For this week, let's do something unique. Instead of a single unit, let's explore the world of archons instead. Sheng Xiao is a very unique Archon whose win condition is to die. The earlier your unit dies, the faster he could create chaos on the enemy team.

This was a battle where I was the underdog. My enemy has the stronger units, they have more units and overall, they are supposed to be the better player. The enemy player in this battle has 260 more rating than me which means he was a full league higher than me during this match. I have 2040 rating, Gold 3, in this match and they were 2300, mid Gold 2. Everything is stacked against me. The only difference is that in this match, despite the odds, I was the better player and I can prove it.

Lore

When a little axolotl egg tumbled into Sheng Xiao’s brood, she didn’t ask where it came from. She simply took it in. When it hatched, she named the creature Calamity and taught it to bend mana into forms both beautiful and dangerous.

Now her child is loose on Praetoria, copying faces, unraveling alliances, leaving bodies behind. The Riftwatchers want her dead.

https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/801/regular/14?tab=lore

Stats

Sheng Xiao is a versatile Dragon Archon that brings flexible debuff tools through Poison Burst and Corrosive Ward. Instead of focusing only on raw stats, it changes how the battle plays out by spreading poison and melting armor through summoner tactics. This makes Sheng Xiao great at disrupting both fragile backlines and tank-heavy enemy comps.

Abilities

Icon	Name	Description
	Poison Burst	When defeated, 100% chance to apply Poisoned to attacker and 50% chance to apply Poisoned to units adjacent to attacker. Poisoned units lose 2 health at the beginning of each round.
		is a match because when Poison Burst is combined with a Taunt unit, Poison Burst ensures enemies are forced to strike that unit with Poison Burst. When that unit died, it spreads poison more consistently to the enemy team.
		is a counter because enemy Cleanse removes Poison immediately, undoing the effect and wasting Sheng Xiao’s main source of pressure. This would not work though if the enemy unit that killed the unit with Poison Burst is not in the first position.

	Corrosive Ward	When hit with a Melee attack, Unit does 2 armor damage to the attacker, and max armor of the attacker is reduced by 2.
		is a match because with Taunt, melee enemies are forced to hit the targeted unit, making Corrosive Ward strip away their armor permanently. Repair will not work afterwards on the armor of the units affected by Corrosive Ward.
		is a counter because Deflect ignores counter-type abilities like Thorns, Return Fire, and Corrosive Ward, which completely negates this ability.

Good Rules to Consider

Icon	Name	Reason
	Earthquake	Non-flying Units take 2 Melee damage at the end of each round.
		There are a lot of units with Flying units in Dragon teams. They can avoid the Earthquake damage but they cannot avoid the Poison from Poison Burst.
	Armored Up	All Units have 2 Armor in addition to their normal Armor stat.
		Poison bypasses armor completely and Corrosive Ward becomes more valuable for breaking down, melting the enemy melee's armor. This is a really good rule to have Sheng Xiao in.
	Equal Opportunity	All units have Opportunity (targets the enemy unit with the least health).
		You can bait enemies into hitting a Poison Burst unit early, spreading poison faster across the enemy's board. As we all know, the earlier you apply Poison to the enemy team, the more value you get from it.

Bad Rules to Think Twice

Icon	Name	Reason
	Noxious Fumes	All Units start the battle Poisoned.
		All units already start poisoned, making Poison Burst redundant and ineffective.
	Blood and Sunder	All units have Corrosive Ward (-2 to attacker’s armor and maximum armor when hit by a melee attack).
		Every unit already has Corrosive Ward, so Sheng Xiao’s contribution becomes irrelevant. This loses half of Sheng Xiao's value.
	Deflection Shield	All units have Reflection Shield (0 damage from Blast splash damage and Punishment abilities—Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Return Fire, and Thorns).
		This ruleset negates Blast and all reflection/counter effects, disabling Corrosive Ward’s function as well.

Battle

Link to battle

Both the enemy and I have two 3 magic attack unit in the team. They have better tank as well. The big difference is that I have a better archon and that can change a lot. I had Sheng Xiao's abilities given to Halfling Refugee and Warborn Shaman. With luck on my side as well, my Night Reaper attacked first on Round 2 bringing their Night Reaper down. Poison Burst helped me take down the enemy tank and secure the win.

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

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