A bit late on this Battle Challenge this week, but hopefully it'll be worth it. This is an interesting challenge, it's not just one card but an entire Splinter! Dragons are an incredibly versatile set of monsters and summoners that can drastically alter the course of a battle. It's important to note that when selecting to play the Dragon Splinter in a match, a secondary Splinter is selected as well - allowing the player the choices of monsters from both Splinters and Neutral (assuming they're not banned by the ruleset).
Given the wide range of cards and tactics that fall under the Dragons umbrella, I'm going to highlight a few different monsters over multiple battles. As a summoner, I'll be sticking with Quix the Devious.
A legendary summoner, Quix is capped at level 3 for Gold league. At a cost of 4 mana, he debuffs the enemy team's ranged attack damage and speed. In reverse speed battles, this can be a bit of a gamble as the speed decrement will be a buff to the enemy team.
First Battle - Dragons + Death
Up first, we have a relatively high 60 mana scenario with the Briar Patch and Armored Up rulesets active. Both of these rules are anti-melee to a degree as the armor will help absorb melee and ranged damage while the thorns will deal 1 or 2 melee damage back depending if the attacker has shield or not. A good scenario for magic, means a good scenario for the Chaos Dragon.
A hulking dragon costing a whopping 14 mana to play, the Chaos Dragon is a beast of card. The scatter shot and explosive 3 magic damage will help punch a hole in the backline of any team. The additional blinding ability helps from a defensive perspective by potentially causing the opposing team to miss.
| Knowing that melee is not favored in this fight, and speed will be key in attacking first - Quix's debuff of -1 Ranged Damage and -1 Speed on my opponent's monsters would hopefully be effective in reducing their damage while giving me a slight edge in relative speed. | ||
 | While melee is not favored, the Chain Golem is a good tank choice here. Having both Shield and Void means any damage at all will be cut in half, with the extra armor to help absorb some of the thorn blow back as well. | ||
 | Another favored dragon card, the Carnage Titan is my alternate tank. While not protected from magic damage, it's capable of dealing out 6 damage per turn from the second slot thanks to its reach and double strike abilities. The shield ability helps absorb the thorns blow back and any melee or ranged damage that might hit it. | ||
 | Djinn Muirat is a great magic tank choice in this scenario. With the extra armor adding to his void armor and the reflect ability to bounce magic damage back. It's in this spot specifically to draw any sniper magic fire and return it to its sender. | ||
 | While slow, Cthulhu is capable of dealing a large amount of magic damage up front, hopefully passing through the armor and stunning the frontline. | ||
| Here the Chaos Dragon has plenty of room to fire at any non camouflaged creature. By not being at the very end, its immune from sneak damage for a bit and won't be hit by snipe until both Djinn Muirat and Chtulhu fall. | ||
 | While not quite suited for a thorns battle, Uraeus helps round out the line up. The dedicated sneak attacker will hopefully be able to inflict poison before succumbing to the thorns damage. The extra armor from the ruleset should help it get an extra hit in hopefully. |
Looking at the field, my opponent had similar thoughts on leveraging the extra armor with void armor and sticking primarily to ranged or magic attackers.
Lux Vega is a powerful neutral summoner, but doesn't afford the extra options that Dragon summoners do. By the end of round one, Legionnaire Alvar was taken out, leaving the somewhat squishy Ancient Lich at the front lines. My gambit on having Djinn Muirat draw sniper fire paid off with multiple hits from the Magi Necrosi being bounced back. Overall it seemed like a pretty easy win after the frontline fell, the Cursed Windeku in the back for sneak protection really didn't offer much for my opponent in this particular match with the Briar Patch ruleset off.
Second Battle - Dragons + Life
Next up, perhaps the opposite of the above battle. A lower 28 mana match with Close Range and Odds Only active. Quix is a good fit here as there's likely to be more ranged attackers than normal with the ability to attack from the first position. With the Odds Only active, some Dragon options such as Djinn Chwala for a tank were ruled out. Instead, I opted for the Desert Dragon as a tank:
The Desert Dragon is a slower monster, with only 2 speed, but if it's able to attack, it can be devastating. With Trample, Piercing, and Retaliate, it can make quick work of tank monsters under the right conditions.
| Quix again, like I mentioned, for the debuff to ranged damage primarily. | ||
| The Desert Dragon being front and center hopefully gives it a chance to get a few hits in. Particularly, the combination of Retaliate and Trample could prove dangerous. | ||
| Just like last time, Carnage Titan as an off tank that can attack from second position. The shield ability should hopefully prove useful in this match as it'll also cut ranged damage in half. | ||
 | A bit of a filler card, the Stitch Leech is useful under the right conditions. The leech ability allows it to gain health for every successful melee attack which does not hit armor. I've opted for it in the second to last spot rather than last to protect it from sneak attacks - without armor, it's pretty exposed. | ||
| Uraeus makes another apperance as well here. For 3 mana, the relatively fast poison melee seems like a good option to finish off a pincer style lineup where two units are hitting the front while two hit the backline. |
It seems my opponent had similar thoughts around using Quix this time, but no Dragon monsters:
Not an overly exciting battle, the Carnage Titan and Desert Dragon made short work of Legionnaire Alvar, despite the armor being repaired. The Desert Dragon's retaliate was triggered by the Radiated Scorcher, though missed the Chaos Agent a few times (likely due to its Dodge ability). I do like the way this shows a split offensive with attacking both the front and back each turn though.
Final Thoughts
Dragons are definitely versatile and can change the outcome of match. The ability to pair not only Dragon monsters with neutral monsters but also an entire splinter opens up a range of possibilities. Even better, certain Dragon summoners such as Blighton Bloom have the ability to apply Flying to monsters that would normally be on the ground - a huge boon for battles with Earthquake!
What are the most interesting combinations with the Dragon splinter you've played? Let me know in the comments - thanks for reading!
Thanks for sharing! - @yonilkar
Big mana battles with interesting dragons on it.