Hello everyone! Pozdrav svima!

This week I'm going to show you one of my battles featuring Diemonshark - amazing rare Water splitner card introduced to the game with the Chaos Legion release. It's one of the starter cards, so it can be played from the start.

THEME: DIEMONSHARK
Edition: CHAOS LEGION
Rarity: RARE
Element: WATER
Attack: MELEE
Abilities: Trample

~~ LORE ~~

“You heard him,” Saldy said with a wave of his hand to Cooper, who stood at the wheel of the little trawler. “Slow ahead.”

Saldy scooped a handful of chum out of the bucket and threw it into the water. Muttering, he repeated, “Slow ahead,” and cast a baleful glare at the ship's cabin, where the captain was. “I can go slow ahead. Come on down and chum some of this mess.”

He turned back to the water. Beneath the waves, something dark and behemoth glided. It rose through the depths until it broke the surface. A Diemonshark. It was covered in armor-like plates colored in purples and blues and tans. It had four red eyes on each side of its head and a mouth crammed full of a wicked tangle of teeth. Saldy's own mouth dropped open, and he stepped backward as the creature continued to rise. Gods, it seemed to go on forever.

He kept walking backward, eyes wide, until he stumbled back into the ship's cabin, where the captain sat with his feet kicked up, smoking a cigar.

“You're gonna need a bigger boat,” Saldy said.

~~ STATS ~~

This is one of the best non-legendary tanks in the game, in my opinion. I use him in in almost every Water splinter line-up. In mid-low to high mana battles, melee only or mixed line-ups. He's so versatile, it's amazing.
He's not a cheap card, but for 8 mana you get a card that has 2 melee attack (up to 4 at max level), 4 speed and 6 armor on all levels, with 7 health (up to 10 on max level). Born to be a tank.

He does have great attack and defense stats, but what makes this tank so special are his amazing abilities. First of all is the Trample ability (When a Monster with Trample hits and kills its target, it will perform another attack on the next Monster on the enemy Team) which he has right from level 1. Then at level 4 he gets Enrage ability (Has increased Melee attack and Speed when damaged - rounded up to 1.5x multiplier), and finally Retaliate ability (When hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker) at level 7.

• Trample is very useful ability, especially for a tank. After it kills one enemy it attacks the next one in the same turn. And if used in a battle with Stampede ruleset (The Trample ability can trigger multiple times per attack if the trampled Monster is killed) your Diemonshark can be unstoppable!
• Enrage is another very useful ability for a tank, especially melee tank with high base speed, like our Diemonshark. When he gets damage (and eventually he will, because he's a tank) he will get 50% more melee attack and speed - that's 6 melee and 6 speed total at max level). That makes him hit HARD and it makes him more prone to evade melee and ranged attacks (because of the speed difference).
• Now put Retaliate on top of all that - enraged Diemonshark with 6 attack and speed, with a chance to hit back on enemy attacks and hit again and again... You get the picture? Amazing!

~~ BATTLE ~~

Today's battle is a great example of how powerful Diemonshark can be if used in a right way. Opponent's team fell one after another like a stack of dominos.

If you want you can see the whole battle, play by play - click 👉 HERE 👈

~~ RULESET ~~

Ruleset in this battle didn't helped me at all but it didn't get in the way, either. Just what the doctor ordered for my Diemonshark to show off his skills.

I will try to explain each part of the it, so you get the better understanding what was I thinking when I picked my line-up.

~~ STRATEGY REVIEW ~~

When I saw the mana cap and Rise of the Commons ruleset, my first thought was to either take Earth splinter full of magic common and rares, or Water splinter melee, because I have my favorite tank there - Diemonshark with his best friend Flying Squid, and maybe I can squeeze in Diemonshark's close relative Demented Shark to give them him melee buff.
When I saw my opponent chose Death splinter with Thaddius Brood summoner in his 4 out of 5 last battles, I knew if I choose Earth I'm going to have a rough time because of his -1 magic debuff.
On the other hand if I choose Water splinter with a strong melee tank to withhold opponents attacks I would crush his squishy back line once I get pass his weaker tank.
So the choice was actually very simple - Water splinter it was. And my opponent, as I predicted - chose Death splinter.

