[Splinterlands] The Legend of Kulu the Swimhunter!

This is my entry to the Splinterlands Share Your Battle featuring the KULU SWIMHUNTER. If you want to join in this challenge, you can check this link. Alright, let's start first with the monster's lore, then deep dive into its compatible summoners, monster's stats & abilities, and the highlighted battle.

KULU SWIMHUNTER

Kulu Swimhunters are members of a race of squid-like creatures that hunt in packs. They use their multiple tentacles to wield all manner of projectiles, to include spears, coral, and even fish. They are very aggressive and are known to traverse oceans, lakes, and rivers, killing for sport and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. They do not value gold or glory and will ally themselves with whoever promises the greatest opportunity to hunt and kill.

KULU SWIMHUNTER is one of the newest additions in the Water Splinter from the Chaos Legion release. It is one of the monster with squid-like appearance though ti does not bare the word SQUID on its name unlike the GIANT SQUID or the FLYING SQUID. It uses its tentacles to shoot dead fish at its enemies, attacking at a long ranged distance.

STATS and ABILITIES

KULU SWIMHUNTER is one of the few monsters in Splinterlands that does not have abilities. It relies heaviliy on its brute strength. It's comparable to a ninja that does not know any ninjutsu or genjutsu, and just relies on taijustsu (Naruto reference).

Since it doesn'y have abilities, every time you level-up this card, it gains additional stats whether on Ranged damage, Speed, or Health. An exceptions are from leveling to 6 and leveling to 10 in which it increases Ranged damage but also losses some Health.

In my opinion, a little buff to increase its max HP to 7 would be good.

SUMMONER COMPATIBILITY

• KELYA FRENDUL increases the Speed and Armor of KULU SWIMHUNTER by +1 each. KULU SWIMHUNTER has a max speed of 5. With KELYA FRENDUL, it increases the speed of KULU SWIMHUNTER which makes it more lethal.

• SELENIA SKY is a Dragon Summoner that can help KULU SWIMHUNTER to increase its fire power by providing additional Ranged damage by 1.

• LIR DEEPSWIMMER increases the Armor by 2, buffs the monsters with RETURN FIRE ability, and debuffs enemy monsters with BLIND effect. This is one of the best counters when facing heavy-range line-up. The +2 Armor and Blind effect increases the defense of KULU SWIMHUNTER. BLIND effect and high speed will allow your monsters a higher chance to evade physical attacks from melee and ranged type monsters.

• BORTUS on the other hand decreases the Magic damage of enemy monsters. This does not have great effect on KULU SWIMHUNTER aside from lowering the magic damage it received.

• VERA SALACIA provides all your monsters with SNARE ability. It is an offensive ability use to counter monster's with FLYING ability. It is good to use when there is an EARTHQUAKE rule as most players will select monsters with flying ability to negate the effect of EARTHQUAKE rule. In EARTHQUAKE rule, all monsters without flying ability will take 2 Melee damage at the end of each round. SNARE will remove the flying ability from monsters and at the same time, securing a 100% hit rate. Since KULU SWIMHUNTER doesn't have flying ability, using VERA SALACIA is somehow a risky move.

MONSTERS COMPATIBILITY

• SUPPLY RUNNER is one of the Neutral Monsters that provides additional Speed (Swiftness) and additional Health (Strengthen). An added Speed will make KULU SWIMHUNTER more agile, increasing its chance to evade physical attack and allowing to attack first before other monsters.

• VENARI WAVESMITH from the Water Splinter provides the additional Armor to KULU SWIMHUNTER. KULU SWIMHUNTER does not have any Armor by default which makes it vulnerable to physical attacks. With the Armor from Summoner or Monster will greatly help in terms of survivability.

BATTLE RULESET COMPATIBILITY

There are specific ruleset which allows KULU SWIMHUNTER shine more against other monsters from Water Splinter and in general.

RULESET
BACK TO BASICS	Monsters will lose all their own abilities. Summoners andor Batte Ruleset can still provide abilities to the monsters in the match. This is where KULU SWIMHUNTER will be a great pick since by far, KULU SWIMHUNTER has a higher stats compare to those monsters in the same mana cap range. Monsters without abilities have a higher stats (damage, speed and health) compare to those with abilities. This is more of a compensation in lacking abilities.
CLOSE RANGE	Allows ranged monsters to attack even at the first position. Since KULU SWIMHUNTER is a ranged monters, one of their weakness is that they cannot attack when they are put in the front. This ruleset is the answer to that problem
LITTLE LEAGUE	Only Summoners or Monsters with 4 mana or less can be used in the battle. KULU SWIMHUNTER has a 4 mana requirement which allows it to be of use in this scenario
Target Practice	Provides all Ranged and Magic Monsters with SNIPE ability. This makes KULU SWIMHUNTER a better option versus Ranged Monsters with SNIPE ability already since monsters without abilities have a higher stats compare to those with abilities in the same mana cap range

FEATURED BATTLE 1

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_791a66d0afb78929410330af5d7579e2&ref=jpleron

Battle Condition
Rule #1	Aim True: Melee and Ranged attacks always hit their target.
Rule #2	Spreading Fury: All Monsters have the Enrage ability.
Mana Cap	26
Allowed Splinter	Fire, Water, Earth, Dragon

