SHARK ATTACK - Off-meta guide to the Water splinter for bronze/silver leagues

Hello all, and welcome to my first Splintertalk.

Today we well be looking at an off-meta strategy that took me from bronze 3 to silver within a couple of hours after season reset. Apart from being a super awesome shark-themed build, it is also relatively cheap to rent/buy as it consists mainly of commons that are readily available. Let's have a look at the general idea:

The Core

Above is an example of a succesful shark attack on a fellow water summoner. Notice how after the inspire ability triggers, this team does 13 damage round 1. This could be even higher with demented shark in the front and some more sneakers instead of serpent, but I like protecting my buff in the backline. The core components of the build are not meant as they should be played every time, but rather that they are the cards you should build around.

• Demented Shark. This card is the bread and butter of this build, and should be included in almost every match. Similar to Silvershield Knight from the Light splinter, it has the inspire ability buffing the attack stat of your entire team, while also providing a decent defensive body. Coming in at 6 mana, this strategy obviously works best in matchups from 20 mana and up.

• Sabre Shark. Great in bronze, as it has 2 attack from lvl 2 already. Add sneak, and you have a deadly backline thread at your disposal. In silver it gives you 3 attack points for a lvl 5 card, adding to its consitensy in higher leagues.

• Wave Runner. Rounding out the shark cavalcade we got a reacher whose main quality is it's pace. From lvl 2 this beater has 4 speed, which combined with its 2 attack points makes it lethal in bronze leagues. In silver it reaches 3 attack, but otherwise falls off a bit.

• Pelacor Bandit. With flying and sneak plus good basestats at lvl 1, the bandit is a valuable addition to the building. At silver leagues it becomes speedier and has 2 attack points, and the flying ability makes it valuable in earthquake matchups.

• Uraeus. Despite being a rare, this card is relatively cheap and comes with great value. In bronze the low mana cost combined with 2 attack at lvl 2 makes it comparable to Sabre Shark, despite lacking a bit in the speed department. The additional 1 armor however makes it great for countering opposing sneak strategies. In silver some of its basestats are increased, but unfortunately it doesn't get the poison ability until gold leagues.

• Tank. Multiple options, depending on the ruleset, manacost etc. Good options include Kelp Initiate and Battle Orca for lower mana matches and Serpant of Eld as well as Torhilo the Frozen when you have extra mana to spent. This position is highly flexible however, and should be adapted to such things as what your opponent is playing, your budget, etc.

• Summoner. Similar to the tank this option is flexible. I've used Bortus and Vera Salacia with good results, and especially Bortus can be usefull in dealing with Alric teams at lower leagues. Once again your choice of summoner should be within your budget and style of play, but it can't be understated that it is important to have a summoner that allows you to play cards at the level cap of the league you are in, and this strategy and choice of monsters depends on it.

Matchups
This strategy does well against most splinters, but 2 builds are direct counters, and you should try to avoid facing these. Mylor Crowling will more or less destroy your backline by round 2, without even attacking them, and is not beatable using these cards. Similarly Zintar Mortalis can cause you a lot of trouble, especially in bronze leagues. Most of my wins however has been vs Alric players, who are plentyful in bronze at least, but also against various Light, Earth and to a lesser degree Fire splinters.

Other cards

A few other cards deserve mention in relation to this build. Widening the amount of choices you have when you make your lineup makes the build more versatile and consistent. Some of these cards include

• Battering Ram
• Sand worm
• Gargoila Lion
• Feasting Seaweed

If using a Dragon Summoner:
Twillight Basilisk/Manticore can both be good substitutions for Wave Runner.

Silver League:
For higher leagues when rulesets become more varied, Hobgoblin can be a valueable addition in matches wtih sneak or opportunity rules. Similarly other rulesets might want you to be exposed to cards such as Brighton Bloom, Gelatinous Cube.

Final remarks
Once again I need to stress that this is a SHARK THEMED BUILD. If I didn't have your attention at shark, I hope you enjoyed the theorycrafting and synergies presented above. It seems that this kind of sneak attack strategy is being supported with a lot of recent water cards, which could be a sign that we might have more great cards coming up for this build with Chaos Legion releasing soon. That's all I have for today, and I want to thank you for coming to my Splintertalk. Let me know if you have any critique or comments below!

/ZenMasterLee