Have you heard the term, "Behind every successful man is a woman?" In Splinterlands, "Behind every good front line is a good support." You may have The Kraken as your frontline but if you can't kill my support, my tank would kill that EVERY TIME. A good team is a balance of tank, support and damage dealers. Supports are the one who bind the team and provides you the victory.

LORE

The intelligent Crustaceans of AZMARE are the result of ancient genetic experiments. They became too smart to be contained, escaped from their bondage and developed their own city on the edge of the Dark Water. Led by the Crustacean King, they farm the vast kelp fields of AZMARE.

STATS

Due to its low mana, he also provides a relatively low stats. This is not too important because your main goal then is protecting this guy and the longer you can do that, the higher your chance of winning is.

ABILITIES

Level 1 - Level 10 || Tank Heal
Level 6 - Level 10 || Tank Heal, Protect

Tank Heal || Restores 1/3 of the Monster's max health, rounded up, in the first position's health each round.
Protect || All friendly Monsters gain +2 Armor.

The two abilities are really strong as it both helps to support other's survival. I have no experience having a level 6 - level 10 Crustacean King but I would assume he would do great as protect is a great ability to have at any time.

Rent/Buy Cost

This is the rental cost of Crustacean King at the time of writing this article.

Crustacean King is not free to play anymore but I will include the gold version instead since it is quite affordable at the moment. Renting the gold beta is cheaper than the alpha version. The Alpha provides an additional 10% DEC per win for a total of 20% and also provides more collection power. I rent the Alpha version if the difference between the alpha gold and beta gold are really close. Otherwise, I rent the Beta Gold if I need power, and alpha non foil if I don't need the power. Alpha non foil version also provides a 10% additional DEC per win, same as gold beta version.

This is the purchasing cost of Crustacean King at the time of writing this article.

There are many options for buying Crustacean King. There's Alpha Version, Alpha Gold, Beta, and Beta Gold. Beta Gold is probably the most efficient. Alpha Gold is the most expensive providing many benefits for long term but the price also is quite steep. If you're not planning to level up this card and have the power you need, Alpha regular version would probably be the best choice. It provides a DEC boost per win for a very cheap price.

Battle

Here is an example of my battle using this card: Click here to view the replay

Positioning

Crustacean King is positioned in the middle around position 3 or 4. This is to provide defense for both the front and back for those people using sneaks.

Round 1

By end of Round 1, my Sea Monster still hasn't taken damage thanks to Crustacean King and its own self heal. If I only have Sea Monster and without Crustacean King, most likely, he's dead after this round.

Round 2

By end of Round 2, Sea Monster still hasn't been damaged. Torhilo the Frozen died after during this round making other creatures open for massacre.

Round 3

By end of Round 3, the game ended. This is an easy game as I have my Crustacean King supporting my tank and my opponent cannot outdamage my heals.

Rule Sets:

Since Crustacean King is a support monster and I would put him in almost all conditions, this would be the top 3 rule sets that I would have second thoughts of putting Crustacean King.

• Healed Out || No type of healing is allowed in the battle. So, abilities like Tank Heal, Triage, Heal are rendered useless. This de-buff cannot be removed by using Cleanse. Summoners Like Byzantine Kitty, Scarred Llama and Chanseus The Great cannot perform Heal and Cleanse either.
  This one is probably obvious. Crustacean King's main purpose is to heal and since this rule set does not allow healing, there's no reason to put him in this battle.
• Noxious Fumes || All monsters start the game poisoned and will take 2 damage each turn unless cleansed. Big HP and cleanse are going to be your best bet here. However there may be some cases where you ignore and go for a big offensive attack and wipe out your opponent before the poison becomes a factor.
  Crustacean King at lower levels has low health. At level 1, he has 2 health. Noxious Fumes poisons all creatures which gives 2 true damage to the poisoned units. I call this true damage because there's no ability that would decrease or negate this effect/damage. Cleanse removes poison except if it's caused by Noxious Fumes Rule Sets.
• Back to Basics || Monsters lose their own abilities. Summoner effects such as those that give abilities to monsters still take effect.
  It's almost the same as Healed Out Rule Set. If this card cannot heal, its purpose is already gone so there's no reason to put it in this battle.

You can see the rule sets here.

Compatibility

This card is most compatible with other cards using heal and/or high health monsters. For example, combining Crustacean King with Sea Monster provides a solid sustain tank. All the damage will be healed at the end of the turn. Using Crustacean King with Kraken provides a hefty heal because tank heal uses the max health divided by 3 as base of how much the heal will be.

Final Remarks

Crustacean King is probably the best support in the game. At early levels, it provides tank heal and has low mana. At higher levels, it also provides Protect in addition to that tank heal. To me, it's the best support in the game so far.

If you have any questions, suggested combos, any violent reactions, feel free to comment it down below.

Good day and see you in the Arena.