Hello Splinterlands Summoners and welcome to another edition of Community Engagement Challenge! Today's topic is about my favorite Conclave Arcana unit. I can't say I have one but there are many out there. One of them is Thraghun, the reliable second tank I use in the Death and Water Splinters.
Lore
Raised in the Grimward of Grazg Batul, Thraghun has always been the one to laugh the loudest, hit the hardest, and strike the fastest. He and his sister have fought side by side since they could swing a fist, and he’s never doubted they’ll die side by side, too.
While Thragha wades into the fray, he picks apart the enemy from behind—a crossbow bolt through the ribs, a poisoned blade to the throat. He’s not subtle. He’s vicious and relentless.
Stats and Abilities
Thraghun is a rare, nine mana card. He has dual attack of ranged and melee. At max level, he deals two ranged and melee damage each and has decent speed of three. On defense he has five armor and eight health. He has five abilities. He comes with two abilities of Reach and Cripple at level one. At max level, his abilities total to five. They are mostly to punish the enemy units like Return Fire, effective against enemy ranged units. Weaken will decrease the enemy's health and Poison which decreases the targets health each round. With all these stats and abilities, Thraghun is a great secondary tank especially with the Death splinter.
Role in Battle
Mainly because of his Reach ability and stats, Thraghun's primary role in battle is that of a second tank, hitting the enemy from second position with his dual attacks behind the primary tank. Should the tank fall, he can take the role of tank since he has sufficient defense.
I also use him in Going the Distance ruleset where his melee attack gives him an advantage. His Return Fire ability is also a great plus in this ruleset. Another ruleset where he can take advantage of his dual attacks is Melee Mayhem or Equal Opportunity where he can attack with melee from any position.
Thraghun is "only" a rare card but his stats and abilities bring far more to the table than other epics or legendary cards.
Featured Battles
Battle 1 - Second Tank in the Water Team
The ruleset in this battle was Arcane Dampening. I thought that this is a perfect ruleset to use Commander Slade, my favorite tank whose weakness is magic attacks. In second position I place Thraghun, my reliable second tank. In third is another ranged unit, Steppe Stalker, who has the Close Range and Slow abilities. In fourth position is a unit that supports my tank with her Repair ability, Conclave Tracker. In fifth and last positions were two more ranged units. I avoided using magic units because of the ruleset which decreases magic attacks.
In spite of the ruleset, the enemy team still used a magic archon which gave him the disadvantage in this battle.
My units were faster and the enemy attacks were dampened by the ruleset. While the Giant Alpine Skink is a decent tank, it's no match against two tanks doing damage to it. Soon my team eliminated the enemy tank and second unit while I also lost Thraghun because of the Target Practice ruleset made him a target. My team was faster and deal higher damage, the battle was over in round five.
Battle 2 - Tank in Going the Distance Ruleset
This is a ruleset where Thraghun will shine if he is paired with the Death archon who will give him the Close Range ability. He'll also have an undue advantage if he has his Return Fire ability which returns damage dealt by ranged units. In this battle, I used Thraghun as the primary tank although he can also be effective in second position. The rest of the team was composed of ranged units.
The enemy also chose the Death archon owing to his Close Range ability. However his team composition is different. My advantage in first position is evident. Thraghun deals more damage and has more defense than the enemy's.
My team eliminated two of the enemy units before Thraghun himself was eliminated. Having the advantage in numbers, my team rolled over the opposition for an easy victory.
Conclusion
Splinterlands battles are won by a team of cards. Thraghun is the type of card that plays a particular role (second position) and he is great in it. Not all cards are created equal. There are super powerful cards that can carry the team but there are also role players that when used correctly, can give us the advantage in battles. This is what makes Splinterlands a fun game to play. We have to determine the card's strengths and use them in the position and rulesets where their strengths are optimal.
This post has been shared on Reddit by @logen9f through the HivePosh initiative.