Small beetle, big time - Crypt Beetle - Share your Battle

Welcome to my "Share Your Battle" post, featuring "Crypt Beetle"
My ingame nick goes by "djrockx" and I am a proud scholar (NA-SPL-38/NA-SPL-121) from the NFTy Arcade Guild, so i am happy to use footage from a battle in gold.

Crypt Beetle - Cardstats

The "Crypt Beetle" is a 3 mana cost, "death"-splinter card,
from the "Chaos Legion"-set.
As we can see, even at level 1 our little beetle has the "Shield"-Ability.
This ability is very useful against melee and ranged attacks. Why?
Because it cuts the incoming damage into half.

Important to know: incoming damage will always be rounded up except when it is "1".
Example:
Enemy attacks with "5", half of it would be "2,5", but you will get hit for "3".
Enemy attacks with "1", half of it "0,5", but you will get hit for "0".

Another nice stat is her armor, since she starts her adventure with "1"
(rulesets/enemy abilities excluded),
she needs to be hit a minimum of 2 times with a melee or ranged attack to be taken out.

Lore

If you want to read some lore about our little Beetle, you can click here.

Market

Get your beetle at peakmonsters.

Currently you can pick up a regular foil beetle for only 8 cents, or a gold foil for 89 cents.
If you want to max her out, regular or gold foil, you can do it for around 37 dollar. (7 hours into the new season)

When to play and when not ?!

With the little life points she has, we have to be careful with our beetle.

Try to avoid "Noxious Fumes", unless you need some fodder what will die in the first round.
Another ruleset where she can be a fodder is "Equal Opportunity".
Not really favorable is "Unprotected", because she is now in danger to die in one hit. She likes to be protected even more, "Armored Up", so she may be able to tank one more heavy hit.
"Lost Magic" and "Up Close and Personal", depending on the manacap she can be our tank, fodder or backlineguard. Because the incoming damage will be only physical.
She can be a cheap backlineguard in "Super Sneak".
With some tweaks or mindgames, in "Equalizer" she can rise to a real beefy tank.
And the one and only "Little League", depending on your strategy she can be everything you want. But tank or backlineguard are her favorite position in this ruleset.

Ruleset		Description
	Noxious Fumes	All monsters start the game poisoned and will take 2 damage each turn unless cleansed.
	Equal Opportunity	All monsters will attack from any position and will target the enemy Monster with the lowest health, unless the attacking monster is in first position.
	Unprotected	Monsters do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs.
	Armored Up	Monsters get +2 added to their armor stat.
	Lost Magic	Magical Monsters can't be used.
	Up Close and Personal	Only Monsters with Melee attacks may be used.
	Super Sneak	All monsters have the Sneak ability. Targets the last Monster on the enemy Team instead of the first Monster.
	Equalizer	The initial Health of all Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base Health
	Little League	You can only use Monsters and Summoners with 4 or less mana.

My Battle

Ruleset

I was facing a "Little League" ruleset, with a high manacap.
Fire, Water, Earth and Death are open to play.

My Strategy and Lineup

Card display with Level	Strategy
	There was a fairly high chance that the opponent will pick some magic damage. So i decided to protect me from this. Thaddis Brood, lowering the magic attack and the health from the enemy monsters by 1. Minus 1 health in "Little League" can be crucial!
	As my main Tank i picked Xenith Monk. With his speed of 4 he gets a chance to dodge some attacks, and "Heal" can keep him alive one or two more rounds.
	Shadow Snitch is my second tank. I picked him to possibly counter a Xenith Monk with "Affliction", denying healing effects. And keep my the damage focus on the first enemy monster, as he uses "Reach".
	Riftwing, as snipe target, protecting my ranged/magic damage dealers. "Flying" and his speed of 4 makes him pretty evasive, and when he dodges he uses "Backfire" to punish his attackers. "Scavenger" helps him to stay alive even longer.
	To mix up to damage output, Life Sapper joined the team. Using "Life Leech", building up a decent health pool until he hits first position.
	My last damage dealer should be Soul Strangler, a heavy hitter in the "Little League".
	Crypt Beetle holding the door in the backline, protecting my ranged/magic damage dealers from enemy "Sneak" attacks. "Shield" coming in clutch in that position.

Gameplan was set.
Strong and enduring frontline,
take down the enemy one by one,
focusing the first position.

The Battle

Watch it here. Or you can read my summary.

Round 1

We can already see, my opponent is splitting up his damage output. Riftwing and Crypt Beetle will be there to soak up some of it. But lets play it out.

His Twisted Jester starts up with hitting Riftwing for 3. My Xenith Monk hits his Riftwing for 2, same goes for my Life Sapper stacking up his health by 1 but also taking 1 damage from the reflecting damage. His Venari Bonesmith damages Xenith Monk by 1 and stacking up 1 health. My Soul Strangler misses and takes 2 damage, but his Riftwing still got taken down by my Shadow Snitch. Meanwhile my Crypt Beetle takes 1 damage from his Uraeus. My Xenith Monk dodges Grenadier but got hit from Soul Strangler by 3.

Round 2

Again a big hit from Twisted Jester on my Riftwing for 3. Xenith Monk healing back up to 5, and tag teams with Life Sapper (2 + 2 attack) to take down his Venari Bonesmith. Now Soul Strangler and Shadow Snitch teaming up (3 + 2 attack) to take down his Twisted Jester. Crypt Beetle tanking another 1 damage from Uraeus. Ending the round with his Grenadier hitting Xenith Monk for 2.

Round 3

This time my Xenith Monk starts the round, healing up to 5 and taking down Soul Strangler. Life Sapper comes up with another takedown, on Grenadier. My Soul Strangler breaking the armor of Uraeus. Uraeus hitting my Xenith Monk for 2 but Shadow Snitch closing out the game by taking him down.

Recap

The set strategy worked out well. My tanks were in the right spots,
using their abilities to sustain thru the fight while protecting my damage dealers.
Overall a nice win.

Would i change something?
If i had Owster Rotwell as an option and expect my opponent to go magic, he is a great choice too, but would've made this game a lot closer.

Should i get a Beetle?

For only 8 cents per BCX and starting with her ability at 1 BCX,
she is a nice addition to your deck in "Little League" or low mana matchups.
Especially when you just started and compete in modern league.
It is a YES from me.

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Thanks for reading, see you on my next post.