SPLINTERLANDS | Unleash the Desert Dragon

8.886

Published on Feb 04, 2022

About :

Screenshot (438).png

Hey guys, this is my entry to the Splinterlands weekly challenge featuring the Dragons. We'll have some lore introduction, explanation of its abilities, comparing it with some other monsters, my personal opinion with it, and the sample battle I have with one of my favorite Dragon from the Chaos Legions, the DESERT DRAGON!!! Enjoy reading!

Monster Introduction

LORE

The Desert Dragon is most commonly found east of the Jade Thickett, on the sandy plains of the Ixzoc. Its long neck is banded red and black, with savage horns that sprout from its head and vicious fangs more wicked than scimitars that line its jaws. Quite often assumed as a lumbering, flightless giant with wings that are tattered and torn, many make the mistake that it cannot move quickly and will sometimes stray too close. But any that have seen it hunt the plain grazers will know, not only can the beast move with considerable speed, the terrifying charge will often leave its target rooted to the spot with terror, unable to flee its impending doom. The Desert Dragon is so big that on rare occasions its attack has been mistaken for seismic activity and minor earthquakes.

STATS & ABILITIES

Shadow Snitch Abilities:

Ability	Description, Usage and Counters
Trample	When a monster with Trample hits and kills its target, it will perform another attack on the next Monster on the enemy team. With the Stampede rule, Trample ability can be triggered continuously as long as the target monster dies.
Piercing	If Melee and Ranged attack damage is in excess of the target's armor, the remainder will damage the target's health. Desert Dragon has a high melee damage, but without piercing, even 1 armor can block this damage. With piercing, you don't have to worry about the target's armor as it will pierce through it. This will help you to attack continuous.
Retaliate	When hit with a melee attack, monsters with Retaliate has a chance of attacking their attacker. This is a good counter for melee opponents.
Giant Killer	Does double damage against targets that cost 10 or more mana. Dragon splinter and some legendary monsters have high mana cap requirement. This ability will greatly help kill monsters that cost 10 or more mana. At level 4, Desert Dragon has 6 melee damage and will have the chance to reach 12 if target monster has 10 or more mana requirement.

COMPARISON

Among the new Dragons from the Chaos Legion, Desert Dragon is unique between the three. Both Void Dragon and Chaos Dragon have magic attack and a Flying ability at their initial level, while Desert Dragon has melee attack and doesn't have the Flying ability.

PERSONAL OPINION

Desert Dragon is one of my favorite monster from the Dragon Splinter. With the right combination of Trample, Pierce & Retaliate, it's definitely a nice to have whenever the rules allows it. Stampede and Opportunity are hust one of those ruleset that you want to include this monster to dominate the match.

FEATURED BATTLE

Link to my battle : hhttps://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_109346cbe42f426a1a5f1c2068ef114a&ref=jpleron

LINE-UP

Summoner	BRIGHTON BLOOM	Provides Flying ability to allied monsters. Since we had a Silence Summoner as ruleset, I opted for the a level 4 Dragon Summoner to utilized the levels of my monsters.
1st	Desert Dragon	Since we had a Stampede ruleset, I picked Desert Dragon with the Trample ability to maximized the effect of Stampede.
2nd	Naga Assasin	With the Backfire ability combined with Flying ability, I can counter a Ranged+Snipe attack monster.
3rd	Crustacean King	Ranged attack monster with Tank Heal ability to support Desert Dragon
4th	Scavo Hireling	A neutral monster with Repair ability to repair the armor of Desert Dragon
5th	Torrent Fiend	Placing this on the last position make it a good bait for Sneak and Opportunity attack. We can still add Furious Chicken since it is also a O mana monster, but I didn't rent one because the price is too high, almost reaching 30 DEC/day for a level 1.

BATTLE SUMMARY

With a 19 mana cap, a Silenced Summoners and Stampede, I opted to use Dragon combined with Water Splinter with the intent to maximized the Stampede+Trample combination.

Since we have a low mana cap, my opponent deployed 6 low mana monster with low health. This is not ideal for a Stampede rule since monsters with Trample can wipe out your entire monsters in a single turn, as you will see in my battle.

Desert Dragon eliminated 5 monsters in a single turn with the help of Trample and Stampede ruleset. The Piercing ability helps to destroy target's armor and kill them in a single attack.

If you want to know more about the game, you can visit their website at https://splinterlands.com?ref=jpleron

Splinterlands is a digital, collectible card game built on blockchain technology. It is similar in concept to games like Magic the Gathering and Hearthstone where you build up a collection of cards, which all have various different stats and abilities, and use them to battle other players in skill-based matches. By using blockchain technology, players can buy, sell, and trade their digital assets freely just as if they were physical cards, and all transactions are recorded publicly and immutably.

Use my referral link to register and I will give you some cards to help you start your own Splinterland journey.