This week's Share Your Battle challenge features Diemonshark! Diemonshark is a top tier tank from the Water splinter and sees regular play in my ranked battles, so I was excited to see that it was to subject of this week's challenge.
Diemonshark definitely isn't cheap, but it sure brings the beef! At level 1, for the relatively cost of 8 mana, you get a decent 2 melee attack, paired with a very respectable 4 speed and an extra tanky 6 armor and 7 health. To top it off it also has trample, meaning that if it manages to kill an enemy monster then it gets a bonus attack - not too shabby!
If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup? Read on further!
First up: the ruleset. This is a relatively low mana cap battle, at just 16. This means that if we are going to use Diemonshark then doing so will take up half of our available mana. That isn't to say that it's a bad thing, just that it means that we need to plan our battle strategy around Diemonshark.
After looking at the ruleset, I suspected that my opponent was likely to choose a team which was heavy on magic attackers. I selected Bortus as a counterpick - it would weaken any magic damage from enemy monsters and help my team to survive a little longer. Oh, and as an added bonus Bortus only costs 3 mana compared to the 4 that the Chaos Legion rare summoners require - and that 1 mana means much, much more given the low mana cap for this fight.
I led off my lineup with our guest star of the week - Diemonshark! As I mentioned earlier, using Diemonshark in this battle meant that I was committing half of my 16 available mana to a single monster. So naturally, my plan for this battle revolved around Diemonshark - I wanted it to survive for as long as possible while dealing out enough damage to mow through the opposing enemy monsters.
My next monster was there to provide some crucial support to Diemonshark - Merdaali Guardian with the Tank Heal ability would heal Diemonshark each turn and hopefully help it to live for long enough to win the battle. It was a relatively affordable option, costing just 3 mana.
I rounded out my team with a bit more damage. I only had 2 mana left to spend, so I went with Ice Pixie. It fit perfectly into my mana cap and would pitch in a little bit of additional damage. With 3 speed and Flying it would also be tough to hit, but my hope was that it wouldn't be targeted at all in the first place.
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I am pretty happy with what I see - my opponent has indeed chosen a magic lineup. Specifically, Earth splinter magic. Bortus would seriously reduce my opponent's damage output, and if you look closely then you may notice that there will be 3 magic damage from my opponent's monsters each turn, while Merdaali Guardian will be healing 2 health per turn. I do need to kill some monsters eventually, but I have quite a bit of time in order to do so.
In the first round of battle Diemonshark goes to work! It knocks out my opponent's Mycelic Morphoid and as a result is able to get a bonus hit in on their Regal Peryton. Ice Pixie is also pitching in some additional damage and Merdaali Guardian is doing a great job of healing. So far, so good!
One more round and we seem to be approaching the end of the battle. Diemonshark and Ice Pixie tag team to knock out my opponent's Regal Peryton and my opponent is left with just 2 magic attackers hitting for 1 damage apiece. With Merdaali Guardian healing for 2 per turn this battle is looking just about over.
It did take one more round, but by the start of round 4 the writing is on the wall. All that my opponent has left is a Khmer Princess, and I still have my entire team left standing. As is fitting for Diemonshark week, my diemonshark landed the finishing blow. And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.
My plan for this battle played out perfectly - my monster lineup of Diemonshark plus a couple of solid supports was able to keep Diemonshark healthy while it took out my opponent's team one by one. Diemonshark is an expensive but efficiently-costed monster - it has a high price but it sure delivers!
I am a fan of Diemonshark - it is one of my favorite Water splinter tanks, and shows up in many of my ranked battles. While there are a relatively large amount of excellent Water splinter tanks available, Diemonshark has certainly earned a spot in the rotation!
Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:
My Take on the Card Level Rewards Proposal - My thoughts on the the card level rewards Splinterlands proposal.
Blasting Off - Using Djinn Apprentice in Battle! - Last week's battle challenge, featuring Djinn Apprentice!
Splinterlands Economics: Dollar Cost Averaging - An introduction to the concept of dollar cost averaging, and how we can use it in Splinterlands.
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All images used in this article are open source and obtained from Pixabay or Unsplash. Thumbnails borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Canva.