~~ LINE-UP ~~

You can see the line-up from both teams in battle screenshot right after this section. I will go through my line-up and explain why was each card picked and put in that spot.

SUMMONER

KELYA FRENDUL Waer splinter rare summoner that increases friendly armor and speed by 1. I chose this summoner because I wanted to give my attackers some survivability and speed - you can never have too much speed (except in Reverse Speed ruleset). Kelya is one of most used summoners, as Water splinter is one of the stronger in the game.

1st POSITION ("TANK")

DIEMONSHARK Awesome rare card from Water splinter. My favorite tank. He can tank, he can kill, he can do everything. I put it in the first position so I can make the most of his Trample ability. Hopefully he will get a couple killing blows >> triggering Trample >> doing extra damage with that.

2nd POSITION

FLYING SQUID Great common Water splinter card. It probably deserves to be at least a rare card. If it had some armor it would certainly be a rare or more. It's just that good. I call it Diemonshark's best friend because they work so well together - Diemonshark breaks the armor of the enemy >> Flying Squid damages it >> Diemonshark kills it >> Trample >> repeat I put it in the second position to make best use of it's Reach ability.

3rd POSITION

DEMENTED SHARK Another very good common Water splinter card. Whenever I go full melee with Water I use this card for it's melee attack buff. It has Inspire ability right from the start making it super useful in melee fights, and it gets Thorns at level 6 so it can be good as a tank, or back line protector in last position (to keep those pesky Sneak attacks away). I put it in third position because I want it alive as long as Diemonshark and Flying Squid are alive, to give them damage buff.

4th POSITION

HARDY STONEFISH Very useful common Water splinter card. Great spot filler, because it costs only 1 mana. But that's not all - it has some armor too, so it can take a few hits. This comes in handy when protecting the back, or even as a tank. I put it in fourth position, to protect the back from eventual Sneak attacks. It turn out to be a perfect decision.

~~ COURSE OF THE BATTLE ~~

This wasn't a long fight - once Diemonshark gets going, it's hard to stop him. As you can see from the line-ups I was greatly outnumbered, but when you have the right cards in right places opponent's numbers mean nothing.

Round 1

My guys went in strong, because of the speed advantage they throw the first couple of punches, almost taking their tank out.
They did a couple of hits on Diemonshark, just enough to take out his armor and do a little damage. This only pissed him off making him Enraged.

Round 2

Right at the start of round 2 Diemonshark got his first kill and thus triggering Trample #1.
My little tank did its job perfectly, taking two hits in each of first 2 rounds, protecting Demented Shark and the rest of the team with it.

Round 3

Coming into round 3 Diemonshark got his 2nd kill and his Trample #2 (with another kill). If this battle was played with Stampede ruleset, it would be game over in this round, because Diemonshark would go on a killing spree.

Round 4

Nevertheless, he got his kill and Trample #3 with the victory killing blow in round 4.

~~ RESULT ~~

Nice smooth win and nice amount of RP and SPS earned. Gotta love this game.

~~ CONCLUSION ~~

Did your strategy work?

• Yes, my strategy worked out perfectly. Putting Diemonshark with Flying Squid and Demented Shark in the lineup was a home-run move.

What will you try differently next time?

• Probably nothing. This worked out so great I wish I could play this line-up all the time.

Do you like DIEMONSHARK? Why or why not?

• Diemonshark is one of my favorite tanks, one of my favorite melee monsters. So, yeah, I like this card. Its amazing how good it is when it gets going with Trample. Only downside to this card is that's weak to magic. Can't think of anything else.

Link to the battle itself can be found 👉 HERE 👈

If you still haven't tried Splinterlands try it out 👉 HERE 👈

Thank you for your time, and please vote if you like this post. 👍

Credits

Special thanks to:

@carrieallen for ultimate markdown tutorial.
@rqr4 for text dividers used in this post.
@splinterlands for images used in this post and for making this great game.