Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge - Dark Ha''on

Hey everyone and welcome back for another Splinterlands share your battle challenge. In this week's match, we have been asked to fight a match using the Legendary, Death Splinter monster Dark Ha'on. This monster has some incredible stats including high health and good speed as well as the "Taunt" and "Flying" ability. Despite those strengths, it costs a LOT of Mana to play. So, will Dark Ha'on lead us to victory or will it crash and burn....find out below.

The Lineup
This match was fought with 28 Mana points as well as no modifications to the standard ruleset which allowed all of the cards to showcase their true abilities without any buffs or de-buffs. As Dark Ha'on is a melee monster, I decided to play him in first spot. My thinking was that playing him in first spot would allow him to deal damage, and I was hoping that his "Taunt" ability would cause the enemy to focus their efforts on attacking him while his good speed and "Flying" ability would mean that most of the opponent's attacks missed him.

In second spot, I played Furious Chicken. Normally, I would play a "Reach" monster like Wave Runner (Water Splinter) or Fineas Rage (Fire), but I am always worried about playing Spineback Wolf because he has such a low attack that it would do nothing in the event that my opponent plays a "Shield" capable monster in first position. Since I lacked a strong "Reach" monster, I decided to try and play several buffer monsters between my first position monster and the magic monsters at the rear of the formation. Furious Chicken....you're up!

In third spot, I played Creeping Ooze. As with Furious Chicken, it was primarily intended as a buffer monster to absorb damage while my magic monsters did most of the fighting, but it also had the added benefit of slowing down the opponent's team.

In fourth spot, I played Prismatic Energy. My thinking was that Prismatic Energy would be a good card because it could attack with magic from any position and its high health would keep it in the battle longer once it moved to first spot.

Lastly, I decided to round out my team with Dark Enchantress. She has a good magic attack as well as the "Flying" ability which helps her doge attacks. I was hoping that placing her in last spot would allow her to attack from the rear for most of the match while her "Flying" ability would help her evade the enemy if she moved into first spot.

The Battle
Although I was confident in my team's abilities, I knew it would be a tough fight as soon as I saw the opponent's team. My opponent played Living Lava in first spot and Cerberus in second spot which meant that my team had to fight really hard to overcome Living Lava's "Shield" ability only to exert another tremendous effort to over come Cerberus's "Heal" ability. All the while, the opponent's monsters were slowly striking down my team. At the end of the match, I had to concede the victory to my opponent.

Analysis of Dark Ha'on
Simply based on the stats, Dark Ha'on is a phenomenal card. It has a good attack and good speed as well as TWO special abilities starting at level one. However, it also has a major downside. It costs 10 Mana points to play. Unless you are playing a 99 Mana match, this means that Dark Ha'on is likely to consume quite a large share of your total Mana pool leaving you relatively few options to pick your supporting monsters.

As with so many of the Splinterlands cards, I think that Dark Ha'on has a niche role to play and that it would do awesome in that specific role. Normally, I wouldn't have played Dark Ha'on in this type of match. However, with the share your battle challenges, I like to play the match according to the ruleset and the hand that I am dealt even if it means that the card is fighting a bit out of its comfort zone.

Additional Thoughts
Aside from the match itself, I'm really glad for the Splinterlands card rental system. Dark Ha'on is a Legendary monster that costs about $57 USD to purchase (at the time of writing) but can be rented for only about 225 DEC (around $1.60 based on CoinGecko prices).

Even though I didn't win this match, I do think Dark Ha'on has amazing potential to be a great monster in the right circumstances. It's a little bit out of my price range to own outright at this point, but I did enjoy getting to try it out in a match. As always, I'd like to finish this article by inviting you to try Splinterlands out for yourself or watch my battle replay here.