Hello fellow TCG enthusiasts!

This week's battle challenge strikes a special place for me and focuses on none other than the Dragon Splinter. I thought last week was an improvement with a decent death card being selected but Dragons coming to play is infinitely better.

If this is the first you are hearing of the Splinterlands 'Share Your Battle!' challenge, check out the official rules and guidelines in this post. If not, please provide me the pleasure of sharing with you my favorite splinter.

Splinter Overview - Dragons

First of all, lets just start with this... Dragons are my absolute favorite Splinter and of all the Dragon's out there Byzantine Kitty sits on the throne of artwork that has stolen my heart away. Simply put this card is adorable.

Okay, that's now out of my system; back to the challenge... Dragons are unique in Splinterlands in that their summoners can form pacts with any of the other elements all while also fielding dragon specific units. This gives the splinter incredible versatility.

All of this versatility typically comes at a price however and that price is generally higher mana costs.

Battle Prep and Thoughts

As Dragons are my favorite cards generally I play them a lot. That said, I don't actually own very many. I typically rent a Kretch for affordability purposes and try and rent some of the various Dragon cards when I can. I do however own the new Dragon Djinn Chwala card which is a BEAST of a tank.

Unfortunately, the user I was renting Kretch from canceled on me right before end of season. I wasn't worried about card power at this point but it did kill my ability to actually field some of my cards. I assumed I would just coast along and figure it out when @uniqn saved my day and delegated me not just any Dragon summoner, but the one and only, Byzantine Kitty, my dream card. I have never previously played with this specific card and needless to say I was ecstatic.

The tank heal and +2 speed makes almost any Dragon deck an extremely difficult opponent to handle. I knew it wouldn't last however so I've been playing quite a few matches.

The Winning Combo

For one of my first fights I was lucky to pair Kitty with my water Splinter card which I also had a few great rentals for, namely an Alpha Water Elemental and Axemaster. Shout out to @monsters2themoon for not canceling on me.

There was a Firefight!

Battle Link

Honestly, when I first looked at my enemy I thought I was a goner. Had I been using any other summoner I probably would have been. My opponent's Contessa was a hard counter to the majority of my sustain damage via axemaster and elemental. This debuff combined with Harklaw's damage reduction perk meant it was going to be VERY tough for me to get through his tank. I would have to rely on Chwala to put in overtime and this was without even considering the Gorlodon chilling in 2nd with his reach ability.

Round 1

Round 1 went surprisingly well and Chwala held up his end of the deal and pulled through. Meanwhile Bandit and the worm got busy and started tearing into my opponents backline. Having a double sneak here really made a difference as Octo and Grim both hit incredibly hard.

Round 2

Round 2 was were things started looking good for me. Chwala survived just barely to give my line another safe hit and both bandit and the worm hit their marks again taking out almost 50% of my opponents damage output.

Round 3 & 4

Round 3 seemed rough yet again but ultimately set the stage for a win. Chwala fell to Harklaw leaving my lineup exposed and my ability to pressure Lich diminished. However, this also meant it would be a sheer shootout at this point and I still had significant damage output with worm and my two ranged warriors.

That's a Wrap

As you all can tell I really enjoyed battling with Byzantine Kitty and the dragon crew and I'm sure many of you will as well if you give the Dragon splinter a chance. Since I don't actually own Kitty I'm on the lookout for someone willing to part with theirs. I've been saving to buy a copy for quite some time and currently have scrounged up 20k DEC. This is a significant accomplishment to me but also means I still have a way to go.

Post Tax

For this challenge's post tax, it is only fitting I present to you all my very own Byzantine Kitty, Nobu. Isn't his pink little nose just adorable. I might just find some little wings to put on him so he can cosplay for Halloween.

Disclaimers

Splinterlands images owned by Splinterlands. SL banner designed by @flauwy. All other images, banners, and content owned by me unless otherwise noted.

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