Documenting My Splinterlands Knowledge - Abilities, Interactions, and Strategies Part 2

Hello there.

In my last post I discussed some of the card abilities, interactions, and common strategies. This is part 2 in this series of posts. Let's get to it.

---

Camouflage

Camouflage	Weak Against	Good Against	Good With

This Monster cannot be targeted for attacks unless it's in the first position. Monster with Camouflage are safe from Sneak, Snipe, Opportunity, and even Scattershot. They are however, susceptible to Blast damage. A lot of monsters with Camouflage are Ranged/Magic, and they are could be Damage dealers, support oriented, or a little bit of both. Because of this, you want to have good tanks that can survive long. Monsters with Taunt go well with Camouflage monsters since you can redirect their attacks, and avoid their blast damage. One strategy I learned from my guildmate Rollingstar, is that Venator Kinjo is especially powerful since he has both Camouflage and Reflection Shield. If you place him at the 4th position, and 2 Camouflage monsters at the 5-6th position, all 3 will be safe from blast damage, even from scattershot.

---

Close Range

Close Range	Weak Against	Good Against	Good With
			-

Monsters with the Close Range ability can perform ranged attacks from the first position. Since we now have a summoner [Fernheart] that can grant this ability there are a lot more possibilities for Ranged monsters. But since it is geared towards Ranged attacks, Close Range is bad against abilities like Return Fire, and Headwinds. If you see your opponent using Mylor, or monsters with Thorns, using Close Range is a viable strategy.

---

Cleanse

Cleanse	Weak Against	Good Against	Good With

Removes all negative effects on the Monster in the first position on the friendly team. In Bronze/Silver battles, Cleanse is mostly used during the Noxious Fumes Ruleset. But it should be able to Cleanse these negative status effects: Affliction, Blind, Demoralize, Halving, Headwinds, Poison, Rust, Silence, Slow, Snare, and Stun. A recent change [as of this writing] implemented is that Cripple can no longer be Cleansed. Since Cleanse works on the first position, and you are using Cleanse to protect it, abilities that also help in doing that like Heal and Repair work well with Cleanse especially on a monster with Taunt.

---

Cripple

Cripple	Weak Against	Good Against	Good With

Each time an enemy is hit by a Monster with Cripple it loses one max health. Cripple is currently the only debuff that can't be Cleansed. Since Cripple lowers the max health of its target, it is very effective against Heal, Tank Heal, and Triage abilities. Cripple doesn't need to damage the target, it just needs to hit it to lower the max HP. This makes it still useful against high armored monsters, Repair, and Shield/Void abilities. You might not be able to kill the Shield/Void monsters, but hopefully your other monsters can, or you can win with Fatigue. Since each hit applies Cripple, it would be good to pair Cripple with monsters that have multiple attack types, and Double Strike. Like all debuffs, Cripple doesn't work on monsters with Immunity.

---

Deathblow

Deathblow	Weak Against	Good Against	Good With

This Monster does 2x damage if their target is the only Monster left on the enemy team. This is a pretty straightforward ability, but takes a while to trigger in high mana battles. Since the ability only triggers when attacking the opponent's last monster, it is good against Last Stand, which only activates when the monster with the ability is the last monster alive. Since your damage increases, Piercing is a very good ability to pair it with, to help deal with the last monster's armor. The increased damage of Deathblow might make it go above 5 damage which will trigger Forcefield. Halving is also an ability that can significantly decrease the Deathblow damage.

---

Demoralize

Demoralize	Weak Against	Good Against	Good With

Reduces the Melee attack of all enemy Monsters by 1. Demoralize is very powerful when you know your opponent frequently uses Melee monsters, or during the "Up Close and Personal" Ruleset. Demoralize is good against monsters with Double Strike, since it significantly reduces their damage. It is also nice against Enrage, Giant Killer, Recharge, Fury, and Deathblow, since the increase in damage is multiplicative of the current value. Knowing Demoralize reduces the melee attack of opponents, it is a perfect pair with Shield, since some attacks will deal 0 damage if they are low enough. The Inspire ability completely negates Demoralize, since it increases Melee attacks by 1; making Demoralize both good and weak against Inspire, depending on your perspective. Demoralize is a debuff, can be Cleansed, and also does not work on monsters with Immunity.

---

There are a lot of card abilities so I'll stop here for now. I'll continue the topic in my next post. Feel free to inform me of any interactions or strategies that I might have overlooked.

And as always, these are Not Financial Advice, and Do Your Own Research.

If you want to start playing Splinterlands, you can use my link:
Splinterlands Referral Link