Website | White Paper | Discord | Hive Blog | My Referral

Share Your Battle Challenge

CARRION SHADE

Carrion Shade is the 1 Mana Card available to the Death Splinter, offering a small amount of melee damage, health, and eventually, the Flying ability. In my opinion, Carrion Shade isn't the worst of the 1 Manas introduced, but because of Death's powerful choices for 1-4 mana, it's one of the least effective within its Splinter. Cursed Slimeball is a much better option, and Carrion Shade kind of functions like Water's Albatross, except Albatross gets a MUCH more significant ability.

This card fits the role of being a good stalling card, especially in Earthquake where it capitalizes on its Flying ability.

First, some info on Carrion Shade:

THEME	Carrion Shade
Edition	CHAOS
Rarity	COMMON
Splinter	DEATH
Attack Type	Melee

A carrion shade is a dark-winged bird that feeds off of the dead bodies of animals and people. They often flock to battlefields and dangerous parts of the wilderness where there are sure to be corpses. They travel in small groups and have no natural predators. Most people fear the carrion shades, though. For to see a group following you is to know your life is in danger. Tales whispered by the elder wise women claim that if you see a single carrion shade perched outside your home, then someone you love will die that night.

Carrion Shade is, in all honesty, more like a gnat in the Splinterlands realm, it acts as a single body to protect your other attackers from damage, and it does this just fine. That being said, as it levels, it becomes more and more clear that the other 1 Manas, like Chaos Agent and Cursed Slimeball, gain new roles, or do their old roles better and Carrion Shade, unfortunately, starts to fall short.

Once she hits level 3, she gains Flying which gives hea 25% dodge chance against all non flying or snare enemies. This is helpful, and makes it perform similarly to Chaos Agent, initially. However, this is the only ability Carrion Shade gains.

Her final stats at Level 10 are 2 Melee, 4 Speed, 3 Health, Flying

She costs about $0.03 per BCX in her Normal Foil variant, and about $0.90 per BCX for a Gold Foil.

**LEVEL COSTS**
Level 3 costs about **$0.42** for Normal Foil and **0.90** for GF this is where she gains **Flying**
Level 7 costs **$4.50** for Normal Foil and about **14** for GF this is where she gains **+1 Melee**
Max Level costs **$12** for Normal and about about **$38 for Gold** (based on 1 BCX prices)

*Keep in mind that higher BCX Cards come with discounts, this is the math for purchasing 1 BCX Cards, which you should NOT do if you're planning to level.*

𝔽𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕝 𝕍𝕒𝕝𝕦𝕖

Investing in Normal Foils: In my opinion, the cheap common cards have a lot of room to grow, and will likely perform fairly well compared to the upper spectrum of cards: That being said, I do NOT think Carrion Shade is the card to buy in the 3 cent range, and would instead point towards the Reward Commons, such as Pelacor Bandit, Conjurer, and Mercenary.

Investing in Gold Foils: As a 1 Mana Gold Foil, there is absolutely ZERO reason why somebody wouldn't want this card as a Gold Foil: This is a nearly guaranteed 10% bonus to your winnings in the Death Splinter, and at Level 3, with Flying, you have all you really need from this card until you're hitting Max Gold/Diamond level.

1 Mana GFs, 2 Mana GFs, and Neutral GFs all tend to do significantly better when out of print than their counterparts. It can be awesome to have a 10 mana GF, but it's also hard to fit that onto your team as easily.

𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕪 𝕍𝕒𝕝𝕦𝕖

Bronze: 5/10: Carrion Shade is a body in front of your actual damage sources, this makes it almost always useful, as it is saving your squishier low mana monsters from an opponent's attack. That being said, outside of this and Earthquake, Carrion Shade has little use.

Silver: 4/10: Same as Bronze but now everything hits harder and faster.

Gold: 3/10: Same as Silver, but again, harder, better, faster, stronger.

Diamond/Champion: 2/10: I don't play in Diamond/Champion, but I'm assuming the same thing. More cards and abilities unfortunately makes Carrion Shade a 1 Ability 1 mana card that you're probably popping in as opportunity bait, or just to get a 10% GF bonus.

ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕊𝕦𝕞𝕞𝕠𝕟𝕖𝕣

Remember that these summoners that I choose are based purely off of Carrion Shade itself:

Owster Rotwell gives your little Carrion Shade a chance to reflect back magic and do a small, but meaningful bit of damage to your opponent's squishy casters. If you're calling this right, Carrion Shade nets you some of the best value you can get: 1 Mana, protective meat shield, AND it reflects on a magic attacker. Carrion Shade will only likely survive one hit anyways, so make it count.

