Summoner's Week: Dallan

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

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^{The tips and possible advises in this article are designed for Champion League, in which I am in right now.}

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Since this build is using a max level summoner and max level monsters, you can use this up to the highest league.

I decided to try out the newest change in Splinterlands and I've got to say that it can be quite addicting. Some of the monsters aren't that strong in lower level but a beast in max level.

Come check some of the interactions as I try these new changes in Splinterlands.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Dallan is decent at best. There's not particularly good or bad about him. His abilities are a bit mediocre as well depending on situations.

One good thing is that you can use him in Little League rule of combat and have a good level advantage for your monsters in that battle.

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Cripple: [Negative Status] Monsters attacked by this card have their max health reduced by 1.

Pros

1. Dallan is cheapest max level summoner that I can rent. I rented him for around 40 DEC per day, which is very cheap than the usual 100-200+ DEC per day for max level summoners.
2. Cripple counters strategy based on Healing. Taunt monster in 1st position supported by Tank Heals are one of the strongest strategies. You get to have your monsters safe while you focus all your supports on the Taunt monster. Lowering the max health of the said monster also lowers the Heal amount they can get.
3. Able to use Death Splinters While Death Splinter is not the strongest, they have most flexible monsters in the game as their original strategy is countering the opponent's play.

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Cons

1. Ability is not that strong.
   While the ability counters Heals, that's all it does. It doesn't give benefit on other areas. The ability also works after damage so the lowering of the max health does not lower the current health of the monster if their health is currently damaged.
2. Very tricky to use.
   You need a bit of game knowledge to abuse him. One very complicated way to understand this is with Enrage ability. Enrage gives the monster an extra stat when it is in "damaged" state. That is when the monster has lower than his max health. However, if your monster has 1 damage and Cripple, you can damage the monster, then lowering the max health allowing you to simultaneously damage a monster while making it not in a damaged state at the same time, allowing you to not trigger the opponent's Enrage ability.
3. Strategy is limited to Death Splinter.
   I would be honest that if Dallan is a Dragon summoner, it would make him a bit stronger but this limit will get to you eventually once you face players with max leveled monsters with higher stats, such as a set of legendary monsters.

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Rules of Combat	Description
	Equalizer	The Max Health of all monsters on the board will be equal to the Max Health of the monster with the highest max health: Normally, on Equalizer, since everyone has high health, Tank Heals are very strong. With Cripple ability, it reduces advantage of Tank Heal allowing you to gain an even footing with your opponents.
	Melee Mayhem	All melee monsters on the board can attack from any position targetting the opponent's monster on the 1st position: Cripple ability works best when targetting the monster on first position because that's the target for Tank Heal.
	Maneuver	All monsters on the board gains the Reach ability that allows melee monsters to attack from the 2nd position: Same idea as Melee Mayhem but a bit weaker. You only get Reach ability so this only gives the melee monsters on the 2nd position the chance to attack and not all melee monsters on the team.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Rules of Combat	Description
	Equal Opportunity	All monsters on the board gains the Opportunity ability that changes the targetting mechanics to "Opponent's Monster with the least health.": Any rule of combat that changes the target priority away from the monster in 1st position is bad. The Cripple ability is a counter that reduces Tank Heal restorations so targetting the monster on the 1st position is best.
	Tis But Scratches	All monsters on the board gains the Cripple ability that reduces the opponent's max health by 1 when their attacks hit: The rule of combat has the same exact effect as Dallan gives. This means Dallan's effect is useless in this rule of combat.
	What Doesn't Kill You	All monsters on the board gains the Enrage ability that increases the monster's melee damage and speed by 50%: Normally, on Equalizer, since everyone has high health, Tank Heals are very strong. With Cripple ability, it reduces advantage of Tank Heal allowing you to gain an even footing with your opponents.

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Monsters	Description
	Drybone Raider	If there's Close Range rule of combat, he can attack 4 times in one round. The Cripple ability will activate once per attack.
	Nimbledook Ranger	The Double Strike ability means he can use the Cripple ability on your opponent twice per round. Your opponent will then get 2 reduced max health per turn.
	Moxian Rebel	This can be Moxian Rebel or any monster with Weapons Training. They give the capability of passive monsters using the Cripple ability.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

^{Photo is from my Peakmonsters Account.}

While the team is not that strong, Xenith Monk's Heal and Void combination is pretty strong.. It's not an immortal kind of strategy but the high level monsters give me a good quality difference than my opponent's.

Lineup

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^Dallan

I picked him not because of his abilities but his price point. Being a low costing max level summoner means I can put more budget towards the other cards.

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^{Xenith Monk}

I've seen them play on youtube before and honestly, I was not expecting that he'd be a beast at max level. The Heal and Void ability are very strong.

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^{Silent Sha-Vi}

Another cheap monster to add on your arsenal. He's not as strong but the high damage and Pierce ability kind of counters the Protect ability the enemy would add on their Sneaks.

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^{Venari Bonesmith}

This was one pack of a rat monster. The Poison is the strongest ability here that can inflict the poisoned status to the opponent making htem take 2 damage per round.

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^{Chaos Agent}

I had an extra mana so I added the little agent there for the extra rewards per win.

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

I'll be honest, if my monsters have the same level as my enemy, I would lose this game. Due to the added abilities on my monsters, I won this game. I didn't even need to rely on Dallan since the enemy didn't use any form of Heal ability on their build.

^{> > Click here to view the full battle < <}

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I'm not sure how others will feel about this but I feel this is what they meant by pay to win. If you have a budget to buy or rent high level cards, the chances are you can get to high league as well. I got to Silver in less than a week with a few rentals. Imagine what I can do if I can play everything I want.

Even though I say this, I think it's a good thing. I never see an NFT game to be a play to win scenario simply because money is tied to everything. As long as you have money, you can be as competitive as you want.

However, coming from other areas of card games such as Yugioh, I would pretty much say the same. ANY card games, the competitive ones, require you to release a good amount of money if you want to be competitive. Right now, Splinterlands is actually not as expensive as playing Yugioh due to the rental system, which makes me prefer this game than Yugioh.

I played Yugioh casually, bought a semi-complete deck of Fire King for around $60 and that's not even the complete package. Played around it and the best I got is top 16 in my local event. The ones who got to the top 10 spent at least $200 for their decks and this is more than 5 years ago. Imagine how much you need to spend to be competitive now.

To make it short, I like the changes in Splinterlands. Although it gives players with more money a huge advantage in the space, money gives you the advantage in everything everywhere. I like the changes as it can give you more flexibility and enjoy the game the way it should be and not limit you to play on the said league. I am hoping for better games in the future.

• This post is an entry for Splinterlands Social Media Contest.
• Animated Banners and Dividers are edited in Canva Pro.
• Other sources that I do not own are cited under their respective photos.
• Some of the fonts used are from instafonts.io

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Ⱨ₳VɆ ₳ ₲ØØĐ Đ₳Ɏ!