Strategy Chat: Sharpen The Knives - Use Venari Knifer to win low mana battles (Video included)

Today is all about one of my favourite cards, the Venari Knifer - usually I talk about synergies that exist between cards in order to create advantage - but every once in a while, when the right battle conditions exist, a single card can make all the difference in a battle. Today, I had one of those experiences - and it was certainly a battle worth looking at, because it helps us to understand this awesome card.

To do this, let's start with Venari Knifer's stats:

On it's surface, this is a pretty incredible card. It has 7 health, which is solid enough in a tank position, although you could argue is doesn't give it a lot of longevity as the card itself has no armour. However, it's very, very high speed at 5 boots make it tricky to hit - giving significant opportunity to use his high melee attack to do some significant damage.

That melee figure is +3 - that's handy damage in any slot. You see, my card benefits from Level 4 also, and I play in Silver league, so it gives me heaps of opportunity to be able to use him to his full potential.

The key part of this card is also his THORNS ability, this means that when an opponent hits him, assuming they land the hit, that his THORNS will hurt that card for +2 damage. This is significant, as it means for an opposing tank, he'll damage +3 melee, and then follow up with a +2 passive attack. This makes him incredibly dangerous!!

This guy is amazing!

My card is Level 4 - he's also a gold edition, which is super helpful for giving additional rewards in the new ranked system. But, for some additional perspective, let's see his stats in full.

In the end, I was left in awe of this card. His melee attack reaches +4 and his damage moves to +6 - but he never gains armour! If was being honest, from Level 4 to Level 9 there isn't a huge difference - except at Level 6, which is where he gets exciting. You see, he gains the BACKFIRE skill, which means when a card tries to hit him, and misses, they will take 2 damage for missing. This is an epic skill to have, because his speed is so good, he often dodges attacks.

It made me wonder what a gold edition card costs, because I'd love to be able to develop my Venari Knifer even further. To do that, I wanted to take a look on the market - here, I notice that he costs $1.33 per card - that's not too bad for 125 Card Power, however, I think his price has recently spiked, he used to be available for under $1! I guess the new ranked system has helped push his price up further, eh?

So let's get to the BATTLE - to start, let's have a look at the ruleset.

This ruleset is very interesting and it invited a thorns team. When you get a low mana battle, you always need to think about how to creatively develop a team in order to take advantage over an opponent. In this ruleset, I only had 12 mana to play with, and no legendary cards - which automatically rules out playing the 0 mana fiends. Not playing LEGENDARY cards is also an interesting part of this ruleset, as often these cards can be low mana and offer a real advantage in a battle. I'm thinking about the 3 mana reward card with +2 magic damage. He offers significant bang for buck!

But, what I both like and dislike about this ruleset is the ENRAGE skill. It means I only want to attack one card at once, rather than play a SNEAK attack - as I don't want cards in the back-line enraged. The difficult part of this ruleset is, however, that my THORNS strategy might activate an opponent's ENRAGE skill - the flipside is, when I access ENRAGE, it will make my Venari Knifer incredibly FAST - making him incredibly difficult to hit - he'll be dodging everything!!

Let's take a look at my line up:

There's only three parts of this line-up, so let's dissect it further.

1. Obsidian - this is a summoner who I use a lot, and I really enjoy using her too. She gives each of the magic users in the line-up an additional +1 magic. This is huge, because it means when you play low mana cards, you can make them amazing!

2. I want my Knifer out the front - he'll do high damage, and his thorns will also seek to damage an opponent's tank. His high speed and decent health should give him some ability to survive a few rounds, particularly as the 12 mana limit will mean my opponent won't have a long line up to target him.

3. Khmer Princess is my only backline account, and this is a really incredibly useful card. The Princess only costs 2 mana, yet, with her synergy with Obsidian it becomes an extraordinary card. In this low mana battle, she'll be punching with some heavy hits! Because she ignores armour, she'll also be taking health right from her very first attack. Look out!

This is how the battle gets underway:
Right from the start, it looks like it is going to be tight! My opponent has played a TARSA line-up with some high melee attackers - This will put pressure on my Venari if their hits land. I am excited by the first position battle, however, as I know I will drop his tank in one hit. This will give me a massive advantage and make it a 2 on 1 battle.

Ok, let's have a look at how the battle went, have a look at this video. Trust me, it's short at less than 20 seconds!

At the end of round 1, you can see, the initial hits have certainly led to an interesting outcome. You see, while I did make it a 2 on 1 battle, my Khmer Princess activated my opponent's LIVING LAVA - who happened to land a hit on my Venari. At this point in the battle, my position is not strong - if in the next round the LAVA lands another hit, he will win the battle. This one, pun intended, is on a knife's edge.

In round 2, you can see that the knife's edge battle had fallen my way. My Venari had been able to take the final piece of Armour from the Living Lava, while my Khmer Princess took 2 health. These things wern't the most significant - that is, it was the Living Lava missing my Venari Knifer which let me win this. Had he connected, he would have been reduced with thorns to 2 health, but, his speed would have allowed him to hit first next round and in all likelihood, take out my Khmer Princess. It was a pivotal moment.

The third round then was really rather uneventful - my Venari Knifer took the first hit, and took my opponent's card would with just that one hit. His ENRAGED melee attack allowing him to take 3 health in one go!

So what's the verdict?

• Given I had my original 2 cards left at the end, this looked like a significant victory, but the truth was, it all came down to my opponent missing one hit! However, I could argue a few things on this point. First, by having ENRAGE, it made my opponent's team stronger to take my Venari out quicker than it should have. However, the ENRAGE also increased my Venari's speed to +8, so that allowed him to dodge. On that idea, perhaps it evened out in the end.
• Venari is one of the best cards in the Chaos Legion, equally, one of the best cards in the game. Can you believe he is a COMMON status? His thorns are instrumental in winning low mana battles, because it essentially becomes another attacking card.
• I will continue to use Venari Knifer in my battles, including brawls, because he offers an attacking option only otherwise found in DEATH and DRAGON splinters. While he is not as powerful as the DRAGON THORNS option, his speed is a weapon that will protect your back-line.
• His price per card is relatively cheap at the moment, as he starts to become increasingly purchased up to combine into higher level cards, I can only imagine that he will become significantly more expensive. Get in now - an investment like this one will likely lead to a good return.

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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