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Weekly Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge: Battle of the Forgotten Cards!
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This week's Community Engagement Challenge involves showcasing a particular card which is not necessarily in the current meta but it is still powerful when used strategically. One such card, at least in my view, is Matsuuri Kei or just "Kei".
When she was initially airdropped, Kei saw a lot of use in Modern, specifically in a combo with Akane and Venka, however, every since Tofu came in town, you can barely see her played anymore since the "Akane + Kei + Venka" ambush team gets totally wrecked by a most Tofu teams. She still has a place in my heart though and I attempt playing her every chance I have.
Now before we get into the stats discussion of Kei, let's have a sneak peek into her
.So, Kei is a former knight of the Gloridax Empire, currently pretending to be on the side of the Chaos Legion, but really, really impatient to chop off the heads of the Legion commanders who subjugated her. I'm definitely rooting for her.
Alright, we've got some idea of who Kei is, after glancing at her lore. Let us have a look at her stats and abilities at different key levels now.
- Kei is a Legendary Monster. At level 1 she has 3 Melee Attack, 4 Speed, 0 Armor and 6 Health and he starts off with a new ability - Enfeeble (Each successful attack reduces the defender's Melee Attack by 1) and Reach (Melee attack Monsters with the Reach ability may attack from the second position on the team). This makes Kei an incredibly useful off-tank for those moments when your opponent feels good about playing Mantaroth or any other strong Melee damage dealer in the Main Tank spot of their line-up.
- At level 2 she gains her 3rd ability which is actually very relevant to the game plan when you play Kei - Ambush (This Unit gets to act before the battle begins)
- At level 3 she gains her 4th ability which is also very important - True Strike (This Monster's attacks cannot miss). As we know Splinterlands is a game where misses are a regular occurrence, so not missing is always a huge boon.
- Finally, maxed out at level 4 she has 4 Melee Attack, 5 Speed, 0 Armor and 7 Health. She also gains her final ability - Shatter (Target's armor is destroyed when hit by an attack from Monsters with Shatter).
Now that we know what the card does (or doesn't do) at the different levels of play, let us have a look at two consecutive ladder battles I played last night with her. Yeah, that's right - two consecutive... That happens once in 10 full moons right now due to the reasons I've already mentioned. :D
There was no Earth and Life available so every time these two elements are missing, you know what you need to do - dust off Akane and throw in Kei and Venka for good measure. This time I've also put the new kid on the block - Kelan Gaines so he does not feel neglected. My opponent though that he can "Speed" his way through the back door of my fortress by including 3 Sneak monsters and speeding them up with Jacek, however, during the Ambush round I managed to take out two of his monsters:
Then his team proved to be slower than mine in general so he could not even attack before the battle ended:
Here's Venka winding up to finish off his team in R1. Even though Venka takes the spotlight, Kei and Kelan did their fair share of work as well.
Again, Earth/Life are not available as Elements. The mana cap for this battle is 21 and the What doesn't Kill You ruleset is in play (all units have enrage). So, initially I thought - damn, this is gonna really suck for my team, however, during the Ambush round, my opponent had given Vruz Ambush, so he attacked first Venka - you can imagine what happened after that.
In comes Kei immediately after Venka:
And this is what the start of R1 looks like:
The battle is over before it even started. That's why I love playing the Akane + Venka + Kei combo any chance I get. Spamming Tofu and Cryptic gets very dull and boring but I'm never bored when trying to cheese the opponent with surprising Ambush combos.
Kei is currently sold for $5 per bcx. She might be currently oppressed by Tofu but who know what the Conclave Arcana meta could bring.
Over and Out,
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