Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge - Drake of Arnak

For this week's Splinterlands "Share Your Battle" Challenge, we were asked to complete a match using any Dragon summoner. I found this challenge to be quite interesting specifically because challenges normally require the use of one specific monster/summoner, so the ability to choose any summoner from the Dragon Splinter was quite lenient. In this post, I'll discuss my strategy for the match, the results, and the overall strengths and weaknesses of Drake of Arnak as a Dragon summoner.

Although the match allowed for any Dragon summoner, I currently only have Drake of Arnak, so my choice was made for me. Although my choice was dictated by my card collection, Drake is a strong summoner and I felt confident heading into the match with him on my team. He costs 4 Mana and gives a +1 Armor buff to friendly monsters.

One of the advantages of using a Dragon summoner is that they can summon monsters and fight alongside any other splinter. In this match, Fire, Water, and Earth splinters were available. As this was a relatively low Mana cap match (15 Mana) I chose the Water Splinter so that I could use Sea Monster and his heal ability.

Strategy And Lineup

My thinking was that the +1 Armor buff would compensate for Sea Monster's slow speed and allow him to absorb the opponent's first round attack without taking direct damage to his health. After the second round, I hoped to eliminate enough enemy monsters so that Sea Monster would be able to regenerate health quicker than the opponent could deal damage.

Although Sea Monster took the majority of my Mana points for this match, I had a few points left over and wanted to field as strong of a supporting team as possible. Therefore I placed Furious Chicken in second position. Furious Chicken is a no-brainer in low Mana cap matches as he costs zero Mana and can absorb an opponent's attack that would otherwise damage one of your "real" monsters.

After Furious Chicken, I placed Creeping Ooze. Creeping Ooze not only slows down the whole enemy team, he also acts like a buffer to keep ranged and magic monsters from reaching the front line, which was exactly my plan.

In last position, I placed Ice Pixie. Although she has low health, she has good speed (aided by Creeping Ooze slowing the enemy team), and I hoped that placing her at the back of the formation would allow her to at least get a few attacks in before the opponent targeted her.

Results

Things don't always go as you planned them, and this match was no exception. As soon as the match started, I saw that my opponent had chosen the Wizard of Eastwood as their summoner. This summoner is able to reduce the armor of enemy monsters, thus nullifying the +1 Armor boost that Drake was able to provide.

Although my plans of absorbing the opponent's first round salvo didn't work out, some things did work in my favor. This match was played under the "Target Practice" Ruleset which meant that all magic and ranged monsters had the "Snipe" ability. This helped me in two ways. First, it allowed Ice Pixie to attack my opponent's "Spirit Shaman" monster instead of focusing on Unicorn Mustang whose "Void" ability would have made him impervious to Ice Pixie's magic attacks. Second, this ruleset helped me because the opponent's Spirit Shaman targeted my "buffer" monsters Creeping Ooze and Furious Chicken before turning its attention to Sea Monster.

Overall the match didn't go as planned, but we were still able to carry the victory. As much as I like Drake and the Dragon splinter, I have to say that they had absolutely nothing to do with my victory in this match. The opponent's choice of summoner negated any benefit that Drake was able to offer, and Sea Monster was the real hero of the battle.

Overall Thoughts On Drake And The Dragon Splinter

Although Drake and the Dragon Splinter weren't key to carrying this victory, they are still a powerful splinter, and I do like using Drake a lot. First, the +1 Armor buff can he a huge advantage especially if you choose a Splinter that doesn't have a lot of armor. Especially in matches with a large Mana cap where you can fill all six spots, the +1 Armor boost is a much bigger benefit than in low cap matches whre the boost may only help a few friendly monsters as opposed to being applied to a full field of six monsters.

I also like that the Dragon summoners can call upon monsters from any Splinter. This is incredibly beneficial if you see that your opponent has a strong history of preferring one Splinter. Overall, I do like Drake of Arnak and the Dragon Splinter as a whole. Although it wasn't the deciding factor in this battle, the +1 Armor buff has certainly helped me out a lot in past battles, and Drake of Arnak is a valued member of my card collection.

Watch the match here.

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