Weekly Battle Challenge: Shadow Snitch
| Lore |
|---|
| Shadow Snitches are created by the conjurers of the Chaos Legion. Weaving Death magic, they breathe life into beings made completely of darkness. The purpose of the Shadow Snitches is to be deployed into lands prior to the Chaos Legion's invasion. Moving from shadow to shadow, they are listeners and watchers, feeding information back to the Chaos Legion. But once the invasion is complete, the Shadow Snitches still serve a purpose. They can locate and follow high-value targets, reporting back on movements to Chaos Legion leadership. If needed, Shadow Snitches can also capture prisoners and bring them back for interrogation. |
The Shadow Snitch: Overview
This week's challenge features the new Death monster from Chaos Legion, the Shadow Snitch. This monster's staple is having the Reach ability, which allows it to attack from the second line as a melee unit.
At level 1 this is a pretty underwhelming card, even though it provides some utility with the capacity to attack from the second line and also having a fair amount of Health for the Mana it costs. However, its low Attack is easily mitigated if up against Monsters with the Shield ability, as the 1 damage it could inflict will then be voided. Which means then it will be basically a sack of meat, and it won't be that useful if you're facing Magic damage based compositions, for example.
At higher levels, however, this starts to possibly change. I haven't had the pleasure of having played it yet, but judging from the stats, it looks this card can become a rockstar at level 6, where it not only bypasses the damage issue because it is now increased to 2, but it also gains Affliction, which in the current meta is also a must have against Flesh Golems, Sea Monsters and all the other healing units. It also gets a good amount of speed which can be well paired with other cards that debuff the opponent, like the Creeping Ooze. This should be extra effective at level 10, as it also gets the Dodge ability.
Artwork
The artwork for the whole Chaos Legion expansion is absolutely stunning, but the Shadow Snitch has a pair of extra arms to feature its Reach ability, did you ever take notice of that? Little details like this are a treat to discover.
To Battle
But let's jump in to battle and see how my suspicions work out. Will the Shadow Snitch have a decent impact in the match? And most importantly, will it allows us to bring Victory home?
Rules
Line-up
We're up against Life and our opponent doesn't have Shield, so our Shadow Snitch has a chance to shine, or at least be useful. The excessive tankiness on the enemy frontline may be a problem, though. Let's see what happens:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_4dfd0d9eb722257bee5403ea837aa9f7&ref=sp3ktraline
Defeat. Sadly, the Shadow Snitch doesn't bring real value to low level matches. The 4 mana used to bring it into play could have been better used with other creatures such as the Dark Astronomer for more damage or even the Riftwing for more effective tankiness. Both are cards from the Starter set, and also accessible to all players. The Shadow Snitch appears to be a card for higher leagues and greater levels. That's my take on it, at least.