══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Card Highlights #22: Gelatinous Cube

────────────◈◉◈────────────
You see, in this world, slimes are usually weak monsters that serve as cannon fodder. But I... I've grown into something different.
by Rimuru Tempest, Slime from Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken (Reincarnated as a Slime)
────────────◈◉◈────────────

This blog is a little bit special. I was thinking of what interesting strategy I could come up next and a strategy I watched on youtube some months ago came to mind. The original strategy goes like this, You have Gelatinous Cube with at least Heal ability on him. Due to Scavenger, he would get more health which gives him more heal amount as a result. There would be a time where your enemies won't be able to kill this Gelatinous Cube and you will reach the Fatigue stage.

Starting Round 21, all units on the board gets compounding damage per round but since Gelatinous Cube has high heal at this point, your opponents get to die first.

with this as the base idea, I decided to spice this up more and give it a new "Rebellion" twist. Here's my Rebellion version of "Try to Kill that Cube Strategy."

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Lore

One night when the moons were full, the renegades of the Lunta Kalna performed a secret and powerful ritual. Their ceremony called forth forces of wind, rain and hail; for the first time ever in recorded history, there was a hailstorm in Draykh-Nahka. Except it wasn't only hail that fell from the sky that night. There were also a small number of strange Cubes that seemed to be alive.
They have the look of ice, but upon contact with most objects, the surface of the Cube turns to jelly and absorbs the object, rather noisily. It is assumed that this is how the Cubes eat. When attacked, Gelatinous Cubes can make their outer shell as hard as solid ice for a short time. They can also alter their size to some degree, swelling up and increasing their power, depending on how much they have absorbed that day.

---

^{For full lore of this card, visit this website:
https://next.splinterlands.com/card-detail/218/regular/3?tab=lore}

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Buy and Rental Costs

Even though Gelatinous Cube is from the Beta set, it's still a bit expenive at higher levels costing a little less than $30. This is because of its lower number of copies in the market while also being one of the powerful cards in Wild format.

---

It would be hard to time renting a max level Gelatinous Cube. The level 5 and below are a bit cheaper but you still need at least level 6 for the Heal. The level 6 costs 2.29 DEC per day while a level 9 costs 10.49 DEC per day based on what I saw.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Card Stats

In this battle, I used a level 8 Gelatinous Cube. It has 13 max health, 1 speed, no attack, with Scavenger and Heal. Heal is available starting level 6. Both the stats and abilities are really strong given that he only costs 6 mana to use.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Card Effects

Scavenger

Gains 1 max health each time any Unit dies

Scavenger is an underrated defensive ability that I don't see others abuse. It was actually strong because it increases the maximum health of the unit which complements any heal type abilities. I also want to point out that this ability works on both yours and enemy units. Whether your units are killed or your enemy's, you gain health from that death.

---

Heal	Restores a portion of the Unit's health each round

This unit heals for 1 every 3 health he has. That means that the higher Gelatinous Cube's health is due to Scavenger, the higher is the heal amount as well. I believe the max you can get with Gelatinous Cube's stats and Scavenger, not including other abilities, is 24 already. This means he can heal by 8 health per round not including if you further increase his health by other abilities such as Strengthen, Last Stand and Martyr.

---

Void	Reduced damage from Magic attacks

Void complements a lot with Prophet Rosa's Shield. The combination of these two abilities makes it that Gelatinous Cube halves all damage he would get from attacks while he heals himself due to his other ability.

---

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

Gelatinous Cube is very strong generally as a tank. He is hard to counter due to being flexible in terms of complementing Weapons Training types and Summoner abilities he would get. Being a Neutral unit, he also can be used in every situation provided you have a summoner with high enough level to handle him. Then, it's just about the choice of Weapons Training and abilities you want him to get for that specific battle.

---

Weaknesses

Although I said that Gelatinous Cube is hard to counter, it doesn't mean it's impossible. By countering the Heal through Affliction, you would reduce his effectiveness as a tank. Deathblow is also a good counter to Gelatinous Cube since the idea of the strategy is to have Gelatinous Cube the last unit to survive maximizing the Scavenger stacks. Deathblow gives double damage to the last unit in your enemy's side. With this ability and maybe simply pure raw power, another counter to Gelatinous Cube is simply using units with high damage. This is particularly effective on high mana where you can use high mana units with higher stats as well.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

When To Use

Equal Opportunity

All Units have the Opportunity ability.

Since you want this unit to die last to abuse the Scavenger, Equal Opportunity will give you that capability. Since he has high health, he would be certain to be attacked last. Your Gelatinous Cube can also attack while being safe since he has melee attack through Weapons Training and Opportunity due to the rule set.

---

Earthquake

Non-flying Units take 2 Melee damage at the end of each round.

This just speeds up the game so you don't need to wait for round 21 for the fatigue to work. Prophet Rosa Shield also reduces earthquake damage giving you a certain advantage in this rule set even if your unit cannot fly. Although, if you're feeling overkill, you can just use Brighton Bloom summoner to give Gelatinous Cube and other units the Flying ability to skip the damage in this rule set as a whole.

---

Noxious Fumes

All Units start the battle Poisoned.

Same as earthquake but cannot decrease damage. Use Byzantine Kitty instead for double heal.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

When Not To Use

Equalizer

The initial Health of all Units is equal to that of the Units on either team with the highest base Health.

Equalizer can be a double edge rule set since you need enemies and friendlies to die for Scavenger. This rule set increases their health delaying the death of the units.

---

Healed Out

All healing abilities are removed from Units and Summoners.

Heal is important for Gelatinous Cube. That is how he can survive the Fatigue rounds and become a good tank.

---

Fab Four

Up to 4 units can be used in this battle.

Not bad due to Weapons training but still a disadvantage since the rule set decreases the unit count on both sides which decreases the amount of Scavenger stacks the Gelatinous Cube can get.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Battle Sample

^{https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_4fe77a8eed459184b0e365cd8153384f}

At the end, at 23 health, my Gelatinous Cube heals for 7 health per round. The enemies dont' stand a chance and the Gelatinous Cube was able to eliminate them one by one.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Final Thoughts

Kulu Mastermind gives Gelatinous Cube a huge melee attack boost but it would be a lot better if has magic attack. Gelatinous Cube's speed is very low and the melee attacks misse a lot. Prophet Rosa gives Shield which is good for the original and revised strategy. One personal rule I would say is that if you are using this strategy, you must fill up all the unit slots. If there's less units, you also get less Scavenger stacks resulting to less heals.

Gelatinous Cube is strongest at max level with Void. In combination with Prophet Rosa's Shield, he would halve all melee, range and magic attacks.

This is actually a very solid strategy that can be used at any levels. Even though it can be countered by Affliction, the battle can still be winnable due to Gelatinous Cube's high health and damage through Weapons Training.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

If you have suggested combos or questions, feel free to comment it down below.

If you are planning to play and is inspired by my post, please consider using my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=kpgamingch

I do not own any of the photos in this post. All credits goes to:

• Splinterlands
• Peakmonsters
• Canva
• Giphy