Magic Counter with Dragons: Zyvax Vuul & Void Dragon

Match-link: https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_c0d0a05cf56ada98e5379e9ef7d2be38

In Gold 2, I was facing an opponent who notoriously used magic to win his games. He had very solid cards to run his strategy on the green team.

Preparation Phase

In order to defuse my opponent’s magic play, my strategy was to dodge as much magic as possible. The ability which allows for monsters to “dodge” magic attacks is called “Phase”. Phase basically takes the speed of a monster and matches it with the speed of the attacking monster. If your monster has higher speed, it may dodge the magic attack of the enemy, similar to the dodge chance for melee and archery damage.

Most magic monsters, especially in the Earth Splinter, have low speed. My strategy was to put a phase monster with high speed in the first place and support it with other monsters/summoner to give my tanks additional speed or reduce the enemy’s speed.
I chose Void Dragon, a Dragon monster with 5 speed and the “Phase” ability paired with Quix, the Dragon summoner who reduces the enemy’s speed by 1. Void Dragon also has the “Void” ability which absorbs one magic damage if it is hit, meaning that if the enemy does 3 magic damage, Void Dragon would actually only be hit by 2 magic damage.
To support my tank, I put a lvl 7 Goblin Psychic who provides “Tank Heal”, “Silence” (reducing enemy magic damage by 1) and “Affliction” (prohibits healing once afflicted). As a secondary tank, a level 6 Unicorn Mustang with decent speed, “Void” and “Reflect” was my choice. I buffed the “Reflect” of the Unicorn with Queen Mycelia, also providing 2 physical shields to all of my monsters.
Venari Seedsmith with 3 archery and the possibility to poison the enemy and Zyvax Vuul with 6 archery damage every second round would be my main dps to win the game. I put high damage archery units in my lineup, because I expected solid Magic defense of my enemy.

Enemy Line Up

My opponent had a similar game plan: Buffing his magic damage while his tank reflects (amplified) magic damage back at me. He used Obsidian as his summoner to buff his magic attacks by 1, Unicord Mustang (lvl 6 with “Void” & “Reflect”) in first position, Mycelic Slipspawn (“Taunt”) in the back to absorb my first wave of attacks, Oaken Behemoth, a strong melee, and magic monster as second tank, Queen Mycelia (Shield, Amplify, Triage), Goblin Psychic (Affliction, Tank Heal, Silence), Mushroom Seer (Poison, Silence).

Overall, a very strong team with a lot of health defense and offense.

Combat Phase

1. In Round one, Void Dragon caught some hits, and he was brought down to 3 hearts. Poisoned, he barely survived the first round.
2. In round two, my dps were able to bring down the enemy taunt monster. My 2 archery units contributed a total of 11 damage to the taunt monster alone while Void Dragon dodged many shots at him. He survives round 2 as well.
3. Finally in round 3, Void Dragon goes down eventually and my Mustang Unicorn in unison with Queen Mycelia throws huge amounts of magic damage back to the enemy magic units while being healed to full at the end of the round.
4. Seedsmith and from Zyvax Vuul knock out the enemy Unicorn Mustang with 9 combined damage. Now, Oaken Behemoth jumps into the first position. At the same time, my reflect strategy pays off, the enemy Mushroom Seer goes down killing himself with magic damage. My Mustang Unicorn ends the round with full health again.
5. Reflect is wiggling down the enemy lineup slowly but surely. The enemy Queen Mycelia finally goes down. The two remaining enemy monsters remain with low life.
6. Final round, my two MVPs Seedsmith and Zyvax Vuul finish the enemy up and give me the win.

Review

I am going to experiment more with this specific lineup, maybe with a more levelled Zyvax Vuul. Seedsmith and Vuul are capable to take out even very powerful and expensive cards while being relatively cheap themselves.
Void Dragon, although only having 8 hearts, dodged many attacks and lived surprisingly long. Combined with a tank heal, Void Dragon holds his ground, which is amazing for a 5 mana card. Finally, the use of Amplify paired with Reflect chews through enemy lines. If Reflect comes together with the Void ability, it is very strong. If you don’t want to use Unicorn Mustang, you could also use Prismatic Energy (lvl 5) or Xenith Monk (lvl 8).

Thanks for watching. Upvote and leave your comments below.

Match-link: https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_c0d0a05cf56ada98e5379e9ef7d2be38
tion

#splinterlands #Play2Earn #SPT #Gaming