The crazed tinker, Morloth, created the Disintegrator within his lair in the Badlands. Assembling various parts of other creatures together, he spent an age designing and building his masterpiece. The only problem was bringing it to life. He tried taking the fierce lightning from the sky and filling the monstrous body with raw energy but that didn’t work and only damaged its limbs. He experimented with molten power from within the ground but that only burnt away its flesh and hide. It wasn’t until he had a visit from a cloaked agent of chaos and was gifted the answer to his problems that the engine burst into life... - Splinterlands Lore

Disintegrator - The Wild Card

Hey Splinterfans, Gamers and Collectors!

Today I'll be reviewing a popular, versatile, and interesting card in the P2E game Splinterlands!

In Splinterlands, there is one special Splinter that everyone uses on a daily basis, and that's Neutral. Disintegrator is one of these Neutral cards, making it especially useful because you can use it in any battle regardless of what element/splinter you chose. (Other than the occasional battle where they aren't allowed)

Disintegrator is but a humble common card, and it is currently available as a starter card. Meaning that any account can use a level 1 copy of this card. This version is the one you'll see the most if you play in Bronze or Silver, and even then I rarely see above a level 3 in Gold. Not to say that its future levels aren't good, they are great, as we'll see in a moment!

Stat Breakdown:

As seen above, Disintegrator has an interesting ability set.
Level 1-4, it is simply a secondary tank or debuff card. Good for a side card reducing melee on enemy teams in high mana fights. Also to have up front as a tank, or behind the main tank in some situations. You see it fairly often, especially in melee only battles.

Level 5-9, this is more viable as a frontline and also as a rear damage source in rulesets where melee can attack from anywhere. The knock out ability isn't that good in my opinion, but it's good enough to be a nice buff all the same. However, Trample adds some nice potential to score an extra hit or 2, increasing your damage even further.

At max level, it gets even more viable as a frontline, with retialiate being added in. Meaning it has a chance to attack back when struck by a melee attack. Not bad at all, but a weird card in some ways. It's very anti-melee, but not durable enough to withstand most high damage teams. Especially if they use magic.

So where does this card shine? Melee Fights. If you highly suspect your opponent to choose melee, or if melee is the only option, this card is great. For 7 mana it has alright base stats. Not very high, but not strictly low, the abilities are what make it stand out. One could argue that Harklaw would be an obvious better choice in a melee only battle for 1 more mana, but if the mana cap allows for it why not try both?
While a hard card to utilize correctly, it being a Neutral splinter allows it to be quite versatile. Usable in nearly every battle, this card is quite nice to have. Perhaps a bit niche, but when you need it it's a gamechanger.

Where I like to use this card:

I've somewhat answered this above, but I primarily use this card when only Melee cards are allowed. I do also fight in Gold though, so I don't have access to the level 10 retaliate option. Usually, my summoner happens to be too low a level and it is capped at lvl 3 or 4, rather than the allowable 5. I typically go for lvl 2-3 summoners even in Gold, to save DEC. Regardless, I do try to utilize the level 5 cap when I can especially with this card, because Trample is a nice bonus.

To the fights!

Click here to watch the replay

Here I chose the reliable -1 Melee summoner, combined with Disintegrator and Harklaw. My frontline was actually invincible from this, and only their sand worm was a threat at this point. Fortunately, I was able to secure a win. I thought about using the same summoner they chose as well, but using -1 Melee in Melee only fights is just too strong in my opinion. I had to choose it. No trample this round, but you can see the -1 melee from this card was very useful. A total of -2 Melee on their team is what won me the game really.

Click here to watch the replay

Here I utilize the trample ability. I chose Daria for +1 melee on the team as well, and put Molten Ogre in back as a rear meatshield and to further lower their attack. Despite a lower mana cap, this battle I managed to reduce their attack by 2, and increase mine by 1. I even managed to destroy the deadly Grum. All in all, a good match and a good showcase of Disintegrator in Gold rank. At least I think so.
If you're playing gold, I'd consider renting or buying a level 5 Disintegrator to bolster your deck.

Undervalued or Overvalued?

At the time of writing, this card sits at a low $0.08. Overall, the price hasn't dipped as much as some cards in the last month, and the volume is still above the recent lows. So not a dead card by that standard. Why is this card so cheap though? With upcoming format changes, talk of changing rewards around card ownership, and the versatility of this card, why is the price low?
I think that it's for a few reasons, some being that it is a starter card and you can honestly still get by just fine without renting or buying one. Another is that the ability set and scaling on this card are a bit strange compared to many, with a very niche build. If utilized correctly, though, it can easily win you the match. More so than some of its counterparts and competition. Chaos Legion packs are still being sold in general sale, so more and more are coming in and it's not exactly a meta card. I'm happy its cheap, because I hope to scoop some up over the next few weeks and level it up a few times so I can own a level 5 rather than rent.
I think that once the Modern format is released, and Chaos Legion sells out, this card will stand above many of the other low-cost cards we see on the market today.

My thoughts - It's undervalued. This is one of the commons, or more specifically "cheap" cards that I would keep my eye on, and I will keep my eye on this card. Even when you consider some of the alternatives, like Molten Ogre, those have far less print and are more expensive.
Thus, in the long run I expect this card to remain popular.

Thank you for reading, have a wonderful week!

Credits/Referrals:

A Submission to the weekly Share Your Battle challenge by @splinterlands
Dividers created by @freeztag
Thanks to @peakmonsters for useful price tools

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Splinterlands Card Review #1: Disintegrator