This week's battle challenge focuses on the Goblin Shaman:
Card Details
An alpha/beta edition common rarity monster from the Fire Splinter at level 6:
Estimated cost: ~$363
Mana cost: 3
Magic damage: 2
Speed: 4
Health: 3
Weaken ability: Reduces the Health of all enemy Monsters.
Slow ability: Reduces the Speed of all enemy Monsters.
The second week in a row, the weekly battle challenges focus on the older alpha/beta edition monster cards. This time it's the Goblin Shaman. The Goblin Shaman reminds me of the Warlock from World of Warcraft. The Warlocks are the quintessential dark arts users, which couldn't be more accurate for the Goblin Shaman. Its main attraction and why players would use it would be to utilize its debuff abilities, namely Weaken and Slow, which decreases the speed and health of opposition monsters. If you are one of the lucky few and pair it with the legendary summoner, Plado Emberstorm, who provides +1 melee damage -1 health to all opposition monsters and +1 speed to all friendly - you can quickly see how OP this combo can prove to be. I am not a whale and wasn't fortunate in picking up Plado Emberstone; therefore, I will resort to playing Malric Inferno or Pyre summoners. The biggest drawback to Goblin Shaman is that it's too squishy and will get taken out by high damage range monsters or Sneak / Snipe ability monsters.
Battle - Full Battle Replay
Battle Details
Mana cap: 44
Rulesets(s): Silenced Summoners, Little League
Lineup Details
Daria Dragonscale (Summoner): +1 melee damage
Cerberus: primary melee damage + heal
Manticore: support melee damage
Goblin Shaman + Serpentine Mystic: doubling up on the debuffs + support magic damage
Fire Demon + Fire Spitter: double primary range damage
Did your strategy work? What will you try differently next time?
This battle couldn't have worked out better for me. The strategy of doubling up on the speed and health debuffs worked a treat and resulted in my opposition missing a few times, and if those hits were landed, I think the battle would've turned out much differently. This battle saw the pro and cons of the Goblin Shaman. You may be thinking, how can decreasing health and speed by 1 point make a difference, and that's the thing with splinterlands - small margins are what wins you battles. The double debuff that the Goblin Shaman applies is potent. On the flip side, though, we saw how easily the Twisted Jester dispatched it with one hit. Nonetheless, I had enough firepower to manage the rest of the battle and seal the victory.
Do you like the Goblin Shaman? Why or why not?
It's a great card when used in combination and protected by other vital monsters. However, is it worth $350+? That depends. If you are looking for other monsters with similar abilities, your options include Swamp Thing ($742) and Undead Priest ($450+), which are more expensive than Goblin Shaman. Another option would be to look for monsters with single debuff abilities. One option is the new legendary reward monster, Djinn Biljka, which unlocks Weaken at level 3 and will set you back $175. It does more magic damage but is much slower than Goblin Shaman. The Boogeyman has Slow at level 1 and will set you back $7.5, so it's also an option. I am so glad I picked up Goblin Shaman when it was relatively cheap, and I think if you are playing the Fire Splinter with either Pyre or Plado Emberstorm summoners, then Goblin Shaman should be part of your Fire Splinter collection even if it costs $350+.
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Nice battle man! Good to see how it worked out!