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Card Spotlight #18: Djinn Apprentice

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"Things aren't always what they seem."-Jafar
I love this quote from Aladdin and it fits Djinn Apprentice to a T. If you look at him, he looks weak. 2 damage with no ability is laughable. 5 mana cost with 4 health and you could cry. That is, of course, before you use him and see how amazing card he is.

The card we will be discussing today is Djinn Apprentice.

Djinn Apprentices prefer to study under more powerful djinn to hone their magic. While not as strong or cunning as others of their kin, they are just as dangerous to untrained warriors.
When the Chaos Legion arrived, it had a diverse effect on the djinn. Not a unified race by any means, some chose to align with the Chaos Legion, some chose to defend against it, and others chose to go their own path and leave it all behind. Djinn Apprentices chose to align themselves with Djinn Inferni, believing in his mission and his vision.

We would rate this card based on:

• Cost to buy/rent this card. How affordable and accessible is the card.
• Card Stats. How balanced the card is based on its role.
• Card Effect. How useful is its effect based on the role of the card.
• Strengths and Weaknesses. If the card can counter other cards and/or be countered easily by others or not.
• Positioning. Adaptability of where the card can be placed.
• Compatibility. How useful it is on its current element.
  
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  Rental/Buy Cost ||

  
  

  Below is the rental of the card at the time of this writing.

  
  
  
  
  Renting Djinn Apprentice if you're not planning to use a high level one is not smart. Only rent him if you are planning to use a higher level of him. Otherwise, you can play the level 1 version free of charge until the rotation of the free cards change.

Below is the buy cost of the card at the time of this writing.

Chaos Legion cards are currently at the lowest since everyone is getting them. There's an abundance in supply and thus, the price is currently low. However, this might change after a few years if you're patient enough to wait. Djinn Apprentice is a good investment since if in the future, there would be a mage summoner for fire splinters, then this card would most likely be one of the strongest cards in the game.

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Card Stats ||

Mana: 5 || Damage: 2 Magic || Speed: 2 || Armor: 0 || Health: 4
Djinn Apprentice's stats are on the high side only because of the damage type. Magic damage does not miss so speed doesn't matter. It pass through armor so 2 is enough. The only down side is the health but 4 health means he can withstand at least 2 instance of damage in which you probably slaughtered the whole enemy team before they reach Djinn Apprentice. ════════════════════════════════

Card Effect ||

Deathblow || This Monster does 2x damage if their target is the only Monster left on the enemy team. Deathblow is a new skill released from Chaos Legion. I haven't used it personally but theory wise, any effect that increases damage is a good one. Increased damage means less turn of killing your opponents. Less turns means less chance of coming back. ════════════════════════════════

Strengths Weaknesses ||

|| Djinn Apprentice's strengths lies on the damage type. As I mentioned, magic damage does not miss and they pass through armor. Both of those "hidden" effects are really strong. Imagine your opponent having 20 armor and 2 health. Under normal condition, you will need 11 hits or 11 rounds of damage to kill that. Since the damage is magic, you only need 1 turn. That's quite big of a difference. The speed is self explanatory. Djinn Apprentice doesn't miss, hence any abilities and/or speed does not affect him. Opponent has 70% total dodge chance, he hits EACH AND EVERY SINGLE TIME.

|| The weakness is both the mana cost and the health. The health limits you to play on specific rule sets like Earthquake and Noxious Fumes. The mana cost allows you to have less monsters on board and/or less powerful creatures. It also hinders you on playing on certain Rule Sets like Little League. ════════════════════════════════

Positioning ||

The best position for this card is anything other than the front. You can use him as a second tank, sneak blocker or anything. If all things fail, you can even use him as a tank. The problem though is he'll probably blow up in 1 turn.

ROUND 1:

By end of Round 1, both Serpentine Spy dies. I'm currently at a disadvantage when it comes to damage and number of monsters but in this game, I have an advantage in quality due to my line up.

ROUND 2:

By end of Round 2, my opponent's Living Lava dies. with mine standing at 1 health. This is the thing that amazes me when I use Djinn Apprentice. Magic damage is not reduced by Shield Ability which in turns provides advantage on a mirror match.

ROUND 3:

By end of Round 3, my Tenyoo Striker goes to front after my Living Lava dies. On the other hand, my opponent's Goblin Fireballer also dies making Fire elemental take the front.

ROUND 4:

Since ranged creatures cannot attack when in front, by Round 5, Fire Elemental dies without inflicting damage. It is followed by Spark Pixies which also dies after a few seconds.
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Compatibility ||

• The best combo with this card for me is with the Dragon Summoner Delwyn Dragonscale. This summoner increases all magic damage of your allies by 1. This puts Djinn Apprentice's damage to a deadly 3. The down side is that the summoner also costs 5 mana so you can probably only use this combo when you're on a high mana cost battle.
• With Fire Splinters, I combo this card with Living Lava. The mix of melee and magic damage brings wonders and I actually win mirror matches this way. My opponent employs all melee due to Tarsa, I use all Melee with 1 Djinn Apprentice and their Living Lava melts first and then the rest of the team. It's an underrated strategy to mix your damage types on every battle.
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Lastly...

Before doing the final verdict, here is the sample of a battle using this card.

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Final Thoughts

With all the evidences that we gathered, we could say that Djinn Apprentice is quite strong especially if you know how to position him properly and know different tricks in the book like mixing damage types. Among the level 1 new Chaos Legion cards, even without an ability, I consider him one of the strongest due to the amount of games that he let me win.

All in all, I would give it...

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Special Thanks to...

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• Amino Apps for the Free Dividers.

(Those are not pictures. Just copy paste it to your blogs.)

• Giphy for the gifs in this blog.
  
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  I freely accept all gifts and donations. So, if you have any, I will gladly take it. lol.

  
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  Thank you for reading my blog!