The Monk And The Snake

Welcome to the second edition of Fresh From The Pack, Straight To The Battle. This time it's gonna be a little different because instead of focusing on one single monster, I'm going to share a battle and thoughts about two guys working perfectly together.

Because of the pack opening contest(more at the end of the post), this was originally supposed to be about Silent Sha-Vi but after discovering the power of this duo I just had to include Xenith Monk! Let's take a closer look.

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The Odd Couple

Actually, we might call this a team introduction since these two fellows are my team. Only led by Thaddius Brood. This Death splinter summoner will reduce the opponent's health and magic attack by 1.

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SILENT SHA-VI

• Just like in the thumbnail picture, this reptile is the one lurking somewhere in the back. It will also be targeting the enemy back row monsters as if it would Sneak behind them to bite.

• For 3 mana you get it all. Sha-Vi is fast(4-speed) and lethal(3 Melee attack on level 3). Also, if the opponent's attack is weak, Sha-Vi could turn out to be a tough nut to crack having 5 health points.

• This is actually one factor I'm counting on. Hoping that whoever I'm up against doesn't have too many Sneak, Snipe, or Opportunity monsters on their team.

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XENITH MONK

• This guy becomes quite an asset when he is upgraded to level 2. That is when gets the Heal ability and will be able to restore some of his health during the battle.

• Xenith Monk is a little shy when it comes to attacking(1 Melee) but can be called fast(3) and has a good amount of health(6).

• Because of his ability use cases include, Poison and Earthquake rulesets, last monster or even as a tank which I'm just about to do...

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Entering The Arena

I came up with this strategy sort of by accident. My daily focus was Healing, meaning I must use heal, tank heal, cleanse or triage abilities to get focus points. I was obviously playing with the Death splinter because I wanted to try out different tactics with Silent Sha-Vi.

The problem with the Healing focus and Death is the lack of the mentioned abilities, so I picked a Neutral monster, the Xenith Monk.

My basic idea was to place the Monk in the tank position and hope it can absorb the damage and be able to heal himself before his health goes to zero. Even though he can do some minor damage too, it was up to Silent Sha-Vi to take out the enemy monsters.

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Facing The Opponent

I found myself up against the Life splinter team led by Lorna Shine, a summoner who will grant all of her monsters the Divine Shield ability. This means that I have to remove the shield from every monster before I can really damage them.

Even though this is a low-mana(13) battle my opponent managed to find 6 monsters to fight against my heroic duo.

Before the battle began I noticed my monsters being affected by the Creeping Ooze's Slow ability as their speed was reduced by one. Another thing that got me worried a bit was the Temporal Master charging his attack. Once he is ready with that he will deliver 3x damage to the Monk.

One other creature worth mentioning is Celestial Harpy being the only attacking Silent Sha-Vi instead of the Xenith Monk.

All others should just be cannon fodder if we can get rid of that damn shield.

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The Battle

So, can our odd couple be victorious over the six thugs who look like they just escaped from the Splinter jail? Find out clicking HERE or continue reading.

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ROUND 1

In the first round, we took some minor damage but also removed the divine shield from a couple of monsters.

ROUND 2

Even as being slowed down, Sha-Vi was fast enough and attacked first taking out the self-righteous looking Dax Paragon. Xenith Monk was seriously hurt by Temporal Master who finally got his magic to work in this round.

Monk quickly recovered by healing himself and the first thing he did was to defeat the Gargoya Scrapper. Interestingly enough, Celestial Harpy with Opportunity ability now turned on Xenith Monk as he was now the monster with the least health.

ROUND 3

After Monk had regenerated once again the Harpy continued to pick on Sha-Vi who had just removed another shield...

ROUND 4

At the beginning of the round, Temporal Master was all charged up and ready to go. Unfortunately, with his low health and without his divine shield he was just a small bite for Silent Sha-vi.

As Sha-Vi was busy taking out the back row of the opponent, Xenith Monk did the same to their front line. This time it was the shady Chaos Agent who had to leave the arena.

ROUND 5

In the last round, Celestial Harpy still managed to attack and leave Sha-Vi with only 1 health point. While Xenith Monk took out the Creeping ooze, Sha-Vi finished off Harpy and ended the battle.

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Conclusion

I think this is just an amazing pair against the low-level monsters! Silent Sha-Vi has enough health to take a couple of blows from monsters attacking other than the tank unit. It also has a strong attack so it can defeat them quite easily.

At the same time, Xenith Monk is taking hits in the front line and recovering with his Heal ability. Even though he can do only minor damage by himself, it's the time that matters. As the enemy backline gets dropped, Sha-Vi will eventually be there to help his mate Xenith Monk.

This is definitely a strategy I need to keep in my mind!

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Giveaway

Here's the result of this week's pack opening:

As you might have guessed it, the prize is a level 1 Silent Sha-Vi. To get that just leave a comment with your Splinterlands in-game name and tell me should I buy a Chaos Legion or Riftwatchers pack for the next week's opening!

• WINNER FOR FOR LAST WEEKS DRAW is @kamhus, the Goblin Tower card has been sent!
• If you want to keep up with this series please let me know if you can be tagged in future posts or want to be removed from the list.

List:

@kamhus
@mypathtofire

Thank you for reading!