Perfect Pair? The Demented Shark and Disintegrator Combo (100% HIVE POWER UP)

There are some combinations which just seem to go together; tomato and cheese, bread and butter, and the other obvious one, THE DISINTEGRATOR AND THE DEMENTED SHARK. In this blog, I want to explore this powerful combination, as it is a match made, well and truly, in an under-the-sea heaven!

To do this, let's start with DISINTEGRATOR:

On it's surface, this is a pretty average card. It has 5 health, which is solid enough in a backline, especially when paired with Kelya Frendul, who will give him +1 speed and +1 armour. That 1 armour will mean this card will keep his health and be hard to knock down quickly.

Speaking of hard to knock down, that's exactly what your opponent will want to do to this card, you see, he has the ability to lower each of your opponent's MELEE ATTACK by 1. That is going to take a lot of punch out of their attack.

Meanwhile, his 2 armour, and 2 melee - while he can't attack until he reaches the tank position, will mean he is likely not to reach that position until mid-battle. This will give him some handy front line stats.

For 7 mana, this guy is a little bit on the pricey side of things - but consider this. If your opponent plays 6 x melee cards, in total, you will rob your opponent of +6 Melee attack per round. That's enough to keep you alive and absolutely swing the battle.

This guy is amazing!

My card is Level 1 and it is not leveled so I can make use of it in in my Silver league battles,
the reason for this was the card needs a lot of upgrading to achieve a higher melee attack, and then he only gains the trample skill. That may help this guy become a better tank, but since he is usually buried in the backrow, I didn't see the investment paying off just yet - although, in a melee battle where melee can attack from any position, granted - that would be his ultimate ruleset. I did want to check out it's complete stats, just for some perspective.

In the end, I was incredibly impressed. This is one hot card when it gets to Level - it's 3 melee attack is solid, but having enrage and retaliate make it amazing!! At present, I can't see myself getting to a league where I'd be able to play a Level 10 card, but it's nice to dream.

To celebrate the card, I decided to buy one extra card for my collection. They were a bit cheaper than I remembered at 9 cents each, so perhaps I am getting a bargain by buying them before I actually need them. Will call it an investment!

The next consideration is how to make this DISINTEGRATOR into a very, very strong strategic weapon. To do this, I propose you consider THE DEMENTED SHARK!

What you'll notice about this guy, is he has very similar stats to the DISINTEGRATOR. He's got the average speed, low atttack, average health and carries a shield. But, he has the opposite skill to the DISINTEGRATOR. The DEMENTED SHARK has INSPIRE. This skill will give all my cards an extra +1 melee. The final outcome will be then, that all of my attackers will gain attack, while all of my opponent's cards will lose attack.

A brilliant strategy!

So let's get to the DISINTEGRATOR + DEMENTED SHARK Battle:

This ruleset is very interesting, and not one you see often. THE SILENT SUMMONER skill means that my summoner's won't be able to support the battle. I knew I'd be using Kelya Frendul in this one, who I usually value because he gives armour. But, since both my DISINTEGRATOR and DEMENTED SHARK already have +1 armour - it was a here nor there loss. Additionally, the battle only allowed common and rare cards to be played - again, this was perfect, as all my key card choices are in this lower tier.

To help me out, I put my DIEMONSHARK out the front. This is my go-to tank in water, and I play it a lot! He is also incredibly meaty - with 6 armour and 8 health, this guy doesn't mess around. Also - his trample skill is sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. If my opponent puts a 1 mana nothing card out front, he'll kill it, and keep going. His enrage ability will also pop his melee attack to +5 - and he'll beast his way through an opponent's lineup.

My Backrow:

Looking at my backrow, you'll note that the mana limitations this week have meant my team doesn't have a lot of depth. Instead, I was happy to pay a higher mana price in order to meet my aggressive TANK AND OFF-TANK LINE, utilisng the supports behind him. The +1 magic attacker, at a cost of only 2 mana, rounds the team out beautifully.
34 Mana:
8 for Tank, 7 for off-tank, 7 for DISINTEGRATOR, 6 for DEMENTED SHARK, 2 for Ice Pixie.

There are two parts of this line that I like.
The first is The Flying Squid
His speed will be up to +4. This means all my attackers will have solid Speed and look to really get aggressive in hitting first. Combined with the DEMENTED SHARK's INSPRE +1, means he packs a punch from that second position.

The Squid has the REACH ability, this means that he is able to sit in the off-tank position, with his high health to protect him, and hit my opponent's tank. He's basically a second tank and with that +4 Melee, he will work well in partnership with the DIEMONSHARK to attack hard from the front.

This is how the battle gets underways:

• right from the start I know I'm in trouble. Looking across and seeing five magic attackers means that my tank's shield is all but useless, and the DISINTEGRATOR will be wasted in this battle. I was certainly not hopeful, but it is what it is. Game on!

Ok, let's have a look at how the battle went, have a look at this video. Trust me, it's short!

At the end of round 1, you can see, the initial hits have taken a lot of my tank's health, and he had only just held on to knock out my opponent's tank, and trample the armour off of his off-tank. Despite scoring the first kill, I have every reason to lack confidence going forward.

By the start of Round 4, you can see that I'm well out of my depth in this battle. It is a shame because my cards have held up well vs the 5xmagic attack. I can't help but think, if I had replaced either the DISINTEGRATOR with a magic card, that may have made the difference, as it is mmy opponent's shields on every card, thanks to his Venari, which has limited my ability to progress through this line.

And then by Round 6, the difference is literally down to 4 health. This battle was far closer than it should have been!

So what's the verdict?

• This combination has a lot of potential, and the battle went a lot closer to the wire than initially I thought it would. I think this is largely because I made his tank useless - and that meant he was only relying on magic to get the battle one - whereas my tank still made progress.
• This feels like a solid pairing partnership, but perhaps needs the right ruleset to really gain the tactical upper hand. I look forward to employing this pair then.

Thanks for joining me, for another Splinter Chat! This blog was put together as part of Splinterlands' weekly 'Share-Your-Battle' challenge. Have you put yours together yet?
LordTimoty

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