Card Highlights #20: Oaken Behemoth

"Behemoth was the name of a massive mammalian monster that represented the earthly aspect of a trinity."
With his immense number of uses and strong capabilities, Oaken Behemoth is the portrayal of his lore, a behemoth, the king of all animals. The high stats, great abilities, usage and everything else gives you a sense of confidence once he lands on the battlefield.

Lore

Many years ago on the +banks of the River of Power, a huge boar was entangled with a Dark Eternal Warlock in a fight whose stakes were greater than life itself. The Warlock was attempting to harvest the beast's soul, but this giant boar would not be taken without a fight. Every blast of dark magic from the Warlock only drove the beast into a greater frenzy. With a mighty charge, the boar rammed an old oak tree that sat near the river's edge. The tree fell, then rolled toward the Warlock and the beast, forcing them both into the rushing waters of the River of Power. They disappeared under the foam.
Several weeks later in a magical lightning storm, the kind that only hits Anumün once a generation, the Oaken Behemoth crawled out of the River of Power. Its every muscle and sinew are like an oak tree and it stands taller and stronger than any other beast in the western forest. It strides the woods near the river, protecting its waters from those not worthy of the power.

Rental Cost

Oaken Behemoth's rental maybe quite high due to the fact that it's a Beta Legendary. Both boosts price as Beta cards cannot be obtained anymore unless you buy one from another player in a third party market.

Buy/Sell Cost

The cost of Oaken Behemoth is also high due to the facts stated above. Since there's low supply of Oaken Behemoth, the price is high overall.

Card Stats

Oaken Behemoth's stats is high. He is really a behemoth. High health with high mixed damage of melee and magic, he brings chaos to the battlefield the more he goes to the front.

Card Effect

Reach || Melee attack Monsters with the Reach ability may attack from the second position on the team.
Reach is an excellent bonus ability for Oaken Behemoth. This allows him to attack on the second position as a melee. Also, having magic damage as well, he can also attack using magic on any position allowing Oaken Behemoth to attack twice when in first and second positions.

Void Armor || Magic attacks hit this Monster's armor before its Health.
Void Armor is not as useful but still a good ability. This allows Oaken Behemoth to use his armor to block magic damage. This also means at full magic team comp, you can use cards with Repair abilities like Scavo Hireling as a soft healer for Oaken Behemoth.

Knock Out || Does double damage when attacking an enemy that is stunned.
Knock out is probably the most useless ability there is. The reason for this is that you require a lot of preparations and timing to use Knock Out abilities. Knock Out alone makes it useless and having a monster with Stun abilities helps but not a lot.

Dodge || Has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks.
Dodge is a good substitute ability for speed. It allows Oaken Behemoth to dodge more attacks and in turn increase his survivability.

Trample || When a Monster with Trample hits and kills its target, it will perform another attack on the next Monster on the enemy Team.
Trample with Oaken Behemoth is weirdly strong. It's weird due to his mixed damage. It makes another attack on the next monster meaning it's going to do another melee and magic damage. Imagining that sends shivers down my spine as to how battle would go once Oaken Behemoth unlocks his Trample ability.

When to use

|| All monsters get the Blast Ability which does additional damage to Monsters adjacent to the target Monster. Additional damage is equivalent to main damage/2 rounded up.
Explosive Weaponry is an awesome Rule Set for Oaken Behemoth. Since Oaken Behemoth does both magic and melee attack on first and second positions, it also does blast damage for both providing two blast effects per round.

|| All monsters have the Sneak ability. Targets the last Monster on the enemy Team instead of the first Monster.
Super Sneak may not be too useful for Oaken Behemoth due to his Reach ability but Super Sneak allows you more positioning advantages. This allows Oaken Behemoth to use Sneak ability when in third position and higher.

|| All monsters will attack from any position (range monsters cannot attack from position 1) and will target the enemy Monster with the lowest health.
Equal Opportunity is the most deadly Rule Set when combined with Oaken Behemoth's Trample ability. This allows him to pick off the lowest health monster, then attack once more with the Trample ability.

When not to use

|| Legendary Monsters can't be used. Legendary Summoners are still available though.
Being a legendary card, this hinders legendary cards, including Oaken Behemoth, to be used in the current battle. With this Rule Set, you're not allowed to use any legendaries, including Oaken Behemoth.

|| Magical Monsters can't be used. Your armor will play a very important role here. Get summoner which provides armor. (Drake of Arnak, The Peakrider, Chanseus the Great, Tyrus Paladium, Lir Deepswimmer). Or maybe one that takes armor away from your opponent. (Wizard of Eastwood) And, if possible use a monster that can penetrate.
Lost Magic is the same with above. However, it now eliminates all magic damage type from being used in the current battle.

|| Monsters with Melee attack type can't be used.
Keep Your Distance is the same as Lost Magic with the difference of being unable to use the melee monsters and those with melee damage type instead.

Battle

Click here to view the replay

This is the positioning I used for this battle:

Oaken Behemoth goes to front being protected by Psychic Goblin and Queen Mycelia. This is a semi-Mage team relying mostly on magic type attacks.

Round 1

By end of Round 1, no deaths was made but Mycelic Slipspawn goes to 1 health. Oaken Behemoth's armor were broken as well from my opponent's damage.

Round 2

Round 2 immediately turn the tides of battle in my favor with the death of Mycelic Slipspawn. Due to my magic damage type, opponent's Mycelic Infantry's Shield did not work and were not safe from any of the magic damage from my team.

Round 3

With the access to the back line, game immediately ended by end of round 3 with the death of Goblin Tower and Failed Summoner.

Disclaimer

Battle photos are taken from Splinterlands in-game website. To view the full game, click on this link.

I do not own any of the animated pictures. Visit Giphy to get more information.
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