Battle Challenge with Dax Paragon

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Hey guys,

this weeks Battle Challenge is about Dax Paragon and for the first time I'm doing this challenge I have a Brawl battle, where I utilized Dax very effectively. It was a silver level Chaos Legion and Riftwatchers Fray. As always I'll be going over my thought process behind the strategy for my battle and my general thoughts on the card.

💥You can watch the full battle here!💥

The Card

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Dax Paragon is a magic attacking life monster from the Chaos Legion set. With its low damage and speed it is primarily a support card. For 2 mana it has decent health as you level it up and at the highest level also gets a second attack, which makes it a bit stronger.

Abilities

Level 2 - Amplify
Level 5 - Affliction

At level 2 Dax gets the Amplify ability which only really does something when you have a monster with Thorns, Magic Reflect or Return Fire. The life splinter has a few of those, but for the most part you need to level the cards to a higher level to get these abilities. Also with the addition of the legendary summoner Grandmaster Rathe (who has Amplify) Dax got a little less impactful.

However! With the recent addition of the Thorns, Magic Reflect and Return Fire rule sets, where all monsters get one or more of these abilities, Dax (and for that part every other Amplify monster) have gotten a huge buff. Rathe is still there, but he's a bit more expensive in terms of mana and price, so with Dax you can utilize the strength of Amplify regardless.

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In terms of the price Dax Paragon is at the cheaper side of Chaos Legion epics. In my opinion you only need the card at level 2 (4 BCX), unless you are playing in Diamond or above, then the extra attack is pretty important. For everything else I'd say the extra health and later on Affliction is nice to have, but not a must if you are on a budget.

The Ruleset

The rules for this battle were Weak Magic (magic attacks hit armor), Little League (only cards that cost 4 or less mana) and Briar Patch (all monsters have Thorns) with 29 mana and every splinter except Earth and Death available.

The Line Up & Strategy

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For my summoner I chose Quix, because of the -1 ranged attack and the speed de-buff is also always nice to have.

I then went with Blinding Reflector and Helmet Kharafax (gladiator card, since this was a brawl) as my tanks. Blinding Reflector because of the Magic Reflect, which would be enhanced by Amplify and Kharafax because of the Scavenger so it could build up some health.

I put in Time Mage primarily for the 2 magic damage, but again, slow is always nice to have. Dax Paragon got a middle slot, just in case they would bring opportunity or sneaks.

Lastly I put in Venari Spellsmith and Spirit Hoarder, because of their magic attack.

My strategy in this battle was the following: With every monster having Thorns I obviously didn't want to play melee monsters, so I had to chose between magic and ranged. I thought about going with ranged but I felt like magic (even though there was the Weak Magic rule set) was superior. However my options for magic attackers was limited and most of them only had 1 attack. This is why I chose to go with a more defensive line up and try and outlast my opponent. Quix made sure to reduce their ranged attack, in case they went ranged. Thorns with amplify protected me from melee and with Blinding Reflector's Magic Reflect ability + Amplify, magic attacks would also not be a problem. The two tanks, one with Bloodlust and Scavenger who could increase his stats, made up for the missing damage and I felt very confident with my line up.

Let's see how it went!

Round 1

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My opponent went with a General Sloan team, but mainly brought melee attackers, which is great for me. Also they didn't have any gladiator cards.

The battle starts with my Time Mage, Venari Spellsmith and Dax Peragon all attacking their Xenith Monk, which unfortunately heals himself for the majority of the damage taken and attacks my Blinding Reflector. With the Amplify however he takes 3 thorns damage and then another one from the Reflectors attack itself, leaving the Monk at 1 health, where my Spirit Hoarder finishes him off.

Their Spirit Hoarder hits the last of my Reflectors armor and takes 2 magic reflect in return. Their Harpy also lands an opportunity attack on my Time Mage but takes 3 thorns damage and instantly kills herself.

Stitch Leech does take out my Spirit Hoarder but also takes 3 thorns damage, leaving it at 1 health. Finally the Sunkai Harvester takes my Blinding Reflector down to 2 health and the thorns take off its armor in the process.

Round 2

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Time Mage, Dax and Venari Spellsmith all go first again and take out the Sunkai Harvester, before it gets a chance to attack, pulling the severely wounded Spirit Hoarder into the first spot where it gets killed by my Blinding Reflector. The thorns damage kill the Reflector as well, though.

Helmet Kharafax takes the tank position, who gained quite some health with his Scavenger ability and now comfortably sits at 10 health.

Xenith Archer does land her attack but only hits the 1 armor and Stitch Leech kills itself, which also triggers Kharafax' Bloodlust ability, giving him bigger stats.

Round 3

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The poor Xenith Archer who can't even attack from the first spot is taken quick care off, securing the win for me in this brawl battle.

Conclusion

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Sometimes defense is the best offense - the strategy worked perfectly! I reduced their ranged damage, reflected magic damage and had their melee attackers kill themselves off with amplified thorns. I think this battle shows how strong amplify can be in these rule sets and especially on a card like Dax Paragaon, because you can fit him into any line up. In this scenario (with the Little League rule set) it was especially powerful, because low mana cost monsters usually don't have as much health, making the amplified thorns and reflect damage even more deadly. The engine also had me winning this battle at 100%!

The only thing to be said is that my opponent did make a mistake in my opinion, playing so many melee monsters in a Thorns rule set. But then again it was a Chaos Legion/ Riftwatchers Fray with Little League, so options were limited.

Disclaimer

None of this is financial advice. This content is for educational purposes only and might fall out of date as both Splinterlands and the Crypto Market in general are subject to constant change.