Enter the Dragon!
Introduction
Dragons in any game are pretty much the top notch units, right? I recall games that I played as a child like Dragonfable, Skyrim, Runescape, Neverwinter, etc, the Dragons there are really overpowered, end-game units which are hard to acquire.
This is not the case for Splinterlands! For novice players, they already have access to Drake of Arnak which is a Dragon Summoner which can be used for free.
The Lore: The Drake of Arnak
The Drake of Arnak is a unique dragon because he cannot fly and breathe fire. But he provides an awesome armor that can be used by any type of monster in Splinterlands.
For this power, the High Council of Dragons sought to have their hands on of this power but the Drake of Arnak frustrated their every attempt.
Stats of the Drake of Arnak
The Drake of Arnak is a summoner in Splinterlands. At Level 1, it is not that strong. It can only summon monsters at level 1. But this summoner, as it gains more levels, it becomes a strong beast, or should I say dragon!
Description of the Card
As I said, this summoner, the Drake of Arnak, is a dragon available for everyone to play. It is a starter card and you do not have to buy it in order to use it.
This card allows the summoner to build a unique combination of cards like water and dragon units. You can even add neutral units in the mix so that's an awesome battle deck out there.
The Strategy that best fits the Drake of Arnak
I am stil at Bronze levels 1-3 and truth be told, my win-rate with this summoner is low because at my level, people automatically spam the Alric the Stormbringer which grants magic-based monsters additional magic damage. The magic is the bane for this summoner because magic damage ignore physical armor which this Drake grants.
That being said, it is logical to think that it will be good for against a line-up with physical attack. Not necessary because the +1 armor is not sufficient when your enemy has heals or has healers at the back which grants longevity to enemy units.
In this fight that I will share with you, the extra armor was helpful in ensuring that my tank survives and able to throw high physical damage output to the enemy's frontline.
The Combat
For this battle, the mana limit is 30. This limit grants me a lot of options to select my monsters. Because of the extra armor which grants me high survivability, I thought of getting a tank that gives high physical damage. Fortunately, I have the Charlok Minotaur which has 3 physical damage, 10 HP and a true strike ability. A unit with this ability cannot miss. The Minotaur is slow but as long as it has HP, I don't mind, because the 3 physical damage it inflicts is what I am after. Even if a unit has high speed (grants evasion) and/or flying ability, it will still be attacked by this Charlok Minotaur.
My tank is supported by the Serpentine Spy, Fire Elemental, Spark Pixes and Mantoid in this order. Except for the last monster, the first 3 units have high speed. I purposely selected these units with high speed because I want them to attack the tank of my enemy first and remove his armor, if there are any, or reduce his HP immediately so that the physical damage of my tank would be more impactful.
My enemy's battle formation includes the following:
Summoner: Tyrus Paladium, a summoner that grants +1 armor at the cost of 3 mana. Almost the same buff as Drake of Arnak but this summoner is limited to the Light units.
Silvershield Knight - This monster has high speed and grants additional 1 physical damage to melee units.
Luminous Eagle - A flying unit with 5 HP, 2 Physical damage and reach ability.
Cave Slug - A slow melee unit with 4 HP, 2 Physical damage and opportunity ability.
Feral Spirit - A fast melee unit with 1 HP, 1 Physical damage and sneak abilility.
Divine Healer - A unit with healing powah! What else?
Parasitic Growth - Another low HP and slow unit with 1 damage but with opporutnity ability.
His strategy is a glass cannon strategy. He is betting that his Silvershield Knight will last long because it is supported by a healer and his high speed will allow his Knight evade my physical attacks. This strategy failed because my tank has true strike.
Blow-by-blow account
On the First Round, as predicted, my fast monsters, the Pixie Sparks and the Fire Elemental threw the first blows. Immediately, the armor of the Silvershield Knight was removed and his HP dropped to 3. Even though the Minotaur was last to attack, his attack was significant because it eliminated the knight from the battlefield, removing the buff of +1 melee damage to all his melee units.
On the Second Round, even though the Luminous Eagle was a flying unit, it again fell to the true strike ability of the Minotaur. After the death of these two front-liners, my victory was pretty much guaranteed.
For a more detailed account of the fight, this is the link.
Insights about the battle
Although, both summoners grant the same benefits of additional armor to the summoned units, I had the advantage because my tank neutralized the Silvershield Knight, which is the crucial to the strategy of my opponent, very early on. It didn't help the fact that this unit is fast because of the true strike ability of the Minotaur.
My other units synergized well with the tank because their high speed allowed them to attck the Knight first and remove its extra armor and HP.
This battle worked in my favor because the enemy relied on glass canon strategy. His other units also have very low hp and the additional armor was not helpful to enable them survive longer and dish out high physical damage output. Additionally, the units were slow so that also worked in my favor.
If you want to try the game, this is my referral link.
References
Great battle and you picked a good line up for the Bronze league.