[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.

FEATURED BATTLE 1

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

MY LINE-UP

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

MY LINE-UP

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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