Share Your Battle - Theme: Dragons
It's been awhile since my last battle share! I've been experimenting with different card rentals in modern format this season and so I decided to share my results with the Dragon splinter.
Card Details
I managed to find a Quix the Devious for a good price on the rental market. I've always wanted to try this summoner so lets check out the stats.
Quix is a legendary summoner which means right off the bat he has access to level 3 commons and level 2 epics/rares. This is amazing because some cards can pick up some great abilities above level 1.
Quix provides only enemy debuffs as his abilities which I don't consider as strong as team buffs. Debuffs tend to be situational as they may be ineffective against an unknown opponent's cards. The -1 to ranged damage isn't that great since most teams run only 1 ranged unit in the back or none at all for magic teams. The -1 to enemy speed is the real benefit here, allowing us to act faster than our opponent and maybe get some lucky dodges. Quix is pretty versatile for most rulesets since you can pair the Dragon splinter with any other splinter base cards. I would say the reverse speed ruleset may be the only bad ruleset since you are directly helping the enemy team.
At 4 mana Quix makes low mana battles tricky, especially since a lot of good Dragon cards are high mana cost. We're definitely looking for a high mana cost battle where we can really fill our team out.
Battle
You can watch the battle replay here
A 60 mana battle is a perfect opportunity to experiment with dragon cards! The rulesets also prevent sneak/snipe and magic monsters which makes Quix an even more powerful choice. Other than opportunity attackers, melee will have to hit our frontline first and we will weaken any ranged in the back with the ranged debuff.
I have decided to pair Quix with the Water splinter for this battle since I have quite a few melee cards we can pair in the lineup. I also wanted to bring heals through the Merdaali Guardian to make our lineup last longer.
My lineup
| Card | Notes |
|---|---|
 | The signature card that our whole strategy revolves around. We are going to force the enemy to deal with a tough front line while we slow and weaken range units. |
 | I've gotten a few Djinn Chwala cards in reward chests and I'm always looking for an excuse to try him out. Thorns is so powerful especially on melee-heavy rulsets. Chwala will make a perfect frontline tank. |
 | Since there is no sneak available we need to maximize our melee damage by utilizing a reach monster in the second row. Flying Squid fits the slot here by providing good damage and high health in the event our frontline Chwala falls. |
 | I've been renting War Chaang for awhile now and I always put this card in high mana battles. 2 ranged damage is great by itself but the card can transform into a good frontline melee when forced to the front. Retaliate can help chip away at melee attackers as well. Normally I would put Chaang at the back to retaliate against sneak monsters but in this case we want a third frontline tank. |
 | Our cheapest card will go in fourth position and provide the healing support we need to outlast our opponent. The longer we can keep Chwala alive the better our chances. |
 | Deeplurker is such an amazing card it's a wonder it's still fairly cheap in the rental market. At 3 mana we get a little more health and speed plus the opportunity still works in this ruleset. Deeplurker will provide the backline snipes we need. |
 | For melee heavy teams I often pull out the Demented Shark in the backline. This will provide the team buff we need and make Deeplurker especially powerful at 4 damage. I've chosen to place the shark at the last slot to maximize the buff potential. If I had an axemaster rented this would also be a great choice for this slot but I wanted to see how well the melee-focused team would perform. |
Luckily for us, our opponent chose to go very ranged heavy which makes Quix an amazing choice. Our shark counter acts the enemy Disintegrator debuff so I'm happy we chose to go that route.
Round 1
The ranged debuff is going to prevent 3 damage to our Chwala in the opener which will allow Merdaali to heal off the ranged damage. With only the Windeku and thorns hurting Chwala this already looks decided in the beginning. We do take a bit of damage on Flying Squid from thorns but the Windeku shouldn't last long enough for that to matter.
Round 2
Deeplurker cleans up the backline and Windeku falls early in the round. We even add some insult to injury with a missed attacked from the Disintegrator due to speed differences. With no way to out damage the heals this battle is secured on Round 2.
Rounds 3-6
Disintegrator finally falls in Round 3 and our team once again has +1 melee attack. From here it's cleanup on a particularly resilient Riftwing. In the end we have a pretty decisive win with no cards lost!
Summary
Overall I like the Dragon splinter and want to explore more of their expensive cards when I find deals on them. The Dragon cards definitely seem more suited towards higher mana battles where you can really bring out the heavy hitters.
Quix is a situational summoner but with the right ruleset he can be extremely powerful. I don't think I would run him in rulesets where Water or Earth splinters could load up with lots of magic damage cards. He does seem like a great counter to opponents running General Sloan lineups as you can really cut their damage down to negligible levels.
Images in this article are all taken from splinterlands.com
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Thanks for sharing! - Underlock#8573