Wow no Legendary Summoner mentioned here? Crazy. Thaddeus offers Carrion Shade protection against the one damage type he doesn't get a small dodge chance against, and by weakening magic in a low mana battle where Carrion Shade is probably most often used is significant, as it allows Carrion Shade to tank potentially 2 Magic attacks instead of one, which can be a big deal.

Dragons have some other, versatile options:

Drake of Arnak gives Carrion Shade Armor, making him capable of tanking 2, maybe even 3 attacks, especially if they are Melee or Ranged, this is significant for a 1 Mana (or a 0 Mana, which is why Drake does so well in low mana battles!)

Neb is a weird choice, but the +1 Speed and low mana cost made me choose him: You're gaining an extra bit of potential dodge chance and giving Carrion Shade more of a chance to get a hit in before he gets wiped. Ideally, this means you get in maybe 1 More attack before dying, and maybe 1 more dodge! That can be a huge difference in a battle where this little guy stays up one turn longer, protecting your real damage source.

ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕕 ℙ𝕠𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

Anywhere
Carrion Shade can honestly go anywhere, there's no rhyme or reason to him, but my personal favorite positions for him are in Position 6, as a single block to sneak attackers in low mana. This helps me win Death sneak match ups against other death players who may place their Sha-vi last instead, giving my Sha-vi the advantage.

ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕕𝕚𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕣𝕤

1. Armored Up is perfect for that can add up really quickly, letting him tank more attacks and do his job better.
2. You want Odds for Carrion, in order to utilize him in
3. Reverse Speed is always good for a slow flying monster, giving it a chance to dodge. As it gains more speed, this becomes less viable.
4. Melee Attacks from Anywhere/Super Sneak/Equal Opportunity is also a good set of rulesets for this monster
5. Earthquake is where he is arguably at his best, as a stalling tank that can be placed either in the back as a sneak protect, or in the middle of the pack to protect a little longer after your main flying tank is downed.
6. Equalizer is great for this little guy, low mana, low health, you can net a ton of health for just throwing this guy into your team.

ℕ𝕠𝕥 ℝ𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕕𝕚𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕣𝕤

1. Evens means Carrion Shade can't carry you here.
2. Don't use him in Poison, he will die turn 1.

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕝𝕖 𝔸𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕕

Gold Squad: Sha-Vi or Dhampir? Who wins...

Divine Shield, Melee Attacks from Anywhere, 34 Mana, ALL Splinters except FIRE

My Carrion Shade manages to get in a few attacks, and it seems both myself and my opponent had the same thought: Shut down the other's damage. My summoner was a poor choice, but in my defense: Usually if I pull something like this and go after the Melee Attacks from Anywhere ruleset, I get punished by a Magic Team. I didn't this time, but I was hoping to cover my bases a bit.

I planned to completely annihilate their sneak, but was surprised that they didn't rely on it: Nearly all of their melee attackers were 1-2 melee, meaning they'd do nothing against me initially. Dhampir and Astronomer were the only threats on his team: Luckily I had a 3 Melee Sha-vi for that, dropping down to 2 melee from Disinegrator's demoralize, that wasn't enough to stop him from chewing through their Dhampir.

I would put my win in my choice of Harklaw, who resists all of his damage types, and Sha-Vi, who completely bypassed the chunky health and took out his main, practically only, damage source, thus stealing the win.

Giveaway!

As usual, I have a giveaway for you guys, and since these are Commons lately, I can do the card featured in these Share Your Battles! Somebody who comments will get a Carrion Shade!

You do NOT need to upvote, tip, or follow, but these all help me continue to do what I'm doing!

Good luck to everyone, the commenters will be chosen via Wheel of Names when the post pays out.

𝕊𝕚𝕘𝕟 𝕌𝕡 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕊𝕡𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕨!

Website | White Paper | Discord | Hive Blog | My Referral

---

Wanna toss a turkey vulture of death at your opponent to survive a little longer and steal away the win like I did? Join me on Splinterlands and play with Chaos Knight, who is currently in the Starter Set you can utilize when you sign up!

if you use my link, here:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=jakkal
I'll send you 100 DEC when you sign up and get a spellbook, (as long as you show up as referred) which should help you get started via renting! Also, feel free to message me, I can answer any questions, give tips, etc.