Monster's Week: Shock Trooper

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

^{The tips and possible advises in this article are designed for Silver League, in which I am in right now.}

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Introduction

This is a monster I was very excited in getting. Even if he's not the best rewards monster in this set, he's still the one of the best ones for me. From his aloof artwork to his relatively simple debilitation, Shock Trooper is that monster you would want in your Water mage lineup.

In this article, we will discuss Shock Trooper more deeply. From his strengths to his weakness, from his highs and lows, I will tell you everything you need to know about this monster. Keep reading until the end to learn when is the best and worst rules of combat to use Shock Trooper and believe me if I say that it's not an exaggeration when I say that learning more about this monster will be unexpected and "electrifying."

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Shock Trooper has very high stats to compensate for the debilitation. His high magic damage and low mana cost makes him a perfect monster to be included in teams where you would need damage the most.

While Electrified can be bad on most occassions, it can be good depending on abilities you partner it with. If you need to get your Enrage ability active, Electrified your other monster. If you want the Martyr ability to activate faster, he's your guy. It all depends on your perspective and how you use Electrified to benefit your team instead of make it a burden for your lineup.

💊 Abilities 💊

Electrified: [Debilitation] Deals 1 damage to all allied units at the beginning of each round.

Swiftness: [Stat Modifier] [Positive Status] As long as this monster is alive, all friendly monsters has their max speed increased by 1.

Magic Reflect: [Defense] [Damage] Any opponent's monsters with magic damage that attacks this monster will take magic damage back by half the amount.

Pros

High stats with low mana cost. In order to compensate for the Debilitation, these monsters have higher stats than normal. This means that monsters with Debilitations may be good in some rules of combat based on this knowledge.
Passes on Little League Requirement. Little League rule of combat limits a lot of strong damage monsters. Shock Trooper is not one of these being a 4 mana cost unit.
Good monster for Back to Basics rule of combat. Since Debilitations are disabled in Back to Basics rule of combat, then it's a good unit in this rule of combat. This is untrue with a lot of monsters but monsters with Debilitations are best in this rule of combat since it removes the negative effects from their abilities.

Cons

Electrified requires high health lineup
Since Electrified Debilitation damages your team every round, you should use him alongside other monsters with high health as well.
Bad with Taunt Team lineup
Team utilizing Taunt monsters are always in it for a long game. This is bad for the team where Shock Trooper is with as you have a ticking time bomb in the name of Electrified that damages all of your monsters by 1 per round.
Electrified deals true damage.
True damage is a term I use for damages that cannot be negated or reduced by other abilities. An example of this is Poisoned effect in which the monster still takes 2 damage each round even if they have Void and Shield abilities. Electrified has the same damage. Its damage cannot be removed, negated or reduced by other abilities or rules of combat.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Rules of Combat	Description
	^{Little League}	During this battle, only monsters with 4 or less mana are alowed: Little League's requirement is that the monster have 4 mana cost or less. This fits Shock Trooper and there's only a few selected monster that has this much damage at 4 mana cost.
	^{Explosive Weaponry}	All monsters on the board gains the Blast ability that inflicts half the damage to the monsters beside the target: Blast ability is strongest when it's combined with magic damage because the Blast damage will also have magic nature. This means that the blast damage will also pass through armor. The higher your monster's damage, the higher the blast damage will be as well. At max level, Shock Trooper does 5 magic damage which converts to 3 Blast damage to monsters beside his main target.
	^{Back to Basics}	During this battle, all monster's abilities are disabled: Debilitations are still abilities. This means that since in Back to Basics rule of combat, all abilities will be disabled, the Debilitations are also disabled. This just leaves you with a high damage, low mana cost monster with no downsides.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Rules of Combat	Description
	^{Weak Magic}	Monsters on the board can use their armor to block an opponent's magic damage. This has the same effect as Void Armor: With Electrified ticking the damage on your team, you don't want anything that may delay the death of your opponents. Weak Magic combined with Protect ability may not look strong but believe me, it would delay a few rounds of death for the opponent's monsters which means a few more extra ticks for Electrified on your team.
	^{Holy Protection}	All monsters on the board gains the Divine Shield ability that negates one instance of damage: Divine Shield from Holy Protection only negates one instance of damage. Regardless if it's 1 electrified damage or 4 magic damage from Shock Trooper's attack, the Divine Shield will be removed after that one damage.
	^Counterspell	All monsters on the board gains the Magic Reflect ability that inflicts half the damage to any monsters with magic damage attacking this monster: Little League's requirement is that the monster have 4 mana cost or less. This fits Shock Trooper and there's only a few selected monster that has this much damage at 4 mana cost.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Monsters	Description
	^{Runemancer Rye}	Life Leech Counters Electrified
	^{Musa Saline}	Scavenger counters electrified
	^{Venari Marksrat}	Electrified + Martyr

