Hey! This is a little different of a challenge than usual, as instead of a clear instruction of what monster to include, we are going for Dragons! This means that the goal is to play a Dragon summoner, preferrably with some Dragon monsters being a part of the lineup. I do not own a single Dragon, with my only possibility to participate being Drake of Arnak.. So I was very close to making the decision to stay in line with my goal for these challenges and purchasing a level 1 Quix the Devious, allowing me to play units from any splinter at levels equal to as if I had any rare level 2 summoner.

I ended up not doing so, because Quix is just quite expensive compared to other options in the Chaos Legion set. Perhaps if HIVE wasn't in a large dip, I would've made the purchase. Instead, I rented a Quix.

The Battle

I rarely play Dragons due to a lack of a good summoner. That's also why I was considering Quix, as he would allow me to use my levelled Chwala and Twilight Basilisk. This time, however, I also got a Dragon quest, so this was the perfect opportunity to participate in the challenge!

The battle that I will be showcasing here is a very limited one - low mana, few splinters and Lost Magic. Some may complain that it is very restrictive, but it is simply the perfect circumstances for Quix to shine - Blast synergizes with speed manipulation, while Life being open at low mana often means some Lensmaster or Truthspeaker shenanigans - thus using General Sloan.

You can find the battle right HERE.

Here's a screenshot for whoever doesn't feel like watching the whole thing!

My Team

As I already mentioned, the lineup I could choose was extremely limited - which honestly made it easier, as I only had to make a few simple choices, with the mana cap, available splinters and the monsters all being heavily restricted. As always, there were 3 main limitations:

• Ruleset: With Lost Magic removing all magic monsters, it removed the appeal of using Thaddius - while Blast made speed manipulation that much more enticing.
• Splinters: With only Life, Death and Dragon available, it was very likely that the opponent would go General Sloan (because Thaddius wasn't so great with no magic). That made Contessa and Quix tempting choices.
• Mana: As the mana cap was only 15, cheap units were the name of the game - although there is one caveat to this, which I used to achieve victory.

I chose Quix not only because of this challenge, but also due to the power it has in this particular ruleset. The speed reduction works perfectly with blast, while the Headwinds effect reduces the damage output of Sloan.

The Carry

I will be completely honest here - Chaos Knight was the monster that was meant to win this game and whatever else happened in this lineup was fairly irrelevant. The reason for that is that having expected Sloan, the Shield ability makes opponent's attacks quite a bit weaker. Quix, the Devious further amplifies this, making it extremely difficult for the opponent to deal any damage at all to Chaos Knight.

What's more is that the speed reduction from Quix gives Chaos Knight a higher chance to hit whatever monster is in front of it, ensuring that the Blast ability will take effect and further hurt the backline. This strategy was a little risky if the opponent was to play one large unit instead of multiple weaker ones - but I found that to be quite unlikely given the ruleset and mana cap. Luckily, I was right!

Cheerleaders

I could skip over this section, but I still wanted to give some recognition to the fantastic cheerleaders that were chanting Chaos Knight's name as the monster made short work of the entire enemy team. Soul Fiend and Gargoya Scrapper were simply there to take any Sneak attackers away from Chaos Knight - so that Blast does not hit it too hard.

Twilight Basilisk was sliiightly more useful, as it was there to try and deal some extra damage before it inevitably dies to Blast. Its attack was actually quite important, as it allowed the team to speed up getting through Xenith Monk - but right after, it was quickly gone due to the Blast from attacks tickling Chaos Knight.

DRAGONS!!!

I absolutely love Dragons. They make for some of the more exciting teams, as they circumvent the splinter restriction. Summoners are my favourites, as for example Daria Dragonscale makes it possible to play really cool Earth or Death melee teams that would be otherwise impossible to pull off. Similarly, Byzantine Kitty and Quix can make for fantastic combos and especially the former is a force to be reckoned with.

As for followers, Djinn Chwala is probably my favourite frontline monster - but in general most Dragons are awesome to play. That is likely because so many of them are epics and legendaries, but still - it is just a lot of fun to include them in my lineups.

Closing Words

There it is, weekly battle challenge with Crypt Beetle! Situationally great, but not the most flexible inclusion into teams - while it can be useful, you cannot just slap it into any lineup like some other cards.

All images are screenshots from the game, while the thumbnail is copied from the official Share Your Battle Challenge post.

Since it's a gaming-related post, here is a bunch of referral links of mine - if you're not playing any of the games I've written about, give them a try! I wouldn't write about bad games.. well, not without saying they're bad anyway. So, here they are:

SPLINTERLANDS - Splinterlands is the poster child of the HIVE blockchain. Join now through my referral link to get a few cards from me!

RABONA - Join the football management game through my referral link to receive a small RBN bonus!

RISING STAR - Here's the referral link to Rising Star. Start your way to mega stardom now!