NAGA ASSASSIN : THE SLICK SERPENT

The Dragon Splinter have a great pride with the formidable strength inherent in their genes. It common for Dragon armies to engage in any battle with the least casualties whether in victory or defeat. Some forces began to realize engaging the Dragon in face-to-face battle would mean certain demise. Therefore they decided to use guerilla tactics to ambush the Dragon army. The only weakness of armies with huge number and giant unit are they move too sluggish.
Realizing the shift in the battle landscape. Some of the more intelligent Dragon, the Naga, decided to step-up with initiative. The Naga are the smallest among the Dragon, and their slithering movement make them viewed in disdain. But the serpent-like Naga have been known for their resilience and rarely fall in any battle. Certain Naga those with the slimmest posture, not too bulky, are chosen for training. They are trained to slither among various obstacle and terrain. Their body are trained to entangle their opponent swiftly and crush their bones within second. To protect them from enemies from afar, they are also trained with knife throwing skill. When they have finished their training, they shall be deployed as the Naga Assassin!

Naga Assassin are one of my early Dragon card I deployed quite frequently in battle. I also have include Naga Assassin on my analysis about formation to counter Cursed Windeku (click here to see). Naga Assassin is a pure Ninja since speed become its prominent status. One remarkable trait of having high speed, regardless the value of others status, is the high chance to dodge incoming attack. Thus no matter how minor its roles is, Ninja Assassin will always be useful as small Tanker to dodge incoming melee and ranged attack. Now lets begin our analysis.

Pros & Cons

1. High speed allow Naga Assassin to have three-fold benefit; a high evasion, a high accuracy, and and earlier attack order.	1. Low health are the main weakness of Naga Assassin, which very susceptible even from the lowest magic attack.
2. The card cost only 2 mana, which make this card less becoming "too big, too fail" while still provide fair status with its 1 ranged damage and 2 health.	2. No starting abilities, even the abilities are gained rather late.
*Reference for Archetype term : Striker --> Superior Damage / Tanker --> Superior Health / Ninja --> Superior Speed / Support --> A Lot Number of Abilities.

Market Price Analysis

Price of Naga Assassin have been in downtrend for both regular foil and gold foil; in fact the current price might be the lowest price so far. As a Reward Card with the number of circulating card still growing, Naga Assassin price are very affordable among others card. It took $2.30 to reach Regular max level, and $11.66 to reach Gold max level. Its looks incredibly expensive to maximize the gold foil card. With this consideration, purchasing Regular card seemed to be the better choice either for investing or battling.

Progression Analysis

Dragon Splinter have a average stronger traits compared to other Splinter; and this notion is true for Naga Assassin. At Level 1, Naga Assassin are comparable to cards like Herbalist or Xenith Archer, but better with higher speed.

Level 2 and 3 provide health growth which in the end double the current health. Level 4 provide Backfire ability of which the trigger runs coherently with the high speed. Backfire are unique compare to Magic Reflect or Return Fire that it deal a fixed 2 damage which is very effective to eradicate low health cards. The next half of progression are distributed equally among the status. Starting from the speed, and then followed by damage. Damage growth are very valuable especially since this is a 2 mana card. Level 7 provide additional health growth, which is fair enough although the cost is become too expensive at this point.

And finally the ultimate level provide Swiftness ability which will bring Naga Assassin to the ultimate 7 speed! Although Swiftness are available on other card at lower level, it's a still a great gain for Naga Assassin, since it seemed like a betterment than just a speed growth. But rather than Swiftness, Flying or Dodge might should be a better ability to possess, since it should put much better leverage to trigger Back Fire ability.

Rulesets To Be Watched

Ruleset	Strategy
	Close Range ruleset is a minor boost which will make Naga Assassin more suitable to fill the 2nd row as secondary Tanker.
	With minimum health and speed are useless to dodge peripheral Blast damage, then its better to put down Naga Assassin when in Explosive Weaponry ruleset.
	Reverse Speed ruleset is the Achilles Heel of Naga Assassin and should be avoided at all situation.
	Naga Assassin could fill the last row and take medium risk as small Tanker with its high speed but minimum health. But its better to use Naga Assassin already possessed the Back Fire ability.

