Hi Splinterland players and welcome to a new edition of my weekly challenge, with this weeks fire splinter performer:

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Goblin Shaman

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This is one of the cards provided in the basic set, so it will be available for anybody.

Pro's	Con's
Low mana cost	No defense
Weaken
1 magic attack (level 3 and up)
Slow (level 5 and up)

This is on of the must play cards from the fire splinter. It costs little mana but has a lot of effect with its weaken ability. The only times i will not play this card if it is not possible (even mana only rule-set) or smart (monsters lose all abilities rule-set) to play this card.

Abilities and Prices

As you can see in the statistics table, once this monster reaches level 3, 1 magic attack will be available, and slow will be added at level 5. Level 6 and higher will only increase its live.

As for the hard dollars you will need to get from your wallet, you have 2 choices of edition for this card, the Alpha edition starting at $16.50 or the Beta edition starting at $6.95. This is a big difference, but the Alpha will add 30 power to your total and the Beta 15. Below an overview of prices for different levels (the cheapest when i wrote this):

Level	Alpha	Beta
1	$16.50	$6.95
3	$82.65	$85
5	$931	$300
10	$1972	$1250

As you can see, you will need to put in some serious cash if you want to play a good card in the higher leagues. (prices taken from peakmonsters.com)

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Battles with the Goblin Shaman

Splinterlore

Goblins are everywhere in the Burning Lands, but they are all larger and stronger than the Goblins of Anumün. The Goblin Shaman of the Smoldering Forest are especially skilled in slowing and weakening their enemies with enchantments. Many of them can hypnotize with a simple gaze from their blood-red eyes.

(taken from splinterlore.com)

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Here's some battle analysis

Battle 1

Game rules:
Rule-set: Blast
Mana cap: 22
Available Splinters: Fire, Death & Dragon

My Team:

Summoner	Malric Inferno
Buffs	1 Additional attack
First line	Furious Chicken
Second (tank)	Living Lava (Shield)
Third	Spark Pixies (Fly)
Fourth	Kobold Miner (Sneak)
Fifth	Serpentine Spy (Opportunity)
Sixth	Goblin Shaman (Weaken)

Opponents Team:

Summoner	Malric Inferno
Buffs	1 Additional attack
First line	Living Lava (Shield)
Second	Giant Roc (Fly, Reach)
Third	Serpentine Spy (Opportunity)
Fourth	Cerberus (Heal)

As you can see, we both had the same Summoner, meaning the battle would come down to which had the best cards picked.

Round 1

Because i was lucky enough to start this battle, my pixies and serpentine spy took out my opponents serpentine spy and Giant Roc in the first and second attack. Because of the blast rule set, the pixies damaged the Giant Roc by hitting my opponents tank, after which my spy took out my opponents spy, and downed the Giant Roc and damaged Cerberus by the blast ability. After this hit, my Kobold Miner could do enough damage to kill Cerberus, leaving only the Living Lave by the end of round 1.

Round 2

In round 2, my 3 monsters where able to hit and down the Living Lava because of there higher speed. This resulted in a win for me, with losing only my Furious Chicken.

So because of my luck of starting first, the rule set, and the lower health of my opponent caused by the Goblin Shaman, resulted in an almost perfect victory.

Battle Replay

Battle 2

Game rules:
Rule-set: No Ranged Monsters
Mana cap: 15
Available Splinters: Fire, Life, Death & Dragon

My Team:

Summoner	Malric Inferno
Buffs	1 Additional attack
First line	Cerberus (Heal)
Second (tank)	Goblin Shaman (Weaken)
Third	Serpentine Spy (Opportunity)
Fourth	Kobold Miner (Sneak)
Fifth	Furious Chicken

Opponents Team:

Summoner	Malric Inferno
Buffs	1 Additional attack
First line	Living Lava (Shield)
Second	Serpentine Spy (Opportunity)
Third	Kobold Miner (Sneak)

Also in this battle, we both had the same summoner, but my hopes for victory where high when i saw my opponent only had 3 monsters against my four monsters.

Round 1

This round my Cerberus took the first attack, depleting the shield of the Living Lava. After this attack, it was my opponents turn, who took out my Serpentine Spy and Furious Chicken. Luckily for me, my Kobold Miner could still take out his Kobold Miner. But because the Living Lava has 4 attack damage with this Summoner, it almost instantly killed my Cerberus, and leaving it with as low as 1 health.

Round 2

In round 2, his Serpentine Spy took out my Kobold Miner in the first move, and my Cerberus by his Living Lava in the Second, all what was left was the Goblin Shaman. And the poor guy didn't stand a chance. This resulting in loss on my side. Perhaps if i used the same cards, but Pyre as the summoner, i could have won because of the higher speed of my cards.

So despite of losing some of the games with the fire splinter / Goblin Shaman combination, i still think that this a card that you should use a much as possible!

Thanks for reading, and till next time, take care and perhaps we see each other on the battlefield!

If your not a player already and want to give splinterlands a try, you are welcome to use my referral link

Splinterland posts
Cash to DEC walkthrough

Previous Weekly battle entries
Crystal Jaguar	Dragons
Elven Cutthroat

Images used in this post are owned and open-sourced by splinterlands.io. Statistics taken from peakmonsters.com