Exploding Dwarf Weekly Battle Challenge || Ep. #57 || Splinterlands

This week's battle challenge focuses on the Exploding Dwarf:

The aptly named Exploding Dwarves are newcomers to the Splinterlands. No one knows from whence they came; the Dwarves simply emerged from the Molten Mountain caverns a decade ago, quickly reproducing and settling across the Burning Lands. It is best to keep distance from them (especially when they are exploding).

Card Details

A Reward common rarity monster from the Fire Splinter at level 7:

• Estimated cost: $5.469

• Mana cost: 5

• Melee attack: 5

• Speed: 4

• Health: 1

• Blast ability: Does additional damage to monsters adjacent to target monster

• Piercing ability: If melee or ranged attack damage is in excess of target's armor, the remainder will damage the target's health

• Retaliate ability: When hit with a melee attack, monsters with retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker

The Exploding Dwarf is the epitome of a glass cannon. It does high amounts of damage but has very little survivability. If you can shield it and give it a chance to unleash its damage, it can be a very useful card. I have leveled Exploding Dwarf till level 7, which provides an equilibrium between speed, damage, and mana cost. It's just so unfortunate that the health is so low. When I review the previous season's stats, I only used the Exploding Dwarf in 9 matches with a 66.67% win ratio.

Battle - Full Battle Replay

Battle Details

• Tournament level: Silver

• Mana cap: 26

• Ruleset(s): Melee Mayhem

Lineup Details

• Serpentine Soldier: speedy damage dealer with shield and armor!

• Goblin Shaman: applying hexes to reduce enemys' monsters speed and health

• Exploding Dwarf: glass cannon i.e. inflict high damage, but little chance of surviving

• Hobglobin: support melee damage dealer

• Creeping Ooze: applying hexes to reduce enemys' monsters speed

• Cerberus: primary melee tank

Did your strategy work? What will you try differently next time?

Yes! With the Melee Mayhem ruleset, melee monsters can attack from any monsters, perfect for the Exploding Dwarf. I decided to place Exploding Dwarf in position 3, surrounded by various monsters. My initial strategy by placing it in position 3 is that it would be protected from those pesky sneak damage dealers. Also, with the Melee Mayhem ruleset, it allowed me to mix things up a bit and play Cerberus, who I would usually play position 1, due to its high health, in the last position. Therefore, in theory, sneak monsters would target Cerberus instead of Exploding Dwarf. This strategy worked a treat! Exploding Dwarf was able to deal explosive damage and land the killing blow, which resulted in a win for me.

Do you like the Exploding Dwarf? Why or why not?

The Exploding Dwarf monster card is a niche card, and in certain rulesets, it can a very useful joker card that can win matches for you! Would I recommend it for a new starter player? No, as I feel that it only becomes useful at level 7+ and is useful in very limited battles. Also, to pay ~$5.5 to get it to level 7 can be better spent elsewhere.

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Thank you for reading and hope you have a good rest of the day!

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