Hitters which give the Knock Out ability to all monsters in the match. But unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to enter as it took too long for the Heavy Hitters rule set to spawn during my gameplay.

In order to utilize the Knock Out ability, a monster must first be under the stunned state. So I checked the card library for monsters with Stun within the silver level. As I mentioned in my previous post, I intend to stay within the silver league for the foreseeable future due to the new reward system in place.

And among the selection of cards that were presented to me during my search, Runeslinger stood out. Stun and Knock Out are two of the monster abilities that I really didn't care for. I've seen and fought opponents using this strategy and it is quite effective. But it's just not a strategy that I care to try out until now.

So I rented Runeslinger out. And at first, I was not too impressed with his card statistics. At the silver level, he has a decent speed but the range attack damage was a little low, in my opinion. But then it dawned on me how broken his abilities are.

Stun

Being on the receiving end of stun is quite annoying. And having to learn that it has a 50% chance of activating makes me think this is an imbalanced mechanic. And among the three debuffs that Runeslinger has, stun is the one that relies on speed the most as it needs to hit before the enemy attacks for added advantage.

Affliction

Unlike stun, affliction is an ability that I would love to trigger on the enemy. I"m fine if my monster can bestow affliction on an enemy and then immediately die. Stopping an enemy from healing, especially tanks, is a game-changer for sure.

Cripple

Although only unlocked on the highest levels, Cripple is a great debuff ability for Runeslinger. For one, it penetrates armor and bypasses healing effects. The drawback though is that the decrease in maximum health is one point at a time. It's a gradual weakening of the enemy monster. But the best part about it is that it cannot be cleansed.

These three negative statuses are formidable on their own, but when combined into the attack of a single monster, Runeslinger becomes a master of debuffs.

Now let's see Runeslinger in action. Although I haven't had the chance to use him in a Heavy Hitters rule set, there's a recent guild brawl battle where he had a good performance. You can check the full match here.

This was a 49-mana silver level match with Armored Up, Odd Ones Out, and Briar Patch rule sets. Whenever the Armored Up rule set comes up, I expect the enemy to bring out a lot of magic monsters. So in anticipation to this, I used Grandmaster Rathe to give my monsters Void Armor. This is especially useful with Uriel the Purifier as tank and Adelade Brightwing as support.

And right off the bat, Runeslinger's attack applied both Affliction and Stun on Agor Longtail. War Pegasus followed it up by stripping his armor clean with Shatter.

By the time Uriel enters the frontline, he was all charged up and dealt a devastating 15 damage points to Agor. He was resurrected by Oshuur Constantia but is immediately shut down a second time by the combined backline attacks.

Runeslinger procs another stun on his attack with Oshuur Constantia on the receiving end. This left the opponent's monsters incapable of having enough strength to take down Uriel.

The match was an easy win as soon as Agor Longtail fell. On each of Runeslinger's attacks in this game, there was a trigger of Stun, Affliction or both. This opened my eyes to how insane this monster's abilities are. I'll definitely keep an eye on him on the market and try to secure a max-level copy.

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Thank you for reading and see you in the battlefield!

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