https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_12d4c0028475ddb453de127bb8f1d394&ref=atbui89

This week's battle challenge involves the Gargoya Scrapper! The Gargoya Scrapper is a Life splinter Melee monster that is a low mana "filler" card except for it's excellent use in Equalizer battles or as a Magic counter!

Gargoya Scrapper Highlights

The Gargoya Scrapper is typically used as a Sneak attack meat shield that you throw in when you only have 1 mana left and you can't use your Creeping Ooze (or don't have one).

At Levels 1 and 2, this card is honestly not very useful. There are other 1 mana card that are better options. However, once you reach Level 3, the Gargoya Scrapper gains Void!

Icon	Ability Name	Description
	Void	Reduced damage from Magic attacks. Attack damage gets halved (rounded up), except attack 1 which deals 0 damage.

This may not sound like a lot, but when you're in a Little League Battle in Bronze, there aren't very many Magic attackers that do more than 2 damage. Pair this guy with a monster who has Silence to reduce Magic damage further and he may not take any magic damage!

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So when do I use the Cruel Sethropod?

With only 2 Health at all levels except for the highest, it really can't handle a lot of attacks which it will be taking at the Tank position since that's where most Magic attackers direct their attacks.

• The easiest tactic is to only deploy the Gargoya Scrapper in Equalizer Battles paired with Silence
• It can always be used as a "meat shield" to absorb a sneak attack or a frontal attack to spare your other monsters a hit or 2

This Week's Featured Battle

In this featured battle, I played Kiara Lightbringer and the Life Deck versus my opponent's Obsidian and the Earth Deck. Will my Gargoya Scrapper be a good enough tank?

Battle Ruleset

	Silenced Summoners	Summoners do not give any stat buffs or debuffs or grant/use any abilities
	Equalizer	The initial Health of all Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base Health
	28 Mana	This is considered a medium mana battle
	Active Splinters	Water, Earth, Life, and Death splinters are available

• Equalizer
  • Bring out the cheap squishy monsters!
  • Strong attackers with low health are game changers in this ruleset
  • Try to fill your lineup with a lot of monsters vs 1 big one
  • Tank heal and Triage can be great abilities to use here
• Silenced Summoners
  • Play your lowest mana Summoner
  • Summoner levels still affect Monster levels so make sure you aren't sacrificing Monster strength by playing a lower level, lower mana Summoner
• 28 Mana
  • This is considered medium Mana so you can expect to see a a few mid level monsters so make sure you can pack a decent punch

With equalizer, I tend to use as many monsters as I can and concentrate my attacks to either the back or the front. Your tank will be taking a lot of damage so make sure they have some kind of survivability with Void, Void Armor, or Shield ability.

With Silenced Summoners, just play your lowest mana summoner unless you have a higher level one that will give you more strength. These battles are great for those 2 mana summoners that grant no buffs/debuffs.

I went with Kiara Lightbringer because she is a 2 mana summoner that is in my Focus for the day (Light Splinter).

The Lineup

Position	Card Image	Card Name	Notes
Summoner		Kiara Lightbringer	Life Summoner with no buffs/debuffs. Don't be fooled by her, at only 2 Mana, she is perfect for these battles
Pos 1 (tank)		Gargoya Scrapper	This card is perfect since my opponent really likes to use Magic attacks. Void will help immensely in survivability
Pos 2 (secondary tank/support)		Crystal Werewolf	Although it can't attack from here, it's Silence ability is a major contributor to this battle.
Pos 3 (attacker)		Doctor Blight	Being an equalizer battle, healing can be a major asset so I wanted to use an attacker with the Affliction ability. It also helps that he can dish out poison
Pos 4 (attacker)		Venari Crystalsmith	This card is excellent in these battles. It isn't likely to be targeted and can heal your tank while dealing decent damage on it's own
Pos 5 (attacker)		Stitch Leech	Great low mana attacker because of the Sneak ability. Packs a heavy punch for low mana
Pos 6 (attacker)		Feral Spirit	Like the Stitch Leech, this is a low mana attacker with Sneak. It doesn't hit as hard but the high speed will come in handy if my opponent sneaks as well

Let's Battle!

Full Battle Link : https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_427c7ba1fbb05792901aaecd8b318d38

• As suspected, my opponent went for the Earth splinter and played a heavy Magic lineup
• This played directly into my hand since I was able to negate the damage from half of their monsters!
• I will say that they paired their abilities nicely with Affliction, Tank Heal, and Triage. All great abilities for Equalizer battles
• They also threw in a Sneak attack monster with Poison which is a major pain for me

Did it work?

Yes! My Crystal Werewolf and Gargoya Scrapper combination severely limited the amount of damage taken. The Venari Crystalsmith kept my tanks alive (when they weren't afflicted) while my Sneak damage picked off his team.

I admit that I made a big mistake when setting this lineup. For some reason, I thought this was a Little League battle and only selected low mana cards!

I analyzed the battle with Splintertools and was given a 39% chance of winning. I only spent 20 out of the maximum of 28 mana. Oops!

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What I Would Change

I could have easily replaced my low mana Sneak attackers with some bigger frontline damage to bring my win rate up considerably.

Gargoya Devil is an excellent choice here since it can attack from the backline as well as from the first position. The Equalizer ruleset really brings up it's usefulness since it originally has 3 Health.

The Air Elemental is perfect for bringing up the rear since it has the Dodge ability with high speed stats, making it difficult to hit.

Final Thoughts

At first glance the Gargoya Scrapper is not very good. It isn't even a good filler. However, once you reach Level 3 where Void is available, it can be a great asset in some niche battles.

Since it's a Chaos Legion Common card, you can get this card at a low price of $0.043/BCX. That is a steal!

Thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed it!

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If you decide to use my referral link, I'll happily send you a few cards to help you get started!