What's Up my fellow Warriors!
The season end is near and only 3 days left for the current season to end. Gladly, dec payout per ranked match has increased a bit and I was getting close to 50 dec when I start playing at Diamond I. The fight for the leaderboard has also started and from today I will try to reach those top positions. This season I am thinking to stop playing for the leaderboard on the last day, or last hours to be more precise. Instead, I will try from today while there is still 3 days left. If I cross a certain amount trophies which will make sure I get those sweet decs, I will stop playing right away until the season ends and will sacrifice my trophies. In this way, I will have a good ECR rate after the season end and can loot big decs when whales are not playing. It's just an experiment and I am not thinking long term currently. I will inspect how it goes this season and if my idea get clicked, I will follow in future seasons as well.
On the other hand, we, the guild of Neoxian finished at second position in the latest brawl and now waiting for the current one's prep day to end. We got 87 Crowns for fighting the last brawl and also 4894 merits for each guild member who fully participated in that brawl. I again bought 2 glad packs and will shared with you on my next post.
Now, today, I have another awesome monster to showcase to all of you. This time, I chose cocatrice, the high flyer bird who ruled splinterlands for a really long time for it's unmatched speed and dodging abilities. This monster is too quick that it can be untouched from beginning to end of an match when you will kill all of those enemy monsters one by one. Until untamed edition cards get launched, cocatrice got used heavily for years as a speed agent and I never heard a complain against him, or until it is coca vs coca! So, today we will take a deep dive into the coca island and will know about this bird a little more.
What's so special about COCATRICE??
Cocatrice only costs 2 mana to use. Thus, it becomes a cheap card to pick when forming your lineup, mostly as a defense card, a special type of defense where instead of choosing a monster with bulky health stat, you will evade opponent attacks with speed and abilities. Not to mention that it is also user friendly to those 12 - 13 mana matches or little league ruleset.
At max level, cocatrice holds 6 speed which is very fast against most of the monsters in splinterlands. Only because of speed, cocatrice can evade enemy melee and range attacks as I often see in back to basics ruleset matches.
The 2 abilities of cocatrice make it even more untouchable to attack upon and they are Flying and dodge. For flying ability, it become harder to target a cocatrice for all those non flying melee and range attackers. On the other hand, The Dodge ability gives it more chance to evade an enemy melee or range attack. So as you are getting to evade abilities on top of a powerful speed stat, definitely you can expect the unexpected when using a cocatrice in battle.
Cocatrice is vulnerable against magic cards as they don't care about it's abilities or speed - they go directly for the health. So, when using cocatrice, you have to think twice if opponents are going to use magic monsters or not.
Cocatrice is also not very usable in large mana matches as most players uses at least use one or 2 magic monsters generally. However, If magic is blocked by ruleset, you can try your luck sometimes in medium matches. But beware of those high speed archers or the monsters with snare ability.
Abilities
Flying
Monsters with flying ability will have more chance to evade attacks from melee and ranged monsters that are not having the flying ability.
Dodge
Has an increased chance of evading an melee or ranged attack.
Market Stat
After the dip, cocatrices have been cheaper now and the lowest one on market currently is selling for 3.1$ per bcx only. The single BCX monsters are starting from 3.44$ and will cost you 600 DEC per BCX as per the current DEC rate.
Battle Line-up
Battle Link: Click here
mana Cap: 12
Splinters allowed: Fire, Water, Earth, Life and Death.
Ruleset:
Unprotected- No shields will be there in this match.Up Close an Personal- Only melee monsters can be used in this battle.
It was only a 12 mana match this time and only melee monsters can be used in this match. Moreover, because of the unprotected ruleset, armored monsters are useless in this match so I decided to make a speedy line up with cocatrice at front. My only fear was if my opponent uses a Sea Monster then it's Thorns ability can bring bad luck on my coca but as the match got revealed, I realized he used a Rexxie on me. Let me now share my lineup and why I choose them
COCATRICE
I used COCATRICE in the first place of my lineup because of its high speed and evading abilities. I have a level 7 but it has the same speed and abilities with the maxx level coca, but in level 8 it has 2 attack which I am missing. It has 1 melee attack at 6 speed and 4 health with flying and dodge ability.
FURIOUS CHICKEN
I used FURIOUS CHICKEN in the second place just so that it soak up 1 attack from the opponent give my rear monsters one more chance. I am using a level 3 here and it has 1 melee attack at 1 speed and 1 health.
CREEPING OOZE
I used CREEPING OOZE at my third place of the lineup to slow down enemies so that my coca and other attackers perform better. I am using a level 8 here and it has 1 melee attack at 3 speed and with 3 health along with the slow ability.
BATTERING RAM
BATTERING RAM is the first attacker that I am using in this match and I put it in the fourth place so that it stays alive for a long time in this battle. I am using a level 10 and it has 2 melee attack at 5 speed and 3 health with 2 abilities - shatter and opportunity. yes, I am overusing opportunity monsters nowadays and trying to make different strategies.
SERPENTINE SPY
SERPENTINE SPY is my second and last attacker in this match ans i am using this monster in the fifth place. I am using a level 10 and it has a whooping 4 melee attack at 6 speed (same as coca) and 3 health with opportunity and poison ability. I think it's The best monster in entire splinterlands with opportunity ability.
FLAME MONKEY
I chose FLAME MONKEY in the last position only because of 2 reasons - first, it will provide me swift ability -> +1 speed to all friendly monsters and secondly, it will protect my back and will take 1 or 2 hits before going down. I am using a level 10 and it has 1 melee attack at 5 speed and 3 health with swift and repair ability.
Match result
It was a 12 mana match with only melee monsters allowed so I chose Malric summoner first in mind. I worked on the speed part first and added coca at front and chose ooze and monkey as well. Now, for attacking, I chose 2 opportunity combo as I wanted to take down 2 small ones at a single round, especially if my opponent is using ooze brownie or monkey. Thank God my opponent didn't believe in the lone sea monster lineup and rather went for a lone rexxie deck.
After all the initial buffs and debuffs, my coca and spy was having the maximum speed 6. Coca attacked first and damaged the enemy rexxie a little bit. Afterwards, the opportunity streak started and my spy hunted down the enemy chicken. the Ram followed him and killed down the enemy ooze just after that! Just like the famous one liner 'One Stone two birds'.
At second round, my coca attacked again and snatched some health away from that rexxie. The spy attacked just after that and this time he hunted down the enemy brownie! That's 3 back to back opportunity knock outs by the way. The Ram attacks next and reduced the rexxie's health furthermore. But the poor rexxie attacked last and missed it's chewing once again.
The third round, the coca again took the pride and attacked first and made the wounded rexxie's health to 4. That remaining health was already booked on spy so he also did the honor and took down the rexxie with it's blow - the final blow of the match.
No doubt it was an easy win. I don't generally see decks with rexxies here in diamond I. As I told, I was expecting a Sea Monster lineup, Or a serpentine Soldier line up or a coca lineup similar to me. Earth summoner was also allowed so it was really expected to see Mylor as your opponent as well. BUt my opponent put his trust on Rexxie this time and my strategy overworked.
On the other note, it looks like my opportunity strategies have been working well lately, since ZI bought the Ram. Having 2 opportunity monsters from Neutral section really fills the availability of making opportunity lineup to a larger number of possible choices. As I have a limited and unfinished collection, I have to juice out the very best of my collection, especially in this season end time. :)
Wish you all good luck on all of your future SL matches.
Thanks for visiting my post.
Stay well and keep playing Splinterlands.
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