GM:FRENS and Hello hivers,

Welcome back to my weekly Splinterlands Post, and this my most Splinterlands Social Media Challenge post. Anyway for you who have not familiar with Splinterlands Social Media Challenge, this is an event where you can take in participating too by making any topic of Splinterlands, as long it is fun, interesting, or maybe you are going to spread some salty things... As long you are spreading something fun and positive about Splinterlands, you will be welcomed in Splinterlands community.

In this opportunity I will share my experience in using two of Splinterlands Water Element monsters, which are strong but less favorite due to other monsters meta. Who are these two monsters? Let's check them out!

shoten lore: As with most stormcasters, Flagulon’s preferred method of attack power is lightning. He even spent a couple years in the Sands of Draykh-Nahka, living in a cave and observing the wild Lightning Dragons from a safe distance.

The first one is Flagulon Reine, She is a Legendary Rarity Water Element from Gladius Card edition. The reason why she is not well famous because you can't buy her in market. Gladius is a soulbound card, you must get some merits first from Loot Chest and Guild Brawl then purchase Gladius pack using those Merits. Getting a Legendary Rarity in those Gladius Pack definitely isn't easy, its not the difficulty but its more on the luck you need, maybe you need to bribe the RNG Goddess first 🤣.

3 deadly abilities that Reine has are Blast, Bloodlust, and Shatter. Any mage having a blast ability is dangerous because the blast damage will bypass the armor. Bloodlust is a trademark of all Gladius monsters, more they kill, more powerful they become. The last is Shatter, although this is debatable why a mage need a shatter, but definitely in certain condition she can make way for big hitter or archer to kill the target by removing the armor... or simply zero-ed big void armor monsters such as Legionaire Alvar.

shoten lore: Most riverboat captains are skilled artificers, empowering their sails, anchors, sextants, compasses, and other nautical devices with magic to navigate, speed their travels, and defend against pirates, brigands, and the wild beasts that populate Praetoria.

The next one is Riverboat Captain, our new Soulbound card/monster. Well because he is a souldbound too so no wonder not many have him at high level. I can understand why some people dislike this card, because he offers a so-so 2-3 magic damage and his speed is not a selling point either.

Regardless the blast ability he has, I am more interested with his affliction ability he will get at level 4. I think Riverboat captain is a good replacement of old Reward Card, Captain Ghost. I like Captain Ghost alot, so I think later on this guy after getting level 4 can be one of my core monsters.

Ok now lets see our battle...

THE BATTLE

~Click The Image Above To See the Full Battle~

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I was playing this battle on Silver League Wild Format and I thought this battle was an interesting one. Both of us using the same leveled monster so none had the upper handed. While I was writing about why magic meta in water was less favorite right now, this guy came with the most favorite meta in water element.... SPEED + MELEE OPPORTUNITY ATTACK.

So these two were the core of my opponent team. This was wonderful to showcase a battle, An Old META (magic) vs a New META (speed and opportunty). I was lucky enough I had anticipated his meta, so how about my team? well, here was my plan:

Position	Card	Ability	Plan and Strategy
Summoner		+1 armor, +1 speed	Kelya definitely one of the best summoner in modern format, her price in the market already proved this argument. I hoped that 1 armor could protect my team from sneak attacks and opportunity attacks. Speed wise, I could not expect more and I must prepare my team against faster team because we did not bring any monster with speed buff or debuff
Main Tank		Healing	For a low mana tank, he might be the best choice. His melee damage was damn too weak, however he had healing ability so he supposed to be sturdy, not easily killed in a single round. My team had no healer, so whoever sit on this position expect to be killed fast.
Second		Reach	Our secondary tank, very weak one to be considerated as a tank however he would act as the 3rd bait. He had the hardest job, to cover up Xenith Monk if he fell down and to cover up the bait team incase opponent sneak and opportunity team wiped them out.
Third		Blast, Bloodlust	My first magic blaster, and the strongest one. There were reasons why she was a Legendary monster. I was a bit confused whether to put her on third, or on fourth which was behind Riverboat Captain in order to protect her from snipe attacks. On this position might be the best but very vulnerable against Katie from Light Element.
Fourth		Blast	My second magic blaster monster. I hoped he could keep up with Flagulon Reine, or atleast be helpful to her in damaging her targets.
Fifth		none	Xenith Archer was my second bait and my backline wall too. With 1 range damage and 1 speed, hardly I could expect something from her. I could only hope she could hold sneak and opportunity attackers 1-2 rounds, enough time for my double blasters to eliminate more opponents.
The Last		none	This was my first bait, to withstand sneak or to lure/bait sneak attackers off from my magic blasters team. I believed this fish would die fast, the first to die in this battle maybe.

So my team was actually consisted of 3 core monsters only, GRUND, DRYBONE RAIDER, and PELACOR MERCENARY. There would not be a good link up other than Martyr buffs, so this was purely a challenge to DRYBONE RAIDER to show how great she was.

