Shadow Snitch ~ Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge

I planned to be more active in Hive, blogging and engaging on others' blogs, this 2022. But life got in the way. I have been preoccupied with our house construction. It has been a massive headache since last year; and will probably be for the next several months until it gets done.

Games like Splinterlands have been a very pleasant diversion from all the real-life stress. And the regular Battle Challenges have given me the sufficient push to blog after enjoying the game. So cheers to more #splinterlands gaming and battle challenges!

Featured Card: Shadow Snitch

This week's featured monster is the first-ever Chaos Legion monster in the Battle Challenge. I liked that we're getting into the Chaos monsters now. It's new blood and there are tons to discover. With the battle challenge, I'm motivated to dig deep into these Chaos monsters, rather than just sticking to my favored older edition cards.

Shadow Snitch's main shtick is its Reach skill that enables it as a back-up melee tank on the 2nd position. Since I'm on the Silver Leagues, I'm renting a Level 4 Shadow Snitch to get its two-point attack. No way I'm using my own level 1 card with a one attack point.

Its unlockable level 6 -- Affliction skill -- is incredibly good as it can dish out the debuff while tucked a bit safely away in the 2nd position. But since I'm only on Silvers, it is capped at Level 5 and I would have to make do with its Reach skill alone. Here's the card level progression for reference:

The Battle Setup

To be honest, I seldom use Reach monsters on my lineup. It's just not my type of play. However, it's like the universe aligned to force me to play a Death splinter Reach Monster when I got this battle configuration.

We are only allowed to use melee-type monsters in the Up Close & Personal ruleset. Thus, I gotta use cards with Reach, Sneak, or Opportunity to allow my melee monsters to attack from a non-first position. And since it's Death type only, it's like I got not much choice other than to use the featured monster, Shadow Snitch.

For this ruleset, I should use monsters with Shield skill. It reduces physical damages in half, so this skill is a must for battles where you are sure there'll be no magic attacks. With that said, I'm choosing the legendary, Harklaw, as my primary tank in the first position and Crypt Beetle at the rearmost to protect my backline. I know Beetle wouldn't be able to attack at all but I'm thinking its Shield protection for my backline monsters is worthwhile enough to sacrifice one slot.

Then, I'm adding more specialized melee attackers. Skeleton Assassin has Sneak, enabling it to attack the enemy's rear and, of course, our featured, Shadow Snitch with its Reach for the 2nd position.

And as for the summoner, I'm using Zintar Mortalis. It's the perfect summoner for melee-only battles since its debuff skill would be maximized, penalizing all enemy monsters.

Let the Battle Begin

The Battle

Eh?! I feel a bit bad for my opponent. My Zintar Mortalis is a great match-up for melee-only battles, while Garsonchik's debuff skill is made useless in this setting. Also, I got a minor edge when it comes to monster levels.

Round 1 was spent clearing out some monsters' Divine Shield so not much damage has been dealt. Round 2 started with only the enemy's Undead Rexx missing a few health points courtesy of my Shadow Snitch.

My decision to use Crypt Beetle for its Shield skill to protect my backline did not work out. It was defending against Sandworm with five attack points, so the Shield was quite useless. Still, because it had a point in armor, it held out longer. By Round 3, I still have all of my monsters at full health while my enemy's on its last few health points.





At the start of Round 4, my Skeleton Assassin is primed to deal the final and winning blow. The match ended in my overwhelming victory.


The match MVP will probably be Harklaw, carrying the battle as it shrugs away the opponent's attacks. While the other monsters on my team played a less significant role, the fact that I have plenty more monsters that can attack proved to be beneficial in a match with the Divine Shield ruleset. More attackers lead to faster removal of the Shield.

To End

Is Shadow Snitch a good card to play? No, it's not really great if you are in the Silver Leagues, but it could be awesome on the higher leagues when it got Affliction unlocked.

And even if you are restricted to using only melee monsters within the Death splinter, I think the 2nd position is better used for a different Reach monster, the Snipeback Wolf. The alternative has an extra Thorn skill, a point in armor and faster speed for a slightly costlier mana cost.