MY LINE-UP

CARDS	Description
	KELYA FRENDUL provides plus 1 Speed and Armor to all your monsters. The +1 Speed will greatly increase the chance of your monster to evade hit and also allows them to attack first.
	Hardy Stonefish is a 1 mana monster with decent stats for a 1 mana. The base armor it has provides an extra protection against melee and ranged damage. It can be use as a decoy to absorb initial damage.
	Djinn Oshannus is a legendary magic attacking monster with high Health and High Speed. It has a Void ability which reduces the magic damage it receives from enemy. It also has a Phase ability which allows it to evade Magic attacks as well. It is one of the best tanks if you are againts Magic monsters. Its high speed increases its chance to evade attacks.
	Merdaali Guardian is one of the support monsters in our lineup. It has the Tank Heal ability which allows it to heal the monster at the first position.
	Scavo Hireling is a Neutral support monster with Armor Repair ability. It repairs the Armor of the friendly monster whose Armor has taken the most damage by 2 each round. Most of our monsters in this line-up doesn't have Armor by default, but Kelya Frendul provides all our friendly monster by 1 Armor.
	KULU SWIMHUNTER, our featured monster, is a 4 mana cap with Ranged attacks. In this match, even with just 4 mana, it deals the most damage against opponent's Djinn Oshannus.
	ANGELIC MANDARIN is a ranged monster with Triage ability. Triage ability heals the backline monster that receives the most damage.

SUMMARY

Did your strategy work?

• My strategy is to go for a defensive mode with the combination of Heal (Tank Heal & Triage) and Armor Repair to sustain our main tank which is Djinn Oshannus. Djinn Oshannus can also be used as a Tank especially against Magic monsters.

• Scavo Hireling repaired the Armor of Djinn Oshannus every round absorbing atleast 1 attack from Axemaster. That was crucial since a 1-Armor absorbed a 2 Ranged attack damage from Axemaster. It helps Djinn Oshannus sustainability.

• Merdaali Guardian on the other hand heals Djinn Oshannus every round by 3 HP. It is also crucial since without the healing ability, our Djinn Oshannus may not susvive the barage of attacks from our enemy monsters.

• Our enemy line-up has a potential damage of 9 every round. With Void ability, we were able to bring it to 7 damage every round. Without the Heal and Armor Repair, our Djinn Oshannus may not be able to last 2 rounds from it.

• On the offensive side, I focused my attacks to the enemy frontline monster. Kulu Swimhunter deals the most damage to enemy Djinn Oshannus.

In the end, our strategy definitely worked.

What will you try differently next time?

• Given the same battle ruleset, I may opted to use Pelacor Bandit or Uraes instead of Angelic Mandarin to have a variety of attack pattern. With their Sneak ability, I can somehow kill backline monster rather than focusing my attacks in the frontline.

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FEATURED BATTLE 2

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_f142d3f0a3a982ec097529be433ed867&ref=jpleron

Battle Condition
Rule #1	Weak Magic - Magic attacks hit Armor before reducing Health
Rule #2	Heavy Hitters - All Monsters have the Knock Out ability.
Mana Cap	30
Allowed Splinter	Water, Life

MY LINE-UP

CARDS	Description
	KELYA FRENDUL provides plus 1 Speed and Armor to all your monsters. The +1 Speed will greatly increase the chance of your monster to evade hit and also allows them to attack first.
	Diemonshark has a high HP, high Armor and high Speed which is great to place in the first position. It also has Trample ability which can provide an additional attack when killing the target monster.
	Deeplurker has a high melee damage with Opportunity ability. It can attack at any position and will always target enemy monster with the lowest health.
	Venari Wavesmith is a magic attacking monster with Protect ability that provides additional 2 Armors to all friendly monsters. The additional Armor will be of great help in this ruleset since Armors can also absorb magic damage.
	Scavo Hireling is a Neutral support monster with Armor Repair ability. It repairs the Armor of the friendly monster whose Armor has taken the most damage by 2 each round. With the buff to Armors allowing it to absorb not only physical but also magic damage, an Armor Repair will be crucial in this gameplay.
	KULU SWIMHUNTER, our featured monster, is a 4 mana cap with Ranged attacks. Kulu Swimhunter attacks first in every round destroying enemy monster's armor allowing other friendly monster to deal direct hit to enemy's health.
	Torrent Fiend is a legendary monster with 0 mana cap. It can acts as decoy for absorbing attacks from monsters with Opportunity and Sneak so I placed it on the last position.

SUMMARY

Did your strategy work?

• My strategy is to utilize the ruleset "Weak Magic" which allows the Armor to absorb magic damage as well. I selected Diemonshark as my tank mainly because of the high damage and the high Armor it has. I also picked Venari Wavesmith to further increase the Armors of all friendly monsters. Then we had Scavo Hireling for the Armor Repair to repair the armors of our monsters.

• Placing Torrent Fiend, a 0 mana monster, allows me to force enemy monster with Opportunity ability to direct their attacks to it. I was able to nullify 2 attacks from enemy which is a potential 5 HP damage because of Torrent Fiend.

• Kulu Swimhunter's high Speed allows it to attack first every round and destroy enemy monster's Armor making way for friendly monster to deal direct damage to enemy's HP.

Our strategy definitely worked as well.

What will you try differently next time?

• Given the same battle ruleset, I think what we had already a good line-up. If we want additional melee damage with Opportunity, we can picked Feasting Seewid instead of Kulu Swimhunter, though it has a lower HP and may get killed instantly.

VERDICT | Is KULU SWIMHUNTER a good card?

• As I mentioned earlier, KULU SWIMHUNTER is one of the few monsters that does not acquire abilities even at its max level. To compensate with its luck of abilities, it has a better stats compared with the other monsters at its same mana cap range.

• Kulu Swimhunter may not be one of your priority pick when choosing a Water Splinter but it has some special moments where it will be of good help to your line-up. This includes specific battle rulesets I mentioned above.

• If you are building a deck which focues on Speed, Kulu Swimhunter is definitely one of the monsters that can fit your team

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