You ever notice how some matches turn into a slugfest? Just two walls smashing into each other, neither side wanting to give up ground. It’s in those matches where the one who can deal damage while taking it better usually comes out ahead. I've been seeing more of these lately, and they’re honestly some of my favorite fights.

Lore

Deep within the Drybone Badlands, there lives a species of giant sharks found nowhere else on Praetoria. A surge of dirt and rock in the distance, and a single fin rises from the earth and cleaves a path toward its prey.

You can try to run, but there is no escape. Better to stand still. Don’t move. Don’t even breathe. Because once the Drybone megalodon knows where you are, it will hunt you down, erupt from the ground, and swallow you whole. Then it will vanish again into the earth of the badlands, leaving only a memory of its savagery—if there is anyone left alive to remember.

https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/689/regular/13?tab=lore

Stats

Drybone Megalodon is a high armor, high health melee juggernaut built to crush enemy frontlines and punish melee attackers. At max level, with Flank, Retaliate and Thorns, it plays both offense and counter-offense at the same time. This unit works best as a primary tank because of Flank while your true main tank sits behind him. Drybone Megalodon pairs well with Inspire, Amplify, or speed boosters to maximize its melee focused abilities.

Abilities

Icon	Name	Description
	Flank	At the beginning of battle, if this unit is in the first position, the unit in the second position gains reach.
		is a match because Increases melee attacks for the entire team, making the second-position reach attacker that benefits from Flank even more dangerous. This also increases Drybone Megalodon's attack and Retaliate.
		is a counter because Reduces incoming melee damage, which slows down Megalodon’s offense. The Shield also halves the damage from Thorns and also Retaliate since it is based on Drybone Megalodon's melee attack.

	Retaliate	When hit with a melee attack, Units with retaliate have a 50% chance of immediately attacking their attacker.
		is a match because Increases the chance of landing a hit after retaliating by boosting Speed for the entire team. Retaliate can still miss because it's a melee attack so this help immensely with the Retaliate bonus.
		is a counter because When Retaliate triggers, Megalodon risks taking extra damage from the attacker’s Thorns, creating dangerous counter. Since Retaliate acts as a normal attack, Drybone Megalodon would take another Thorns if that retaliate hits.

	Thorns	When hit with a Melee attack, does 2 Meele damage back to the attacker.
		is a match because Amplify increases Thorns damage by +1, making melee attackers take even more punishment when hitting Megalodon.
		is a counter because This ability prevents damage from Thorns, removing one of Megalodon’s strongest defensive tools against melee units.

Good Rules to Consider

Icon	Name	Reason
	Aim True	All units gain True Strike (attacks will never miss).
		Drybone Megalodon because both units, him and the unit benefitting the Flank can consistently hit and Retaliate also increases hit rate.
	Up Close & Personal	Only Units with Melee attack may be used in battles.
		All of Drybone Megalodon’s abilities either benefit allied melee units or punish enemy melee units. This is the best rule and modifier for Drybone Megalodon to be in.
	Up to Eleven	All units have Amplify (increases damage of Retaliate and all Punishment abilities—Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Return Fire, and Thorns—by 1; does not stack).
		Everyone gets Amplify, making Thorns much stronger and more punishing. Remember that Amplify does not stack so even if you have 5 Amplify on your team, your Thorns will only get +1 damage.

Bad Rules to Think Twice

Icon	Name	Reason
	Back to Basics	Units lose all abilities.
		Drybone Megalodon has a lot of good abilities and combos with other units, so losing them weakens it heavily. While its stats are good, he doesn't have the health to tank multiple shots.
	Briar Patch	All units have Thorns (returns 2 damage to attacker when hit by a melee attack)
		Megalodon already has Thorns, so there’s no benefit for him, and if the enemy has Thorns, it’s a big problem for him. The unit that gets Flank benefit is a melee unit and Retaliate gets you another dose of Thorns as well.
	Unprotected	Units do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs.
		This rule removes armor, taking away one of Drybone Megalodon’s best defensive stats. Drybone Megalodon does not have a good health pool so armor is a huge component of his defense and losing that is a huge disadvantage.

Battle

Link to battle

In this battle, we are playing with Broken Arrows rule and Counterspell rule which means no range units and disadvantage for magic attacking units. This forces me and the enemy player to play with Melee units. Unfortunately, I don't have a max level Drybone Megalodon to highlight how good this is against this perfect rule set up. Still, It was very favorable for me. I have melee units that can deal with the enemies and Emberguard with its Demoralize to reduce enemy melee unit's attacks. This setup made me win this game easy.

Images were taken from Splinterlands, made in Canva, drawn in Krita and animated in Photoshop.

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