Splinterlands Social Media Challenge!

Another week, another Social Media Challenge, this time around, I will feature a battle where I'm using a the most recent archon we've received - via the Conclave Arcana airdrop system - Loving the Moo. I'll say it outright I'm totally not loving Loving the Moo's name but I actually really dig his final art. I've played World of Warcraft for over 20 years and my main was a Tauren Warrior for most of the time, and SPL's Minotaurs really remind me of WoW's tauren in the way they are depicted. Loving the Moo can totally pass as a Tauren Druid. Other than his name and art, he's got an interesting kit even though I'm still struggling to find a place for him in the current meta. He's from the Water element. His Bloodline ability is to give poison to all members of the Canisan and Elementals bloodlines and he can also grant Blast and Magic Reflect to 2 units.

There are 3 modifiers (rulesets) in this battle - Keep Your Distance (You cannot summon units with melee attacks), Heavy Hitters (All units have Knock Out (deals double damage if the target is stunned)) and Aimless (All units with magic and ranged attacks have Scattershot (magic and ranged attacks target a random enemy unit). The mana budget is 55 which is a pretty good amount of mana, so I can use a full team, however, the selection will be limited due to one of the modifiers which is restrictive, namely Keep Your Distance. The available Elements are Water and Earth. I am obviously going to go with the Water element for this one.

The "main tank" in this battle is one of the cards which are very often played in the Keep Your Distance ruleset when there's enough mana for that to happen - RB's Nalara Geinek. She is a 9-mana Legendary card, which at max level has 1 Magic Attack, 5 Armor, 3 Speed and 10 Health, that's not very impressive but what makes her great for Wands Out is her kit - she has Aplify, Silence, Void and Stun. So, she a really great tank against Magic Attacks.

In the off-tank spot I have placed a CA main set card - the Abyssal Elemental. The intention is obvious here, I'll be trying to include as many Canisans/Elementals as possible so I can hopefully land Poison on a lot of the enemy units. The Abyssal Elemental is a 6-mana Epic card from the Water Element. At max level it has 3 Magic Attack, 3 Speed, 3 Armor and 6 HP. It also has 2 abilities - Resurgence (Self-resurrects once per battle with 100% health and armor. All magic debuffs are removed, and all magic buffs are reapplied. Skips turn. Deals 1 physical damage to all units) and Blast (Deals an additional 50% damage (rounded up) to units adjacent to the target). It is a good off-tank candidate specifically due to its Resurgence ability.

The 3rd spot is for the Warborn Shaman. She is a 10-mana Water/Death Unit. At level one she starts with 3 Magic Attack, 2 Speed, 4 Armor and 6 Health as well as 1 ability - Void Armor. At level two she gains an additional ability - Impede. Next at level 4 she gains her third ability - Ambush. Then at level 6 she gains her 4th ability - Poison. And finally maxed, at level 8, she gains her 5th ability - Heal. The rest of the stats at max level are as follows: 3 Magic Attack, 3 Speed, 4 Armor and 8 Health.

In the 4th spot I've got the Arcana Skinwalker. He's a great card on many occasions, including Keep Your Distance. At max level he has 3 Magic Attack, 4 Armor, 6 HP and 3 Speed but again his kit is more important, and it is the following - Shapeshift, Rally, Camouflage and Silence. A second Silence is very important for the particular ruleset, so it will come very handy for sure.

5th in the line-up is a new CA reward card - the Stonebind Matron. She is an 8-mana Canisan, member of the Earth element. I have it at level 8 for now, and her stats at level 8 are 3 Magic Attack, 5 Speed, 0 Armor and 7 HP. She also has 2 abilities - Opportunity (Targets the enemy unit with the least health) and Triage (Each round, restores 1/3 of max health (rounded down) to the allied backline unit that has taken the most damage). She a pretty good pair with Moo imho, as Opportunity can be used to spread Poison, and the Triage is also very useful to heal any enemy damage over time effects or direct backline damage. At max level she add 1 more point to her HP for a total of 8 and gets an additional ability - Poison Burst (When defeated, 100% chance to apply Poisoned to attacker and 50% chance to apply Poisoned to units adjacent to attacker. Poisoned units lose 2 health at the beginning of each round). Poison Burst is not that important in the current scenario anyway.

Last in the line-up I have added one of the least played RB reward cards - Razorhound. This is why Bloodlines can do wonders for cards that are not played a lot as they give them extra utility. The Razorhound is a 5-mana Canisan of the Water Element. It has 3 Ranged Attack, 2 Armor, 5 HP and 2 Speed at max level. It also has the following abilities: Strengthen (+1 max health to all allied units), True Strike (Attacks will never miss) and Void (50% less damage (rounded up) from magic attacks or 0 damage from magic attacks of 1 power). Again it is very useful in this scenario since it can't miss and can spread Poison all over the enemy team due to the fact that Aimless modifier is in play.

So, while I have decided to use Loving the Moo in this battle, my opponent has decided to go the standard route and go with a battle-tested Cryptic team. He also has Delya on his side, and she is a very strong ranged unit. This battle will basically be - who can poison more enemy units faster and survive. Let's see who has better Poison RNG.

Well this is a scenario where Loving the Moo can be used in, however, I still think he lacks true purpose, as in - scenarios where you feel that he is the best and basically only option. Maybe that will change with the release of the miniset.