A new season and a new rewards system bring a refreshing change to the weekly battles. This week I'm trying out Venari Knifer to see what kind of value he brings to the Earth Splinter.
Card Details
For a starter card Venari Knifer has an impressive mix of stats and abilities. Thorns is always amazing on a high health frontline tank and at higher levels the backlash ability and speed really increase the card's damage output.
I would have thought this card would see more play in the bronze/silver leagues I play at. I'm guessing the main drawback is that Earth Splinter has much stronger frontline options in the 8 mana range (Unicorn Mustang and Mycelic Infantry).
To use Venari Knifer effectively we need to capitalize keeping it alive long enough for the thorns ability to add up. It will need to be paired with heals/armor buffs or be used in a low mana battle where the 8 mana tanks aren't a viable option.
Battle
You can watch the battle replay here
This week we have a midrange 36 mana battle with Stampede and Rise of the Commons modifiers. The common and rare restriction means we won't be seeing any of the really powerful epic/legendary monsters normally slotted into lineups. Normally I would run Unicorn Mustang as my main tank but we're going to try something new!
My lineup
| Card | Notes |
|---|---|
 | I've been a huge sucker for magic-based lineups since Chaos Legion released so Obsidian was an easy summoner choice. 1 extra magic damage on a starter summoner is incredibly powerful and will determine the rest of our lineup choice. |
 | My main strategy to utilize Venari Knifer will be to have the thorns chew away at the enemy frontline melee while soaking high ranged damage away with taunt. If the Knifer survives longer than the enemy frontline then we have accomplished our goal. |
 | Wood Nymph fills the healer slot perfectly. It is cheaper than goblin psychic and also benefits from our magic damage buff. This is one of my strong rental recommendations for starting players. |
 | Another great rental recommendation. Mushroom Seer is a slot in any Earth Splinter lineup as it hedges against another magic enemy lineup. At 2 magic (3 with the buff) he can really bring down enemy units fast. |
 | Goblin Sorcerer is a card I've experimented with a lot lately. I really enjoy putting a sneak card into the magic lineup as it can really give you an edge in matchups where you're going to lose the frontline battle. |
 | Normally there would be other good magic options for the backline but giving the common/rare restriction of the battle I chose Regal Peryton for the fifth slot. I wanted a somewhat tanky backline caster in the event the enemy is using high damage melee sneak cards. (Fire Splinters are famous for this) |
 | Rounding out our final sixth slot is the critical piece to the whole lineup, Mycelic Slipspawn. The high health and taunt should draw most attacks away from our frontline giving it time to work. The 2 magic damage will be a huge if our Slipspawn gets more than one attack off. I'm hoping for one attack at least to help work on the enemy frontline card. |
Our opponent chose a Life Splinter ranged damage build using General Sloan as the summoner. Unfortunately this means thorns won't be as effective but hopefully it will help tank their frontline Shieldbearer down faster.
Round 1
As expected, the ranged units make quick work of our Slipspawn but not before it gets a devastating 3 damage attack off on the Shieldbearer. Our magic units are equally devastating and take out the Shieldbearer with the help of 4 damage from the Knifer's attack/thorns. With Knifer healed back to full health we're looking in good shape. As an added bonus, the enemy has no taunt so the backline ranged are now vulnerable to sneak!
Rounds 2-3
Our team makes quick work of the enemy frontline as magic ignores shields. Goblin Sorcerer snipes the enemy Arbalest before it gets a shot which leaves our Venari Knifer alive!
From here the remaining round is mostly cleanup on ranged units that can't attack from the front position.
Summary
Our strategy worked extremely well this battle but it didn't seem like Venari Knifer really brought much more than a high health pool to the table. I've started reviewing battles using the amazing simulator provided at Splintertools. According to the simulator there was a 100% chance to win so it's more likely that our opponent really didn't optimize their lineup and got mostly cleaned out by the taunt+sneak combo of our lineup.
Overall I like Venari Knifer's stats but I think it really needs to leverage thorns to shine. It would probably work very well in rulesets like Melee Mayhem or Super Sneak where you could place Knifer in the backline for attack and thorns damage. Unfortunately Earth Splinter just has so many great frontline tank options that it's hard to find a reason not to use them.
Images in this article are all taken from splinterlands.com
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