Weekly Challenge: The Attention-grabbing Mycelic Slipspawn

Greetings to all the members of the Hive Blockchain community, most especially those who enjoy playing Splinterlands. This week's Share Your Battle challenge features the Mycelic Slipspawn.

The Mycelic Slipspawn is a nine-mana rare monster from the Earth splinter. The lore depicts the Mycelic Slipspawn as a loyal monster. After Queen Mycelia saved its life, the Mycelic Slipspawn was said to desperately "follow its saviour and stand by her in the times to come."

In battle, the damage of the Mycelic Slipspawn is magic-type, which can get through armor (most of the time) and allows it to be placed anywhere from the front to back. I use it at level 6 because I play in the gold league. At this level, it has two skills called taunt and forcefield. Taunt forces most monsters to attack it, except those monsters that have scattershot. Forcefield cuts down 5+ damage that the Mycelic Slipspawn receives to just 1 damage. These skills are useful against heavy damage dealers such as Sandworm and some enraged monsters. I also use the Mycelic Slipspawn with Venator Kinjo for blast rule to protect my team against the spilled damage.

I used the Mycelic Slipspawn in this particular battle with these rules:

I figured that for this situation, the best choice of summoner is Obsidian as the magic damage dealers of the Earth splinter are mostly slow. I then chose Lord Arianthus as my front liner to reflect the expected magic damage. But because the mana cap is high, I was able to include Mycelic Slipspawn at the back. Then, I had to include Queen Mycelia so she can heal Mycelic Slipspawn via triage. Goblin Psychic is a staple, as it is slow, a healer, and a silencer. I then chose Magi of Chaos to easily get through a Lord Arianthus if ever my opponent decided to use it also. Then, I inserted a self healing secondary tank Kron. It was a decision between Kron or Corneleus. I went for Kron because of the synergy with Obsidian.

When the cards were revealed, I was confident that I would win. Mycelic Slipspawn served its purpose of being the initial diversion while the rest of the team get through the front line of my enemy. It survived only up to round 2 because my Queen Mycelia was unable to heal it due to the affliction the opponent's Goblin Psychic put on my loyal taunter. Nonetheless, the plan was successful. In round 3, the opponent's two front tanks are already out, enabling my team to cruise to victory.

Apart from its back story of being loyal, I like Mycelic Slipspawn because it synergizes with Earth's magic summoner Obsidian and it is a taunt monster that can be placed anywhere. It is useful in rules such as back to basics, enraged monsters, and blast rules. But I only give it an eight because of the high mana requirement and its dependency on triage healers. Some players find it easily to be killed. Maybe if it had a shield and/or void, it will last longer in battle. Nonetheless, when the Rift Watchers edition comes out, I firmly believe that players will appreciate Mycelic Slipspawn more as it will be effective against monsters with the Fury ability, which doubles the damage done to taunt monsters.