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Hi everyone! It's time for the a weekly battle challenge, and the challenge for this week is Diemonshark.
About the Monster
Diemonshark
Diemonshark is a rare card with high health (7) and shields (6), and has the Trample ability at level 1. It gets the Enrage ability from level 4 and the Retaliate ability at level 7. I’m using a level 2 gold version of the card.
Ruleset
Holy Protection: All Monsters have the Divine Shield ability
Only the Fire, Water, Life, Death and Dragon Splinters can be used
Mana Cap: 48
Format: Modern
Cards & Line Up
Summoner
vs
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| Position | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Diemonshark | It has has 8 Health, 6 Shield and the Trample ability and is great as a tank. Abilities don't matter in this ruleset though. |
| 2 | Djinn Oshannus | It has 2 Magic attack and 10 Health. It is used as the secondary tank here as it has high health. |
| 3 | Magi of Chaos | It's here to do Magic attacks to bypass shields. On hindsight, I should have switched positions with Runemancer as it has lower health. |
| 4 | Nerissa Tridawn | Another great Magic attack card with high health, which is perfect for this ruleset |
| 5 | Runemancer Kye | It's a Legendary Riftwatcher card that does 2 Magic damage and has high health (8) and shield (5). |
| 6 | Ice Pixie | Filled up with this Magic card as I had only 2 mana left after using the first 5 cards. |
Strategy
The Back to Basics ruleset meant that all the abilities are unless in this battle. As such, my strategy was to use Monsters with high health and with Magic attacks to bypass shields. As far as possible, the Monsters should have high shields too, to fend off Ranged monsters. I try not to use Ranged Monsters on Back to Basics rulesets as they are practically useless when it's the last card.
The opponent used Thaddius Brood, which is a nemesis of Magic attacks and reduced the Magic attacks of most my cards to 1. Thankfully, he used 2 Ranged Monsters which my Shields fended off and his cards had mostly lower health other than the tank. My strategy of using Magic attacks, high health and shields worked out in this case.
Thoughts on the card
Diemonshark is one of my favourite Water Splinter cards. Its high health and shield makes it a great tank, and its Trample ability allows another attack if it kills off a monster. It's unfortunate that this ruleset did not allow the use of its ability.