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

This is a very standard magic damage focused team. The extra mana feels good since I can always use Halfling Refugee. The rest are just high damage, high health magic damage monsters. You need monsters with decently high health when paired with Shock Trooper since Electrified Debilitation will inflict 1 unmitigated damage to your team per round.

Lineup

^{Kelya Frendul}

Her increased speed and armor are important in this lineup because it's that type of lineup that I need to hit fast and hit hard or else Shock Trooper's Debilitation will eat up a huge chunk of my monster's health.

^{Halfling Refugee}

I call him my filler tank. I usually add him instead of Hardy Stonefish or Chaos Agent due to his high health. The Weary Debilitation is not an issue because I only needed him for the health. Whether he skip his turn due to the debilitation or not, blocking opponent's damages is his main purpose.

^{Djinn Oshannus}

Djinn Oshannus is my main tank for this game. He replaces Halfling Refugee after it dies and tanks the game onwards. The Void ability, Phase and high speed are all good against magic damage. The high speed alone is also a good defense against melee and range monsters making him a good all rounder tank.

^{Nerissa Tridawn}

Nerissa Tridawn is also a backup tank due to her high health but she is really there to dish that insane 5 magic damage every round.

^{Venari Wavesmith}

I wanted a little bit more protection against Sneaks and Opportunity so I have Venari Wavesmith granted me with extra armor through Protect ability. He's also a magic damage monster which fits the lineup.

^{Shock Trooper}

Shock Trooper is my newest addition to the team. With only 4 mana, he can deal 4 damage which is almost the same as Nerissa Tridawn. The drawback is the Electrified Debilitation inflicting 1 true damage to my team every round making him bad in a long drawn out fight.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

I took control of the battle pretty early and there's no Born Again rule of combat giving Rebirth ability to all of my opponent's monsters, this would've been done in 2 turns. My opponent was not even able to abuse the Taunt-Tank Heal combo because it only takes 3 of my monsters to kill their tank from full health. The rest of their monsters are 1-2 shots each away from dying while on my team, since they are also using a magic damage focused lineup, they got a really hard time getting through Djinn Oshannus which has Void ability that reduces their magic damage by half.

^{> > Click here to view the full battle < <}

Shock Trooper may be a turn off to a lot of people due to that damage taken every round but to me, it's a worth risk. He still has high damage and it's also magic type which means not only it doesn't miss but it also passes through armor.

I would be happy to put Shock Trooper in a lot of my builds especially since there are a lot of ways to counter that extra damage you would get especially in Water Splinter. Using Possibilus the Wise as a summoner gives you extra 2 health and using monsters with Strengthen ability like Merdaali Guardian increases this extra max health by 1. Using these two cards means you already delay the damage for your team by 3 whole rounds.

Shock Trooper is a really good addition to those who are willing to take some risk for more firepower. As long as you know what you are doing, the Debiliation, Electrified, will not be a problem and in other cases, it also might be beneficial for you, again, if you know what you are doing.

This post is an entry for Splinterlands Social Media Contest.
Animated Banners and Dividers are edited in Canva Pro.
Other sources that I do not own are cited under their respective photos.
Some of the fonts used are from instafonts.io

_{If I seem to forget to cite other sources, this would be unintentional. Please leave it on the comments below to be added in the post. Thanks.}

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