It's been a great week for Splinterlands so far, and it has the potential to get even better having in mind that we also have a Town Hall in a few hours. I will share how my pack opening went in the Community Challenge post, so we'll just stick to a CA battle in this one. It will be featuring the new Promo Legendary card - Gramel the Hunger.
Now before we get into the stats discussion of Gramel the Hunger, let's have a sneak peek into his LORE.
So, Gramel was summoned into the realm of Praetoria by Portia but it seems that her plans for him could eventually derail (as it often happens with the sinister plans of the big baddies).
Alright, we've got some idea of who Gramel the Hunger is, after glancing at his lore. Let us have a look at his stats and abilities at different key levels now.
Gramel is an 11-mana Neutral Legendary of the Fiend bloodline. What's more spectacular about him is that he is the first unit in Splinterlands' history to have a triple attack - he has 1 Magic Attack, 2 Ranged Attack and 1 Melee Attack and level 1. His other stats are 1 Armor, 7 HP and 3 Speed. At level 1 he starts off with 2 abilities - Charge and Scatter Shot. At level 2 his stats remain unchanged, however, he get an extra ability we've already discussed - Bloodline Tribute. Level 3 is the most interesting one. That's because at that level he gains the Shapeshift ability:
This essentially means that Gramel is viable choice for all Bloodline Archons apart from all Archons in general as he is a Neutral unit anyway. And more importantly, he gains the specific ability of each Bloodline when played with a Bloodline Archon.
At level 3 he also gains an additional Melee point for a total of 2.
Finally at level 4 he gains 1 more Magic damage for a total of 2 as well as his final ability - Camouflage. I think Gramel is a very fun card and will be the center of some very entertaining battles for sure.
<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>BATTLE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>
- The line-up of the Battle and the Ruleset:
There is just one ruleset in this battle but it is pretty restrictive - Shades of Gray (You can only summon neutral units) . The mana budget is 48 which is a decent amount of mana, especially given the fact that the pool of units I can use is limited. The available Elements are Fire and Death but it does not fully matter in this case as I can only pay Neutral units, the only impact it has is on the available Archons (Summoners). I'll go with Lorkus.
My Main tank for this battle is Mantoroth. He's a pretty beefy boy with 4 Armor and 11 Health at the cost of 11 Mana which makes him susceptible to Giant Killer (does double damage against targets that cost 10 or more mana). He also has 3 Melee Attack and 2 Speed. In terms of abilities - at max level he has the following ones (in order of appearance): - Shield (reduced damage from Melee and Ranged attacks), ARMORED STRIKE (Any unit with this ability gains an ADDITIONAL Melee attack using its Armor stat. This allows characters to improvise with deadly force, using their gauntlets, shields, helmets, or perhaps physical attributes (spikes, hard shells, etc) as weapons!), True Strike (this Monster's attacks cannot miss), Repair (restores some armor to the friendly Monster whose armor has taken the most damage) , Blast (does additional damage to Monsters adjacent to the target Monster). He is definitely shaping up to be a pretty interesting card, especially with the New Ability - Armored Strike and the fact that he is a Neutral Card, so he can be included in any Element.
Taye Loreswift (definitely not related to Taylor Swift ;) ) is a 3-mana Melee Elf Legendary Unit. At level 1 she starts off with 1 Melee Attack, 3 Speed, 1 Armor and 2 HP. The ability she starts off with is Reach. At level 2 she gains an extra point of Health for a total of 3 and her second ability - Inspire. Next at level 3 she gains 1 Melee Attack for a total of 2. She also gains her third ability - Snare. Finally at level 4 she gains 1 Melee Attack for a total of 3 and 1 HP for a Total of 4. She also gains her final ability - Piercing. I think Taye Loreswift has a very good kit for the 3 mana she costs. She's definitely a contender to be often played in very low-mana battles as well as whenever the Little League ruleset is active, especially give the fact that she's a Neutral Unit. She's also an Elf so we've got a bloodline synergy Archon to add more power to her kit since she would get Execute in that scenario.
The 3rd spot is for the Moxian Rebel. He is a staple Rebellion Weapons Training card. So, I figured if I am going to train the Grimbardun Smith, why not go all the way and give him a total of 3 different types of attacks. The more, the merrier, right?
In the 4th spot I've got my Weapons Training target - the Grimbardun Smith. He is a 6 Mana card with No Attack, 3 Armor and 10 Health. This definitely is quite telling for its purpose, and if you look at the set of abilities he has, you can definitely tell that he will be a pretty good support card with defensive functions. His skillset includes: Immunity (this monster is immune to negative status effects), Void (reduced damage from Magic attacks), Shield (reduced damage from Melee and Ranged attacks) and Repair (restores some armor to the friendly Monster whose armor has taken the most damage).
Bren Paleswron is a 6-mana Legendary Neutral card with a dual-attack - Ranged and Melee. Don't let the stick figure placeholder fool you - he's a human (as seen in his actual artwork above). At level 1 he starts off with 1 Melee Attack, 2 Ranged Attack, 3 Speed, 0 Armor and 4 HP as well as 2 abilities - Sneak and Shapeshift
As you can see even though he's a human, he's actually counted as all possible bloodlines due to this newly introduced ability. That's pretty big for obvious reasons. At level 2 he gains an additional ability - Weapons Training. This is the first Weapons Trainer with a dual-attack which means... yeah.. he grants a Melee and a Ranged attack to adjacent units with no attack. At level 3 he gains an additional point of Melee Attack for a total of 2 and 1 more HP for a total of 5. Finally at level 4 he has 3 Melee Attack, 2 Ranged Attack, 3 Speed, 0 Armor and 5 HP. He also gains one more ability- True Strike. He's a very interesting card for more than one reason. We'll see how he'll fit in the upcoming CA meta.
Last but definitely not least is our protagonist - the Gramel the Hunger. I expect him to be able to satiate his endless hunger in this battle.
It is time for a quick round by round analysis:
- The Archon I am going with for the battle is, as I have already mentioned is Lorkus. Lorkus is one of my favorite Archons since I really like his ability to grant two units Life Leech/Affliction, and that's always helpful, especially for 3-Attack units (such as Gramel and in this case GBS).
- After 1 round of exchanging blows I have lost my Mantaroth while my opponent has lost their Venka. They do seem to be in a better position right now.
- Round 3 - at first glance the line-ups seem to be even but that might not be Gramel's opinion.
- Round 4 - alright, my opponent has more units on the field but not for too long as his Mantaroth is finally about to die.
- Round 5 - All that's left for Gramel is to finish up the remaining enemy forces. Actually GBS and Bren might do that before him.
- Victory! 45 SPS vs an opponent with 6,420 rating. Not too shabby.
Gramel the Hunger is a Legendary Promo card you should not be sleeping on. He is currently being traded at $25.40 per bcx and I think that this price for him is actually a steal. Bear in mind he's not found in packs, so get him while the price is not too prohibitive.
Over and Out,
Referral
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