Summoner's Week: Grandmaster Rathe

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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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For this week, I'm doing an old duo of Grandmaster Rathe and Uriel the Purifier. However, this is the first time I had Uriel the Purifier at max level so we'll see how it would go.

The Life Splinters are very flexible as well giving me many options for monsters to combine with Grandmaster Rathe. In this battle, you would see the overwhelming advantage I have over my opponent with this build.

Without further a do, let's start the article.

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Grandmaster Rathe is a legendary summoner. They are the most efficient summoners in my opinion since you don't need a lot to level up.

Grandmaster Rathe's abilities are strong but very niche. He's more on the defensive side so you need a bit of firepower or else you will get overwhelmed by your opponents.

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+1 Armor: [Stat Modifier] [Negative Status] All opponent monsters has their Max Health reduced by 1, with a minimum of 1. Monsters with 1 Max Health before the effect applies are unaffected.

Void Armor: [Defense] Monsters with Void Armor ability can use their armor to block opponent's magic damage.

Amplify: [Damage Modifier] Increase the damage of ay Thorns, Magic Reflect and Return Fire abilities.

Pros

1. Legendary Summoner. Like I mentioned, legendary summoner are very efficient in terms of pricing. The price creeps up the higher the level though like other summoners.
2. Defensive Complementing Abilities. One of the best combos he had is an extra armor and Void Armor ability on top of that. It gives you a sure one-hit protection against melee, range, or magic damage which is very useful especially if you have monsters that have no innate armor such as Stitch Leech.
3. Very Low Skill Ceiling. There's a lot of tricky summoners to use out there that requires specific combos with other skills to be strong. That's not the case for Grandmaster Rathe as your only condition is that the monster has armor. It doesn't matter if that monster has an ability or not. If that monster has any armor in it, it would be strong in combination with Grandmaster Rathe's Void Shield ability.

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Cons

1. Lacks Offensive Abilities and Monsters.
   Life Splinter is known for being durable. It has multiple monsters with Taunt, Tank Heal, Protect and other defensive abilities that you can use to enhance your team. The problem is it's too much. If you add Grandmaster Rathe on top of that, your opponents might overpower you as you try to turtle your way to victory.
2. Huge Mana Cost.
   Unlike my new favorite summoner, Skargore, Grandmaster Rathe has 6. That's 2 more than Skargore. A 2 mana cost difference is actually high as it's the difference between using Deeplurker vs. Djinn Oshannus, for example. The higher the mana cost, the higher the required mana to pull off your team.
3. Monsters require high mana cost as well.
   The most basic combo for this summoner is with Uriel the Purifier which costs 13 mana. Other ones that are good with Grandmaster Rathe also costs high like Cornealus at max level for 10 mana cost. This gives you very limited option for other monsters to use on your team.

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Rank	Rules of Combat	Description
	Going the Distance	During this battle, only monsters with range damage type are allowed: If you have Cornealus at higher level, he would unlock the Return Fire ability. With the Amplify ability from Grandmaster Rathe, this Return Fire with Amplify will have an increased 1 damage everytime Cornealus gets hit.
	Target Practice	All monsters on the board gains the Snipe ability that changes the targetting mechanics of monsters with Range and Magic damage to "Non-melee opponent's monsters that is not on first position.": I will give more context on the Most Compatible Monsters section. The idea is that there are monsters with Return Fire and Magic Reflect abilities that are very compatible with Grandmaster Rathe's Amplify ability.
	Armored Up	All monsters gain +2 armor for this battle: Due to Grandmaster Rathe's Void Armor ability, not only you get additional protection against melee and range damage, you also get protection against magic damage.

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Rank	Rules of Combat	Description
	Unprotected	All armor and effects that involve armor are disabled during this battle: Without the armor, the Void Armor ability is also useless.
	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: If the opponent hit you and decreases your armor while having Cripple ability, that ability would also activate reducing your max health meaning it would reduce both your armor and Health at the same time.
	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%: If you have Cornealus at higher level, he would unlock the Return Fire ability. With the Amplify ability from Grandmaster Rathe, this Return Fire with Amplify will have an increased 1 damage everytime Cornealus gets hit.

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Rank	Monsters	Description
	Uriel the Purifier	Due to his high health, decent armor and Heal ability, I can see him as a good monster to team with Grandmaster Rathe.
	Dumacke Exile	Although he is not used as a main tank, the good amount of armor he has is compatible with Grandmaster Rathe's Void Armor ability.
	Time Meddler	If you are looking for the MOST compatible monster, that would be Time Meddler at max level. Time Meddler has Thorns and Return Fire abilities, which is compatible with Grandmaster Rathe's Amplify ability and high armor which is compatible with Void Armor ability. In addition to that, he can also be used as a secondary tank due to his high armor and health. Doing this, gives you a blocker for opponent's Snipe monsters since he is a non-melee. Time Meddler is the perfect monster if you really like Grandmaster Rathe.

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^{Photo is from my Peakmonsters Account.}

I have a main tank to absorb most of the damage while the other monsters chip in at the back with Sneaks. This creates a kind of pincer attack that is very annoying to deal with as you need to have tanks on both sides of your build to survive.

Lineup

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^{Grandmaster Rathe}

Really good summoner for Life but it takes a bit of getting used to in order to properly use him.

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^{Uriel the Purifier}

Probably the best tank for Life Splinter, Although he has Recharge ability making him attack only every other round, the Heal ability makes up for it. He is also very compatible with Grandmaster Rathe due to his high armor.

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^{Stitch Leech}

A low cost Sneak monster that you can use for Life Splinter.

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^{Dumacke Exile}

Decent Sneak monster that is very cheap and affordable. His armor helps a lot dealing with other Sneaks monsters.

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^{Gargoya Scrapper}

I have one extra mana so I added one at the back in case opponents try ro add some Sneaks in.

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

This battle was an overwhelming win. The Heal ability from Uriel the Purifier along with his 12 hit strike thanks to Recharge quickly eliminated the opponent's tank giving me access to their backrow. From there, it's just carnage and waiting for me to win.

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

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Despite all the praises, I don't think Grandmaster Rathe is actually strong. However, I think this is because Uriel the Purifier is not the best monster to pair him with. So, I will 100% try him again in the near future with a different monster. It would take a bit of time though since I will research first and try the other summoners before going back to him.

All in all, Grandmaster Rathe has potential, I will give him that. But my knowledge and expertise for Life Splinter seems to be lacking at this moment and that's why I feel like he's weaker than the other summoners I used before.

• 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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