Beginner Strategy and Card Giveaway #4 - Water Challenge

Congrats to last week's contest winners, @masq and @simonjay. Thank you to everyone for your comments and for reading the post. I encourage everyone to follow this feed so you don't miss any upcoming giveaways.

For those of you who are new to this blog, every post I try to focus on a card or card combination for beginner level players. These are players who are working through Bronze or Silver league and typically are using Level 1 (1 bcx) cards.

I try to vary the splinters that I am covering so as to give variety to the gameplay styles that might be out there. I encourage all players to experiment with the various rule sets AND the various splinters to discover their own style and how they like to approach the game.

With that have been said, let's dive right into it....

Today I want to try something a bit different. I want to look at 2 different cards from the Water Splinter. These are very diverse cards on opposite ends of the player spectrum. I want to consider with you to what degree these cards are ESSENTIAL for any evolving Water team.

The first card we are going to look at needs little introduction:

RULER OF THE SEAS
This Water splinter Legendary card was introduced as a Reward card and quickly rose through the ranks as a MUST have with any Splinter deck. For 6 mana at Level 1 (1 bcx) you are going to get 2 magic, 3 speed, and 5 life. In addition that those generous statistics you are going to get Blast allowing you to inflict that magic damage to any adjacent Monsters to the target. This in demand, out-of-print, merman comes at the steep market price tag of $4.39 but could be yours if you keep reading.

I rarely can remember a magic friendly format where my opponent used Ruler of the Seas in his back line-up and I won. Paired with staple Summoner Alric Stormbringer and his +1 magic stat and you have a very powerful card to contend with.

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And in this corner....

THE KRAKEN
Memorialized for the epic call to battle from "Clash of the Titans" this behemoth is the mythological plaything of the gods. In his more modest, Splinterlands form, this Legendary Water splinter Reward card is a bank breaking 12 mana. For that you get a 4 melee, 4 speed, 3 shield, 14 life Monster. Those stats alone make it a menace to contend with in most low league match-ups but add to it Taunt and you can see its diversity. Taunt forces all enemy Monsters to target the Kraken if they are able. If you have enough mana to spare you can play the Kraken in the anchor position at the back of your team and draw ALL the enemy attacks allowing your tank card to plow through the front line. To be most effective, this tactic can be paired with the Mermaid Healer who's ability Triage can heal the back line Monsters.

And now for the fun part....

We are going to have a contest. Place your vote for which card, the Ruler of the Seas or the Kraken that you believe is an ESSENTIAL Monster to include in low league match-up. Again we are considering the versatility, contribution, and playability of the Level 1 (1 bcx) version of each of these cards.

Place your vote by leaving the card name in the comments. You can also add any additional thoughts you have (but you don't need to). Also please include your in-game name for the winning giveaway.

We will run the contest for a week. At the end we will tally the votes and declare the winner. AND give away the winning card to a randomly selected player. Here is the catch...you are only eligible to win the card you vote for. So if you vote for Kraken and the Ruler wins, better luck next time - and vice versa. You CAN put multiple votes in, however only one card named per comment.

Good luck everyone, remember to have fun and Play On!!!