This week's battle challenge features the Diemonshark! Diemonshark is a Water splinter Melee monster that is one of the best tanks that you can have in Silver league.
Diemonshark Highlights
Although the Diemonshark isn't particularly strong at lower levels, it still has great speed, health, and armor. These are all great things to look for in a tank which is one of the most important parts of creating an unbeatable lineup.
| Icon | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Trample | When a Monster with Trample hits and kills its target, it will perform another attack on the next Monster on the enemy Team |
 | Enrage | Has increased Melee attack and Speed when damaged (Multiplied by x1.5 rounded up) |
 | Retaliate | When hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker (50% chance of activation) |
At Bronze League (Level 2), the Diemonshark is a decent tank but not particularly special. Once you reach Silver, however, you gain an additional attack as well as Enrage.
The Enrage ability paired with Trample can make Diemonshark a ridiculously strong monster. It's already fast with 4 Speed (5 when paired with Kelya) and when it becomes enraged, it will have 8 speed and 5 damage! What a beast.
In Diamond and Champ, it is an absolute nightmare with the Retaliate ability!
So when do I use the Silent Sha-vi?
- Diemonshark can be used in nearly all cases
- At low mana, it can be a one man army
- At high mana, it makes an excellent tank
- The Stampede Ruleset is great since it can potentially wipe out an entire enemy squad by itself
- Any Rulesets that benefit melee monsters (Super Sneak, Weak Magic, Melee Mayhem, Equal Opportunity)
- When it gets Enraged in Silver it can be extremely difficult to hit which makes it a great tank
This Week's Featured Battle
In this week's featured battle, we have Kelya Frendul vs Tarsa in a Knockout battle!
Battle Ruleset
 | Heavy Hitters | All Monsters have the Knock Out ability |
|---|---|---|
 | 28 Mana | This is considered a medium mana battle |
 | Active Splinters | Fire, Water, and Earth splinters are available |
- Heavy Hitters
- With the addition of new Stun monsters in Riftwatchers, the Knockout Ruleset is now a major threat
- Concentrate your damage and stuns if possible for BIG damage
- Use a fast Stun monster if you can
- 28 Mana
- This is a medium Mana battle so expect to see a full lineup of monsters
Before Riftwatchers, Stun was hard to come by in Modern until you got to Gold. The Revealer was the only widely available card with Stun so it wasn't a huge threat. Now, every Splinter has at least 1 monster with stun available from Novice league.
Most Stun monsters are a bit slow, with the exception of Runeslinger which isn't available in this battle. For that reason, Speed is still king. You want to hit first and you want to hit hard!
With the available Splinters, Water was the best choice for me since the Armor is great against a Fire Melee lineup and the Speed can be a great counter towards the Earth Magic lineups.
The Lineup
| Position | Card Image | Card Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summoner |  | Kelya Frendul | Rare Water summoner that grants a +1 Armor and +1 Speed buff to friendly monsters |
| Pos 1 (tank) |  | Diemonshark | With the Enrage and Trample ability, this can get very fast and do a ton of damage. Sometimes it can even attack twice. |
| Pos 2 (secondary tank/attacker) |  | Flying Squid | Excellent Chaos Legion card with good damage, speed, and Reach Ability. Also, Blind is a ridiculous ability which gives the enemies a 15% chance of missing |
| Pos 3 (attacker) |  | Uraeus | Although it isn't very strong, the Poison Ability is so good that I try to include it where I can |
| Pos 4 (support) |  | Merdaali Guardian | A 3 mana card that can Tank Heal and Repair? Sign me up! Great support card |
| Pos 5 (attacker) |  | Pelacor Bandit | Very fast, very strong card for only 3 mana. Like Uraeus, it's nearly in all lower mana lineups |
| Pos 6 (meatshield) |  | Torrent Fiend | This is placed in the back to take some damage away from my backline if my opponent goes with Sneak |
Let's Battle!
- Since my opponent went primarily with a Melee lineup, my Speed and Armor allowed me to take a lot of hits while dealing a ton a damage
- By only having 1 Magic attacker, they Enraged my Diemonshark without killing it which caused major problems as you can see from the Trample that took out their 2nd monster
- Once their tank went down, there was nothing else they could do to hang on
- It's likely that my opponent was expecting an Earth lineup since they went with Void in the front and some Sneak attacks
Did it work?
Yes! Kelya was the perfect choice for this lineup and Diemonshark is a great tank for this setup.
I analyzed the battle with Splintertools and was given a 86% chance of winning the battle. I like seeing 100% but I'll take it!
Final Thoughts
The Diemonshark is an excellent card at every level. At $0.40/BCX, it is affordable to have a few copies but can get quite expensive as you reach higher leagues. Regardless, it's a must have card!
Thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed it!
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If you decide to use my referral link, I'll happily send you a few cards to help you get started!
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Thanks for sharing! - @zallin
Well done, thanks for sharing!