Image Source: Background is my own. Credit to Splinterlands for the Creature Images
Today we see how battles that leverage speed and blind can leave an unprepared opponent helpless to react with high DPS but no viable target. Check out the battle here!
Spreading Fury
Explosive Weaponry
44 Mana Cap
And the line-up (with all buffs/debuffs, no attacks made):
Design:
As you can probably tell, we are counting on the Void Dragon holding up. With a single digit stamina at 9 HP, not the most impressive tank at first glance. If he goes down, he will leave an exposed line of soon-dead archers. 4 out of the 5 other picks here are explicitly to make sure Void Dragon doesn't get hit. Our Stalker here is the only member not part of the plan, but brings high damage. Chaos Dragon is just always fun to play when you can spare 14 mana and plays well into this week's theme, but more importantly, has blind. The Insidious Warlock at Lvl 4 or up can fit this role too if you don't have a Lvl 3 Chaos Dragon, or simply can't spare 14 mana in the team. The goal of this team is to slowly eat away at their team until something breaks while the Void Dragon makes sure no hits land. Most might wonder about the ooze positioning. This was specifically to bait an explosive hit on the Void Dragon if they brought an opportunity creature. If I had wanted to keep it safer, position 4 would have been better in the explosive matchup. A final note: Quix the Devious is a natural summoner to complement the Void Dragon with the speed debuff applied to the enemy,
Deep-dive into the Void Dragon Dodge Rate:
Flying: 25% chance to miss by non-flying creatures
Blind: 15% chance to miss (provided by Chaos Dragon)
Speed Differential: 10% per pt (40% relative to Oshannus, the opponent's fastest creature)
Phase: Makes all the above apply to magic as well
It is key to note that Phase (which Void Dragon acquires at Lvl 3) is essential to this strategy if you have an opponent with magic attackers.
% Chance to hit by each opponent's card should the Void Dragon be targeted (at Speed 7):
| Position | Creature | % Chance to Hit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Kraken | 10% |
| 2 | Djinn Oshannus | 20% |
| 3 | Deeplurker | 0% |
| 4 | Angelic Mandarin | 0% |
| 5 | Merdaali Guardian | N/A |
| 6 | Axemaster | 10% |
Two last things I'll mention are 1) even a flying creature would still be more likely to miss than to hit, and 2) this ruleset comes with enrage. Even though the Void Dragon will not get a damage pump watch what happens.
Weaknesses:
This line-up would notably have been wrecked by True Strike or Snare as the Void Dragon is not a good tank if it can't dodge. These two abilities are not common in creatures currently used to go after your front-line, but would have brought down the Void Dragon quickly. With the Chaos Dragon in the back, this line-up would have been fairly resistant to sneak, but enough pressure (such as the Life splinter) could have been bad news. Finally this line-up would have been vulnerable to multiple opportunity creatures if my team couldn't front-line them quick enough. Finally Scattershot with some luck could hurt.
How the match went:
You can see after round 1, the enemy team has not landed a single hit. Even the Ooze dodged the one strike from the Deeplurker. This was on the lucky side, but you can see that even if the Deeplurker landed this hit, the match would not have ended well for the opponent as seen in Round 2. If the Deeplurker had hit, the ooze would go down, and the void dragon & supply runner would have taken 4 dmg each. The reason it would not have made a difference is because that would have actually boosted the speed of the Void Dragon & Supply Runner to 11 (due to enrage after loss of the ooze), making any further hits (even by Opportunity) virtually impossible.
The end of round 2 leaves the fate of the match pretty clear. Halfway through round 2, the Chaos Dragon enrages the Axemaster to a speed of 3. Subsequently the Axemaster lands 1 of 2 hits on the Void Dragon which takes out the ooze, but brings the Void Dragon to 11 speed by enrage. With the Deeplurker brought to the frontline, there are no more opportunity attacks to be made (which is why the Ooze surviving round 1 actually wasn't important) and it is no longer possible for any of the opponents creatures to land a hit on the Void Dragon.
With massive speed priority, the opponent does not even get an attempt at an attack while the archer backline wipes up the remaining foes in Round 3.
Conclusion:
At Gold League and above if you are able to field a Lvl 3 or 4 Void Dragon, you have a very powerful tank in the current meta. In battles with the Spreading Fury rule, the Void Dragon becomes extremely hard to hit more than once. This particular match was high mana, so not every match can swing the Supply Runner, Lira, and Chaos Dragon all loosey-goosey. However the Void Dragon can be paired with many of the slow/swiftness creatures found in multiple splinters. Even without Enrage, 2 or 3 buffs/debuffs can bring the Void Dragon to near unhittable levels. Due take caution however. The Void Dragon's greatest weakness (aside from Snare & True Strike) is his low damage output. Even a 10% chance to hit is plenty if your team doesn't have the output to take down a gelatinous cube!
Come join us over in the Splinterlands
You too can have a Dragon Splinter!
