Splinterlands Social Media Challenge!

He's got an interesting kit - 2 passive De-buffs - -1 Speed and Blind (affecting all enemy Monsters), and also 2 Choices to be made during the Tactics Stage of the Battle. You can choose to grant two Monsters either Retaliate or Enfeeble or Poison and Expose. Expose is a brand new ability which is being added for the first time to the game with the release of Cryptic. Here's what it does:

This is the first counter to Immunity we've ever had so I'm excited to see if it will make an impact to the Immunity meta. But wait there's more. Yesterday we had the pleasure of seeing for the first time the summoner which will be the airdrop for the next conflict. Behold Risqruel Drath (Darth Squirrel). This Summoner is a squirrel because the idea for its existence was given by no other than our community member and content creator - Bulldog1205.

Darth Squirrel (sorry Disney but it's easier for me) has quite an interesting kit - it's buffing passively all friendly Monsters by giving them +1 Ranged Attack and Flying and also has two choices for the Tactics Stage - either Impede or True Strike to two Monsters or Taunt and Redemption to one. The 2nd option is very interesting cause casting it on a very important enemy Monster can make your opponent's life extremely hard but also short. Oh and I almost forgot - Impede is another new ability which will be introduced to the game with the release of Darth Squirrel. Here's what it does:

There is no news so far this week so let's have a look at one very fun and also very lucky battle featuring probably the best Gladiator card currently in the game - Quora Towershead.

So Quora's father really wanted a male child to carry on his family name but since all he got was Quora, he tried to press her into becoming a gladiator where she could someday potentially find a powerful fighter to become her husband. She did not really like that idea of a marriage but she did honor her fathers' wishes to join the guild, and that's how her legendary adventure began...

Alright, we've got some idea of who Quora is, after glancing at her lore. Let us have a look at her stats and abilities at different key levels now.

The rulesets for this battle are Maneuvers (All units gain reach), Equal Opportunity (All Monsters have the Opportunity (Monsters with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy Monster with the lowest health) ability) and Taking Sides (Neutral Monsters may not be used in battles) ability. The mana budget is 28 which is a fairly low amount so I will not be able to splurge on chunkier Monsters. Three Elements are available - Water, Earth and Death. I'll, of course, go with the Earth Element.

My Main Tank this battle is the Pelacor Mercenary. This Monster is a great tank, it has Flying (Has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Monsters who do not have the Flying ability) which also makes it immune to Earthquake and Heal (Restores a portion of the Monster's health each round) as well as Retaliate (When hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker). The only downfall of the Pelacor Mercenary is that it is susceptible to Magic Damage but that can now be fixed thanks to Immortalis.

Following immediately after is one of the soulbound cards which you can still get out of reward chests - the Fungus Flinger. It is maxed out but even if it wasn't it would still be enough because I am more more interested in its main ability - Martyr (When this Monster dies, adjacent Monsters get +1 to all stats). At this level in addition to Marty it also has Blind so that's a nice added bonus. It has only 4 health so that's generally not too hard to happen, especially in a battle such as this where it is guaranteed to get hit by Blast Damage due to its placement.

If there is a Monster in the game that is an absolute beast from level 1 that is Quora. She is a Gladiator card and used to only be available to be played in Brawls, however with the addition of the soulbound Summoners as well as the Are you not entertained? ruleset, it is now also usable in tourneys and on ladder. She is an Epic Monsters but should have been a Legendary one with her dual-attack Magic/Melee and Bloodlust (every time this Monster defeats an opponent, it gets +1 to all stats), and Heal (restores a portion of the Monster's health each round) abilities at level 1. At max level (which is really hard to achieve) she also has Immunity (this monster is immune to negative status effects) and Dispel (when this monster hits an enemy, it clears all positive status effects on that enemy) - an absolute powerhouse of a Monster.

It is time for a quick round by round analysis:

• As you may have already figured out, since the battle does not have the ruleset allowing me to use a Gladiator card, the Summoner I am going with is Lobb Lowland. He has the Conscript (Allows the use of one additional Gladiator card in battle) ability and also debuffs the whole enemy team, reducing their Speed by 1. The enemy has chosen to go with a standard Kelya play. The battles itself is from the currently active Diamond tourney.

• After 1 round of exchanging blows I have lost two Monsters - the Fungus Fiend and the Fungus Flinger. The enemy has obviously sprayed me with a lot of fungicides. None the less Quora does not give up that easily.

• Round 3 begins and I have also lost my Acid Shooter on the other hand I have managed to take down the enemy Pelacor Bandit and my Quora has gained additional attack values, speed and health.

• Round 4 - my Quora is the only one remaining on the battleboard against the 4 remaining enemy Monsters.

• Round 5 - my Quora is obviously in a hard spot even though she will heal first before any incoming damage.

• Round 6 - well she's obviously still alive but the enemy Bakjeera won't be soon.

• Round 7 - Quora surviving at 1 Health before healing herself. I need the enemy to miss so she can survive though.

• Round 8 - well that was lucky.

• Round 9 - Quora surviving again at 1 Health and this is going to seal the deal as she will be able to take down the enemy Deeplurker.

• Round 10 - all that's left to do for my team is to kill off the last remaining enemy Monster.

Quora is a brokenly powerful Gladiator Monster. Unfortunately there is not much you can do in order to get her at a faster pace. Just do Brawls, open as many Gladiator packs as possible and hope you get lucky. You might even a get a GF Quora, who knows..

Over and Out,

Referral