The theme for this week's battle challenge is the Haunted Spider.

THE CARD

Haunted Spider is a 3 Mana Ranged Death Monster who gains the ability ‘Poison’ at level 4.

This ability means that the spider’s attacks have a 50% chance to apply poison to its target which does 2 damage to the target at the start of each subsequent rounds.

INITIAL THOUGHTS

I would say Haunted Spider has pretty good stats for a 3 Mana Monster. Its ability Poison is also very nice against high hp tanks and to counteract heals. Unfortunately, there is still some RNG involved so you might not be able to poison your targets if you’re very unlucky. It may be smart to pair up the Spider with Monsters that have ‘Sneak’, ‘Snipe’, or ‘Opportunity’ to deal with your opponent’s backline while maximizing the poison damage on the enemy tank.

THE BATTLE

RULESET

The battle that I will feature has the following ruleset:

League: Silver
Mana Cap: 18
Fog of War: Monsters lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities.
Stampede: The Trample ability can trigger multiple times per attack if the trampled Monster is killed.

TEAM COMPOSITION

The Summoner I used is Owster Rotwell, mostly because that’s the only leveled-up Death Summoner I could use. For the core of my team, I fielded in Haunted Spirit, Haunted Spider and Twisted Jester. This left me with 3 Mana. I felt I had enough damage from my core, so for the remaining 3 Mana, I completed my team by adding 3 1-Mana Monsters: Cursed Slimeball, Shadowy Presence and Theorosa Nightshade. Because of ‘Fog of War’, I did not need to be worried much about backline attacks, so Cursed Slimeball and Shadowy Presence got positioned in front of the Haunted Spirit to absorb the first few attacks.

ENEMY TEAM

My enemy fielded in Silvershield Paladin as the frontline and supports in Armorsmith with his ‘Repair’, and Divine Healer and Venari Crystalsmith with their ‘Tank Heals’. This is a very solid line-up especially considering ‘Fog of War’. We need to burst down Silvershield Paladin, else its health and armor will just be restored.

RESULTS

In the first three rounds of the match, my Cursed Slimeball and Shadowy Presence fell, while my enemy’s Silvershield Paladin gets restored to full health and armor. Fortunately, the Haunted Spider manages to apply poison to the Paladin at the tail-end of Round 3. This at least nullifies one of my opponent’s heals and with Haunted Spirit finally attacking, we manage to defeat the Silvershield Paladin after a few more turns. Afterwards, my opponent’s backline become easy pickings.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Haunted Spider is a solid attacker for its mana cost. Its Poison may sometimes be a non-factor, but in some cases, it may be the extra edge needed to win the match. I will definitely be adding the spider to my Death line-up.

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