Splinterlands Saturday: Another Escalation Gem, Shiraza!

Happy weekend everyone! Saturday is always an enjoyable morning around here. I still get some coffee to sip on my back porch, although I have cut back on caffeine intake dramatically, I still drink at least one cup a day! Many weekends I'll go out to yard or garage sales in the area, but I passed today as I hadn't heard of any that sounded very promising. Moving sales I will never miss, but there were none today sadly!

This Saturday I had no real plans for a post and was considering skipping altogether. Then I was playing a little Splinterlands on my laptop on the back porch and decided why not Splinterlands Saturday? So here it is, maybe it will become a thing?

Before I dive into to bulk of the post, I did unlock Diamond III after my first match this morning. I hadn't expected it and wasn't even paying attention to my status. But it was fun!

It came with some chest rewards, that turned out pretty disappointing as usual. However, I did get lots of Entries and Merits!

Enough Merits to end up buying three Gladius cases and opened them up!

First one was great, a legendary pull of Xulax Nightwind. Not a card I use often but has helped me win matches in the past! Captain Katie is always a great card too!

And another Captain Katie! Not enough of any to level up any cards, but they stack up over time!

How on to the real reason for today's post!

Shiraza

Shiraza is an amazing addition to any team and comes from the Escalation packs! Being neutral she can be used in almost any match with a mana of only seven. She starts off with a magic attack of two and at level two picks up Weapons Training ability allowing her to give her attack to adjacent no-attack units that allow the ability. Then at level three she picks up Phase meaning that those magic attacks can miss just like melee and ranged attacks. With a speed of four, that is a serious threat! At level five she gets really nasty adding in Halving which cuts the attacked monsters attack in half once successfully attacked by Shiraza. A nasty little surprise! Then she picks up an extra magic attack at max level.

Helmet Kharafax

This post would be bereft if I didn't also include a highlight on the card above. He really stands out as the star of the show today in today's battle. The real irony in that statement is that I've always found this card to be somewhat useless, up until now anyway. Amazing how situations can change your perception of reality rather quickly!

He's a Gladius card costing two mana with no attack, but comes with Scavenge from level one. Every time a monster dies it gives him one additional unit of health. At level four he picks up Void decreasing the damage taken from magic attacks, a very useful power. Then at level seven he picks up Magic Reflect, returning fire at 50% level of all magic attacks against him. At level 10, he picks up Return Fire returning 50% damage back on the attacker on ranged attacks.

So time to see them both in action!

You can see the battle in it's entirety at this link here.

First off, this is a battle in Modern with a mana cap of 39 which is on the lower side. The rulesets are Are You Not Entertained? allowing the use of a Gladius unit and Keep Your Distance! meaning no melee units can be used. The above screenshot was taken after the buffs have been applied but before the action has commenced.

For my archon I chose Kavorn Skarn which grants your team one additional speed and use of any available Drakoshan bloodline cards. Since my archon is a Dragon I chose Life as my splinter of choice to use in combination. For my tank I chose to go with the humble Helmet Kharafax, to be honest I believe the first time I've ever used the card! I then used Shiraza for her Weapons Training ability followed by the Janni Rebel. Next up I used Rila Fen and rounded out with Nessa.

My opponent went with a nice legendary card Lorkus at archon. For tank Nimbledook Scout was used followed by Inept Healer. Next up was the cool card Flame For Hire (I love that name!) followed by the deadly Ballista Deadshot. To round out the team they used Forked-tongued Sage and Emberguard . Overall a nice team, however, Lorkus is only a level one limiting the other cards on the team.

By round two my tank is still alive and kicking thanks to Scavenge. My opponent is already down the first two cards.

And just so see Helmet Kharafax in action I included these shots.

And the reflected magic damage of two, ouch!

Round three my tank is still hanging in there thanks to Scavenge and continued to be a thorn in the enemies side thanks to the magic attack granted by Shiraza.

And midway through round three Nessa delivers the final deathblow. I didn't lose a single team member in this match which was pretty remarkable. Shiraza proves that Weapons Training is invaluable as it empowered Helmet Kharafax to be a force to be dealt with... He also proved to be to be one very dangerous card in the right situation. I can't believe I've ignored his potential for all these years now...

Great game to my opponent! Things might have been very different with a Lorkus at level two, so I was lucky in a way. But Shiraza has become one of my favorite cards, especially when combined with Ulundin Overseer in any Wands Out ruleset. It's a great card!

If you don't yet play Splinterlands, it is a fun game and free to play in Frontier Mode. So give a try, if you haven't joined in on the fun of playing Splinterlands you can join here: https://splinterlands.com?ref=thebighigg !

That will do it for this Saturday, I do hope you enjoyed it. We'll see if Splinterlands Saturday lasts or not... Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below, and as always thank you for all of your support. It's greatly appreciated. Have a great weekend everyone! And if you have any friends in Venezuela make sure to check if they are doing okay after those massive earthquakes...

Disclaimer

I am not a financial planner and this isn't financial advice. Please always do your own research before investing your money. You worked hard enough to earn it!

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