ROUND 1

• The battle started with both of us buffing up our team and debuffing our opponents.
• My opponent came with 13 Melee damage. they were all melee team.
• My team had 3 Melee Damage, 1 range damage and 4 magic damage. A total 8 Damage per round.
• In term of fire power, my opponent came with more superior damage per round, however I had double magic blasters in my team. This should be an interesting match up.
• My opponent came from behind, using a sneak attack and opportunity attacks, meanwhile I was going straight forward onto their maingate. We both lost a monsters in this first round

ROUND 2

• 5 vs 5, it seemed still well balanced. We both lost 2 monsters in this rouns.

ROUND 3

• Round 3 started by 3 on 3 condition. Both of us had one terrifying Gladius monster in our team

• However I could not see how a wounded Isglad Vorst could compete with a full health Flagulon Reine.

ROUND 4

• This was the end for my opponent. They fought very hard, however blast damage was not a thing they could anticipate with that meta.

• Riverboat Captain performed well, however compared to Bloodlusted Flagulon Reine, well of course he would be shaddowed... at that stats above, none could stop Reine

CLOSURE AND DISCUSSION

The battle above showed us that our old meta using magic attack with a double blasters, could overpowered new favorite water meta which is double opportunist monsters. I hope this proves enough that actually magic team in modern water element are still competitive.

However there are some points we need to understand several points from inside and ouside this battle about this magic team.

Why Magic In Water Element Get Less Favorite

Some said Magic has got nerfed in modern format. Well, I have different opinion about this one. It's not nerfed but the modern format has got more anti magic compared to the old wild format.

In wild format we can build a water magic meta which I think they are kind of overpowered. Put Valnamor and Ruler of The Sea, these two card alone can make a combination which blast away opponent way harder than Flagulon Reine = Riverboat Captain.

Let's face it objectively, all anti magic tank in water element are all modern format. In this case, we still count out anti magic tank from neutral element. So with these many anti magic tank, its understandable why many people decide to favor more on Melee and Range for Water Team.

Anyway this is my personal opinion only, feel free to leave your opinion too if its different that mine.

Blast Is More Powerful in Lower League

This is the fact, I won that battle because its a Silver League battle. In Gold league, there are more monsters who have Reflection Shield which negate the Blast effect. This is so true, in fact my opponent might lose because he forgot his Tide Bitter could not use the reflection shield due to Kelya Frendul Level.

Another example is this Water Caller. This cuttie in Gold Level Cap somehow can turn into anti blast wall with her Reflection Shield Ability. However I still think we need to grasp this one perfectly, because no matter how high your level are, eventhough you are a Diamond League player, There are tournaments and Brawl which we must play sometime in a low league level cap.

Why I Recommend These Two Blasters

Ok I know some of you think this is funny. First I say that people are leaving Water Magic Meta, then I say Blast won't be effective in higher league. Then why do I make this post, which I endorse two magic monsters who are not favorite, and both are blaster who are less effective in higher league?

Well, I have four reasons why I do this

First of all, Both of them are strong in stats. for a 6 mana monster, their stats aren't the best but good enough above avearage. So Without any ability at all they still can compete with other monsters and thats for me one of the basic requirement either a monster will be great or not.

Second, they only need 6 mana like I said above. it means you can put them in Bronze-Silver league battle without having a big headache how to spare enough mana to fill them in. You do not have to put them all together in one team, one of them is enough to be a game changer, however two of them in one team, will definitely put a good show.

The third, I have a good hunch about both of them. I think later when Rebellion Edition is released, the Magic Meta in Water Element can be risen again. There are new Summoners, new monsters which can boost up Magic Meta, which indirectly make then

The fourth and the most important one, this is what I like the most right now:

YOU CAN NOT BUY THEM WITH MONEY

Doesn't matter how rich you are, or you are one of the famous WHALES out there, you can not buy them. You must earn them by playing Splinterands for hours, days and maybe weeks. They are cards / monsters that only a true Splinterlands players have, not some yesterday kiddo who came with thick wallet....

Captain Ghost Forever Be The Captain Ghost

The last, I would like to add a bit about Captain Ghost. I have said earlier, higher level Riverboat Captain could replace him. That's what I think however I do not say you can dump out Captan Ghost. Whatever happens, Captain Ghost will always be our Captain Ghost, an ass who has affliction ability from his lowest level.

Why I call him an ass? because very rare, almost none the posibility of having an opponent with cleanse ability monsters in Bronze League. Very rare, almost zero. In Silver sometime we see them, but still are. So Captain Ghost in lower League is a true masterpiece, making opponent unhealable... irreplaceable in these leagues.

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Thank you for visiting my SPLINTERLANDS SOCIAL MEDIA Weekly Challenge, don't forget to leave your comments and feedback below. There are credits in this post for these people:

• @splinterlands : for holding weekly social media challenge events
• carrieallen : for ultimate markdown tutorial
• thepeakstudio : for wonderful divider art