The weekly Dragon theme is back and I've been neglecting my Dragon splinter lately so I hit the rental market hard to look at what's available. I picked up Quix the Devious again because as a legendary summoner it gives some great options for higher level cards and I can finally take advantage of my upgraded Dragon cards.
One absolute gem I found in rentals was Carnage Titan which is still available for only about 0.5 dec/day. This card is incredible in Silver/Gold leagues so I've set out this week to show how much this card can carry a team by itself.
Card Details
There are some other really great Dragon cards that should be showcased (maybe in future posts!) but this week I wanted to try out Carnage Titan ever since I saw it on the market.
At level 1, Carnage Titan already gets reach and double strike making it an incredible melee tool. If you're lucky enough to get a higher level you can also pick up shield starting at level 3. 11 mana makes the card a bit bulky to fit in most lineups but the speed, armor, and health make the card stronger than most combinations you could fit in for 11 total mana.
Battle
You can watch the battle replay here
I know 26 mana seems a little low to be playing an 11 mana card but the ruleset was very favorable to melee. Enrage and no magic damage cards means our melee will get full use of armor. Any light damage on Carnage Titan will turn it into a 4 attack double striking force of destruction. To be honest, I through some strategic choices out the window in favor of seeing a big creature do big damage.
My lineup
| Card | Notes |
|---|---|
 | There are some great Dragon splinter summoners but lately I've been renting Quix for the overall utility. The ranged damage debuff will help our tank survive a little longer and the decreased enemy speed is amazing for melee heavy compositions. |
 | Chwala is my go-to tank when running a Dragon lineup. Great stats for 8 mana and thorns adds up over time. Generally the card pays for itself if it can survive into the second round. I've recently upgraded Chwala to level 2 so I get a little bonus on stats. |
 | Our team carry goes right behind the tank for that sweet reach and double strike damage. No Earth splinter available means I don't have to worry about Mylor and thorns. |
 | Merdaali Guardian rounds out our lineup as a support backline healer. To be honest, this probably wasn't the best choice but given that I'm running such expensive cards I needed to add something to make them last a little longer. It might have been better to run something like a Pelacor Bandit here or maybe cheap ranged. |
Our opponent chose Kelya and went with a pretty balanced Water splinter lineup. With so much health spread across a full lineup of 6 cards I did not like my odds.
Round 1
The battle opens with our Merdaali immediately being sniped in the backline. We do manage to remove all the shields off the enemy tank setting up for the next round. It still looks very bad for our team.
Round 2
The second round is where we start to see enrage momentum build. The enemy melee slam into Chwala taking some thorns damage which unfortunately also enrages Diemonshark and Tide Biter. An enraged Chwala misses a critical strike at the end of the round leaving Diemonshark alive. So far everything is working against us.
Round 3
Luckily, at the start of Round 3 our luck begins to change. Tide Biter opens the round by leaving Chwala at 1 health and dying to thorns. Diemonshark gets two hits in by killing Chwala and activating trample (this 6 damage all came about because of that miss last round!). At the end of the round it's our lone Carnage Titan facing down the entire enemy team.
Round 4
Deeplurker opens Round 4 with a huge 5 damage leaving Carnage Titan at only 3 health! However now our Titan is enraged and has the speed to match our enemy. After killing Deeplurker, titan makes a VERY important dodge on the Darkspear ranged attack.
Round 5
Round 5 is a nailbiter, one miss from Titan will mean certain defeat. Luckily the attacks both hit and take Pelacor Bandit off the field before it can strike back. Darkspear is forced to the front so we have taken 2 damage off the field. It's going to come down to Titan and Torrent fiend for the finish.
Rounds 6-8
Darkspear gets cleaned up and torrent fiend does manage to land one hit on Titan bringing it down to 1 health. Double strike rips through the shield and then health securely us the close victory.
Summary
This was certainly one of the closest matches I've ever had in Splinterlands. I believe this is a great example of a situation where raw stats can make a huge impact. In retrospect my tank and support card choices could have rounded out the lineup better but I really think Carnage Titan showed how effective it can be even in low to mid mana situations.
Hopefully this post will inspire others to try out some wacky Dragon splinter combinations. I don't see them being played much which is a shame considering there are some real high value cards in that splinter.
Images in this article are all taken from splinterlands.com
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Thanks for sharing! - Underlock#8573
