Battle Challenge with Diemonshark!
Hello guys,
this weeks Battle Challenge is with the Diemonshark, one of my all time favorite cards and I'll show you why in this battle!
The Card
Diemonshark is a melee water attacker from the Chaos Legion edition. It is mainly a tank designed for the first position, since it has no ability that it allows it to attack from the backline.
Abilities
Level 1 - Trample
Level 4 - Enrage
Level 7 - Retaliate
From level 1 on it has Trample, which is nice in the Trample ruleset but not that good on its own, because the Diemonshark doesn't have enough attack yet to get a lot of kills. At level 4 however it gets Enrage, which drastically boosts it speed and attack, making it both very evasive and deadly at the same time, due to the increased speed and attack. Enrage paired with Trample makes for a very nice combo. At diamond levels it then also gets Retaliate making it even stronger, because if it doesn't dodge the attack now it has a chance of returning it.
Besides the great synergy of its abilities, Diemonshark has very strong stats with good health, high armor, decent speed and good attack. For 8 mana it is a phenomenal tank, with power spikes at level 4 (Enraged), 5 (9 health for increased heals), 7 (Retaliate) and 8 (4th attack).
The strength of the card reflects in its price as it always has been one of the most expensive Chaos Legion rares. At current prices you'd get a maxed out copy for silver (level 4) for roughly $10 which is still extremely cheap in my opinion.
The Ruleset
The Line Up & Strategy
For my summoner I chose Quix, because all my summoners are 4 or 6 mana and with the Silent Summoner ruleset it makes no difference which one I take. With Quix I do have access to dragons, though.
In the first position I used the mighty Diemonshark, really because he's my best tank and I wanted to build a line up around him. In the Second spot I went for Oshannus, because he's a great off-tank and all my reach monsters were uneven mana and thus not playable. In the third spot we have Deeplurker, simply because he's super strong and fits in almost every line up. Next to him we have Chaos Dragon, who*s an absolute beast when you need damage and since we had a lot of mana to play with I put him in. In the second last spot I went for a Merdhampir. I don't use him that often, but wanted give him a try. He has decent damage and Cripple can be handy if they bring a heal. Lastly we have the Wavebrood with Taunt to take away some pressure from Diemonshark, making him last longer and get those Trample kills.
As you can see I only used monsters that attack the enemy's first position (except for Deeplurker). That's deliberately tailored to Diemnshark, because if my entire team attacks the first position, chances are higher Diemonshark gets a kill and triggers its Trample.
The Battle
My opponent also used a Quix and went with Djinn Chwala as their tank, which is. a direct counter against Diemonshark with the Thorns. They also only picked monsters which attack the first position (except for Deeplurker) and mixed the damage with some ranged and some magic.
The battle starts with their entire team attacking my Wavebrood, bringing it down to 1 HP in the first round and Djinn Chwala taking 3 armor off of my Diemonshark. Because of Baakjira's Slow all my monsters have one less Speed and need to wait their turn.
Diemonshark takes off 3 armor of the Djinn, but gets hurt by the Thorns. Deeplurker goes for the Supply Runner and leaves it standing with 1 HP. Chaos Dragon's Scattershot does the impossible and lands on the wounded Supply Runner, taking it out. This is huge! Merdhampir and Wavebrood take off the remaining armor of Djinn Chwala.
Round 2
Baakjira is still alive, slowing my team down, so the opponent goes first:
Oshannus finishes off Wavebrood, my own Oshannus deals 2 damage to Djinn Chwala. The Azmare Harpoonist takes away the remaining armor from my Diemonshark, which hits the Djinn Chwala for 3 and takes Thorns damage, enraging it! My Deeplurker takes out the Djinn, while also taking 2 Thorns damage. The enemy Deeplurker takes out my Merdhampir in return, before it can attack.
Finally Chaos Dragon hits the Oshannus, dealing 2 blast damage to the Harpoonist. That was the worst possible target, because the blast only went to one side and a direct attack on Djinn would've been it's death.
Round 3
The enemy Oshannus takes my Diemonshark down to 4 HP, which in return hits Baakjira for 5 damage. The Azmare Harpoonist misses its potentially deadly attack against Diemonshark and gets taken out by my Deeplurker. The enemy Deeplurker then also misses Diemonshark, which is just clutch!
Chaos Dragon hits the Baakjira, taking it down to 3 HP and Deeplurker down to 5 through the blast. This is amazing and you'll see why next round.
Round 4
Enemy's Oshannus takes my Diemonshark down to 2 HP, but it's too late. Diemonshark takes down the Baakjira, which triggers Trample, making it attacking again and taking out the Deeplurker as well. Hadn't Chaos Dragon hit it for 2 with blast, it would've survived.
The Oshannus sruvives the round with 1 HP, but gets taken out immediately by Diemonshark next round, because without the Slow from Baakjira it is faster and attacks first.
Conclusion
I think this battle was the perfect showcase of Diemonshark's power. The two dodges against Azmore Harpoonist and Deeplurker in round 3 decided the game in my opinion and the Trample ability came through in the end, too.
I'm very happy with my line up, not only because I won, but because it worked out as planned, which is always nice to see. Checking my win percentage on Splintertools.io also showed, that there was almost no way for my opponent to win this battle, which means it wasn't luck, but skill.
With Water being one of the strongest splinters right now and Chaos Legion card prices still being very affordable for new players, I come to the conclusion that Diemonshark is a must have for Water and that it's one of my most used cards.
Disclaimer
None of this is financial advice. This content is for educational purposes only and might fall out of date as both Splinterlands and the Crypto Market in general are subject to constant change.
Start playing Splinterlands today!
Previous Posts
Check out my push into gold league: Part I, Part II
Check out my Bronze league strategy guides: Part I, Part II
Hope you enjoyed the read. Have a great day and until next time!
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Thanks for sharing! - @lenonmc21
Excellent post, I really liked your content, and the format is great.
Thanks a lot! That's really nice to hear 😇