I mentioned a couple posts ago that Venari Bonesmith was my favorite of the new reward cards so far. I really enjoy playing a Death splinter Life Leech deck with Ancient Lich and Vampire when I have the chance, and Venari Bonesmith slots right in, either as an addition or as a cheaper replacement for Lich. Today I had the opportunity to fight several battles under the Equalizer rule set (set all monsters initial health to the highest base health on the battlefield), which makes the Life Leech monsters much stronger, so I wanted to share the fun!
Battle 1
This battle is actually from a few days ago, and was the first time I tried out Venari Bonesmith in an Equalizer match. I think I just forgot about Vampire for this one, but it still had most of the elements I like. There's a Haunted Spirit up front to heal it's equalized health pool, an Ancient Lich to do the big damage and hopefully become a huge tank, and now the Venari Bonesmith as a backup with his lower damage. Boogeyman is also a favorite of mine for the additional magic damage on top of his Slow ability. Octopider worked well in the back to tank hits from the enemy Sand Worm while the magic attackers went about their work. This battle was a good proof of concept with the new Bonesmith reaching 18 health by the end of the battle, but our team was never in much real danger.
Battle 2
The first of today's battles was a little riskier, as there was an enemy with Magic Reflect up front, backed up by a taunting tank, a healer, and a sniper. Had the rule set been different, this battle would have turned out quite differently. Without Silenced Summoner, the enemies would have had Divine Shield to prevent our initial Life Leech, and without Equalizer, our monsters might have killed themselves with Magic Reflect. Luckily though, the rule set did give us a distinct advantage and we won handily, only losing our front line tank. We did make a mistake by putting our Venari Bonesmith ahead of our Ancient Lich. Since Life Leech increases health based on damage dealt and our Bonesmith does less damage, he is easier to kill and should be further back. Something to remember for next time.
Battle 3
This battle had the potential to be a lot more fun, since we were able to use Delwyn Dragonscale as our summoner to boost magic damage. More magic damage equals more Life Leech. Unfortunately, our opponent brought a Mushroom Seer to Silence us, so we were back to normal magic damage for the majority of the fight. Oh well. That Sand Worm chewed through our 10 health Vampire despite the Life Leech, and once Last Stand activated, the worm also took out our Haunted Spirit, but the Cursed Slimeball kept it from getting any further. Not bad for a tiny tank that we only included to spend out last 1 mana.
Battle 4
For our final battle, we faced an enemy who really wanted to take advantage of the Close Range rule set by including 4 ranged attackers. Their summoner reduced the damage of our own ranged attackers (which we should have used as well, in retrospect), and they also had Blast, Sneak, and two Snipes to get around our tank. In the end though, those abilities wound up dividing their damage too much to get through us quickly enough. We lost our Spirit and Lich eventually, but it took much longer than it should have because the snipers were too busy hitting our Vampire. If all attacks had been directed at our front line, we might have lost the battle, or at least suffered many more casualties. But with damage split up among our monsters, we still had a 6 health Vampire on the front line when the battle ended, and an 18 health Bonesmith waiting to back him up.
Final Thoughts
Win or lose, Life Leech decks are a ton of fun, and become much more effective with the Equalizer rule set. Venari Bonesmith is a welcome addition to the team, creating one more giant obstacle for the enemies to deal with as they try to work through your team. I definitely look forward to using him more in the future, especially under Delwyn whenever I have another opportunity to use dragons. Try this team out for yourself if you haven't already!
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