Introduction
Now, this might be a little different than other Summoner's Week reviews as I would also focus on Life Splinter as a whole. This is because General Sloan on its own is straightforward and easy to understand but the intricacies on his build and compatibilities are the ones that will make him shine.
If you are now ready, let's check this very awesome summoner that a lot of players just brushes off for being plain. However, remember that sometimes, there are still diamonds in the rough waiting to be discovered.
General Sloan is simple. She gives 1 range damage to all of your monsters. That's it.
However, while General Sloan looks very plain from that one ability, his compatibility with the monsters in her splinter cannot be denied and this is what I am going to explain in this week's Summoner's Week.
+1 range: [Stat Modifier] Positive Status] All friendly monsters has their Range Damage increased by 1.
Pros
- Life Splinter is very cheap to rent. A lot of monsters from Life Splinter, from commons to legendaries are very cheap to rent. This makes her a good summoner for beginners as you won't need to burn off your wallet in order to find your best build in this summoner and her splinter.
- Good mix of damage types. Life Splinter has good choices whether you would go melee, range or magic. However, if you are aiming to use General Sloan, a huge number of monsters with Range damage should be on your board at all times. Fortunately, the mana cost of these range monsters are very diverse and can accommodate even on low mana fights.
- Compatibility with Weapons Training. The bonus damage from General Sloan applies after the application of Weapons Training ability. This means that even though Zyriel can give only a maximum of 3 Range damage to your passive monsters, after the passive monsters get the ability to attack, then, they get the bonus from General Sloan increasing their damage from 3 to 4.
Cons
- Can be predictable.While you can do a good mix of damage when using Life Splinter, General Sloan can still be predictable since Life Splinter mainly use a lot, if not, full Range damage. It is the same as Earth's Obsidian and magic damage but this time, it would be General Sloan and Range damage.
- Range monsters can be tricky to use.Range monsters cannot attack while in 1st postion. You need good judgement of how much protection you will give to your monsters with range damage or it will be bad.
- Range monsters are bad in close calls.Since monsters with range damage cannot attack while in 1st position, it would be bad if you get to the point in the game where you have no monsters to tank for your range monster.
Aim True |
All monsters cannot miss their attacks: Since monsters with range damage has the chance to miss, Aim True rule of combat is very good in securing that all your monster's attacks will land. This is much better since a lot of monsters with range damage also have high speeds. | |
Equalizer |
The Max Health of all monsters on the board will be equal to the Max Health of the monster with the highest max health: General Sloan gives a huge damage boost if you build your team around him. In Equalizer rules of combat, since all monsters get the same max health as the monster with the highest health, the damage is the most important factor in winning this battle. | |
Earthquake |
All non-Flying monsters on the board takes 2 melee damage at the start of every round: Surprisinglly, Life Splinter has a lot of monsters with Flying ability and quite a number of them have range damage which is very compatible with General Sloan. |
Fire & Regret |
All monsters on the board gains the Return Fire ability that inflicts half the damage to monster with range damage attacking this monster: Since you will mostly use monsters with range damage when playing with General Sloan, Fire & Regret rule of combat is a huge disadvantage for you. This returns a portion of your range damage back to your monsters and since a lot of range monsters has low health, this would be detrimental on your team. |
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Super Sneak |
All monsters on the board gains the Snipe ability that changes the targetting mechanics of monsters with Melee damage to "Opponent's monster that is on the last position.": Life doesn't have good defense against Sneaks unless you have the Soulbound monster, Iziar. Iziar has Taunt ability that you can use to protect your monsters with low health. Unfortunately, that is all you have.Since the prohibition of using Untamed Series on Modern Ranked Format, Life Splinter has lost its good support monster, Truthspeaker which gives the Protect ability and the armor to your team. Chaos Legion and Rebellion Series does not have that kind of low mana cost support monster. |
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Equal Opportunity |
All monsters on the board gains the Opportunity ability that changes the targetting mechanics to "Opponent's Monster with the least health.": Since monsters with range damage has the chance to miss, Aim True rule of combat is very good in securing that all your monster's attacks will land. This is much better since a lot of monsters with range damage also have high speeds. |
Xenith Archer |
While Xenith Archer doesn't have any abilities, it only costs you 2 mana to have him on the board. He has 2 range damage and 5 health at max level. This means, with General Sloan, you get 3 range damage for a 2 mana cost monster. That is a sweet deal if you ask me. | |
Pelacor Arbalest |
If you are not using Pelacor Arbalest with General Sloan, I am sure you have a deep problem. Pelacor Arbalest has 3 range damage (increased to 4 with General Sloan). He has Double Strike ability, which means he can attack twice in one round. That changes the damage of a 6 mana cost monster from a total damage of 6 (two 3s) to 8 (two 4s). | |
Zyriel |
Zyriel has a Weapons Training ability that gives range damage to passive monsters. Zyriel has 3 base damage at level 1 meaning she already gives 3 range damage at the earliest level. This is furthermore increased by General Sloan giving you high stat monsters for low mana costs which are good on low mana fights. |
This build is mainly composed of 2 mana cost monsters in order to adapt to a low mana cap battle. However, not because they are low mana, it also means they are weak. This build is honestly quite strong and balanced with a very few exception depending on how your opponent will play and depending on how much the RNG Gods will favor you on your game.
Lineup
General Sloan
Since I am using 2 range monsters, General Sloan is a good fit for this battle. It increases my overall damage per round by 2.
Pelacor Conjurer
A low health mana cost passive monster. While he doesn't have any attacks, his high health and Magic Reflect can be very useful in dealing with magic damage.
Chaos Agent
A 1 mana cost monster with 5 health and multiple defensive abilities including Phase, which allows him to evade magic damage.
Xenith Archer
This monster is interchangeable with Dax Paragon in terms of position. He's a 2 mana cost monster with range damage.
Dax Paragon
One of my additions to my low mana cap build. While he isn't as strong as other monsters, his magic damage proves to be useful for the mix damage. His Amplify ability also has good compatibility with Pelacor Conjurer. Lastly, getting him to level 5 also gives Affliction ability that can disrupt the opponent's Heal, Tank Heal and Triage.
Venari Crystalsmith
The last piece of my build. She is placed at the last position for both protection and so that he can attack and heal more. This is somewhat a gamble though because one Sneak monster and this monster will fall.
I had my confidence that my build will push through whatever my opponent will throw at me. I have a Tank Heal monster and my opponent does not have any monster with Sneak ability. This gives me an advantage in a front to back style of combat.
General Sloan is very compatible with Life Splinter given that their main healer, Venari Crystalsmith has Range damage. This is akin to Obsidian's Earth Splinter being compatible with Goblin Psychic, a magic damage monster with Tank Heal.
With General Sloan, you can be sure you have an advantage on both lower and higher mana cap battles. With lower mana cap battles, you can copy my low mana build, which is composed mostly of 2 mana costs monsters. On high mana battles, on the other hand, you have your Zyriel and Pelacor Arbalest to provide huge amount of damage as you focus on defending your high damage range monsters on the board with strong tanks and passive monsters.
- This post is an entry for Splinterlands Social Media Contest.
- Animated Banners and Dividers are edited in Canva Pro.
- Other sources that I do not own are cited under their respective photos.
- Some of the fonts used are from instafonts.io
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