Splinterlands Weekly Battle Challenge - Dark Ha'on

Another battle challenge this week, this time with Dark Ha'on - an expensive, beefy melee tank for the Death splinter. A legendary card costing 10 Mana, Dark Ha'on is not a card I play often. While I do like the Death splinter for variety of cards, Dark Ha'on is a very situational card given the high cost - a 99 mana battle with Blast is a great scenario though.

One of the Splinter Bites before battles mentions that a 99 mana battle can be won with a 25 mana line up. While true, that's not what we're doing here - it's time to bring out the big guns and go all in on that 99 budget and spend as much as possible.

With a legendary summoner, a full legendary line up, it's a heavyweight match costing more than 60 mana! Let's get into the breakdown:

I went with a Dragon/Death combo - specifically Byzantine Kitty as the summoner. Heavier death cards can be a bit slow, so the extra speed helps out, along with the tank heal up front. It might come off a bit strange, with Robo Dragon Knight up front, followed by Dark Ha'on and Cornealus - but the Blast rule is what brought me to this strategy. Blast damage isn't as strong to the adjacent monsters as is to the target - Dark Ha'on would get a fraction of what Robo Dragon Knight tanks. Also, RDK and Cornealus take some of the blast from Dark Ha'on's hits. So why do this?

Byzantine Kitty will heal RDK, Cornealus can self heal. With Void and Divine Shield, and 3 damage compared to Dark Ha'on's 2, RDK seemed a better pick as a front tank. The back half of my line up consisted of the Vigilator - with the Double Strike ability and dual ranged/melee, it can start hitting from afar but keep it going up close. Ancient Lich is in the second to last spot, helping save it from Sneak attacks in the event Dark Ha'on went down, but far enough back that it can grow nice and beefy. Kitty + Lich can result in an absolutely massive, unstoppable force if you get it big enough, which is why it's in the back. I rounded out the lineup with Diamond Dragon, the long range magic damage is great, combined with the slowing of the enemy team to further my speed differential from Byzantine Kitty.

The result?

A four round quick battle - the divine shield ability of Lorna helped, combined with the Armorsmith/Divine Healer combo, but the enemy's damage output just wasn't there and was too focused on the beefy Robo Dragon Knight and Dark Ha'on (the former healed it away) to make much of a dent in the line up.

Like I mentioned earlier, Dark Ha'on is a very situational card for me to play - part of its inclusion in this line up is due to the Taunt ability and the high mana cap. With lower mana caps, it really doesn't fit well with most of my strategies. In a high budget battle, combined with a powerhouse of legendaries, it can be fun to help draw some of the damage and let the rest of the lineup work unscathed.

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