WATCH BATTLE

Here's one of my battle experience with Naga Assassin my formation. Click Here for the battle link. The battle has 18 mana cap, with Standard ruleset. For my formation, I used:

Position	Card Name	Level	Mana	Health	Armor	Speed	Damage Type	Damage
Summoner	Drake of Arnak	1	4	-	-	-	-	-
1st Row	Cursed Windeku	1	6	9	-	3	Melee	2
2nd Row	Life Sapper	1	3	2	-	2	Magic	1
3rd Row	Naga Assassin	1	2	2	-	5	Ranged	1
4th Row	Soul Strangler	1	3	2	-	2	Ranged	2
5th Row	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6th Row	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

My opponent formation:

Position	Card Name	Level	Mana	Health	Armor	Speed	Damage Type	Damage
Summoner	Drake of Arnak	1	4	-	-	-	-	-
1st Row	Cursed Windeku	1	6	9	-	3	Melee	2
2nd Row	Chaos Agent	1	1	1	-	2	None	-
3rd Row	Life Sapper	1	3	2	-	2	Magic	1
4th Row	Soul Strangler	1	3	2	-	2	Ranged	2
5th Row	Carrion Shade	1	1	2	-	2	Melee	1
6th Row	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

I'm facing an identical battle where both formation use same summoner and same cards mostly. I gamble my formation without any protection against Soul Strangler. I place Soul Strangler after Naga Assassin just in case the formation are reduced to the last two cards remaining. Opponent formation also utilize Cursed Windeku, Life Sapper, and Souls Strangler, with remaining mana is used for cannon fodder. The striking power from Naga Assassin was proved to be effective to attain the upper hand.

When the Round 1 started, Naga Assassin already show it performance. It took the first order and crushed Cursed Windeku armor. It open opportunity for Soul Strangler to deal full 2 damage against Windeku. And by the end of Round 1, my Windeku was leading by 2 health.

Round 2 again opened with Naga Assassin's attack which unfortunately is wasted since Cursed Windeku still alive with 1 health left. My Windkeku send the killing blow, but have to bear the Thorns damage. Battle continue with both sides Soul Strangler and Life Sapper launch an attack. My duo managed to destroy Chaos Agent, while opponent duo only managed to catch up eliminating my Windeku.

Entering Round 3, both formation are equal having 3 cards. But my formation have better positioning as Soul Strangler is on the last row, while opponent have Soul Strangler on 2nd row with only Life Sapper as the bulwark. My full combined attack should be enough to take down Life Sapper, but due to Life Leech ability, Life Sapper was saved with 1 health remaining.

Round 4 clear out the battle outcome. Life Sapper defeat would mean numb for Soul Strangler and crumble of the entire formation. Again and again Naga Assassin show its slick movement by striking down Life Sapper, ending the opponent fight. The remaining of the battle is a massacre done by both Life Sapper and Souls Strangler.

CONCLUSION

Did your strategy work? What will you try differently next time?

I intended to use Naga Assassin as the final blockade to extend Soul Strangler attack chances. But that roles are not called upon in this battle. In contrary, Naga Assassin play another important roles to chip away enemies armor thus exposing opponent health high damage attack, which in this battle is done by Soul Strangler. But this formation is surely pose its own risk, since the back row are very exposed to Sneak attack. In other occasion, I should consider position Naga Assassin in the last row instead.

Do you like NAGA ASSASSIN? Why or why not?

I really like Naga Assassin very much. It's worthy not only to own it, but also to level it up until Level 4, where it gain Back Fire ability. It made me curious to see how Naga Assassin would perform at final level, where it attain 7 speed.