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Hello Splinterlands Summoners! In today's post, I'll talk about one of the reliable cards in the Dragon splinter: The Dragon Egg Forager. It's not as flashy as other cards out there in terms of stats and abilities but its utility in battles cannot be denied. It often finds a spot in my team whenever I choose the Dragon splinter in my battles.
Lore
From Splinterlore:
The Dragonsguard is the military arm of the Gloridax Empire, responsible for the law, order, and protection of its lands. Extremely prestigious and disciplined, it is composed primarily of drakoshans, although nagas, serpentine, high elves, Draykhan humans, and various minority groups are found within its castes as well.
The Dragonsguard fosters a deep sense of belonging and purpose. Service is considered a great honor and increases a family’s hierarchical status within the empire. Likewise, Oasis's Imperial Academy plays a pivotal role, serving as a crucible in which raw talent and inherent abilities are honed to perfection. Subsequently, many drakoshan broods are bred and raised solely to maximize their potential for acceptance into the academy and advancement within the ranks of the Dragonsguard.
Stats and Abilities
The Dragon Egg Forager is a five mana card. At maxed level it deals five melee damage, has four speed and seven health. It only has two abilities: Opportunity which allow it to hunt for the enemy unit with the lowest health and Scavenger which add +1 health and max health to its stats everytime a unit gets eliminated, whether friend or foe. Its abilities are sparse compared to other units but it makes most of what it has. I call this unit the Scavenger Assassin. It hunts for its target like an assassin and benefits from the loss of life of allies and enemies alike. Needing only five mana to field in battle, it's not difficult to find slots for this unit in your teams when you use the Dragon splinter.
Role in Battle
With its Opportunity ability coupled with decent melee damage, The Dragon Egg Forager targets the enemy back line units. It will decimate the enemy's damage dealers with low health. Further, since it has the Scavenger ability, it's a unit that will likely be your last unit standing. It can also play tank in later rounds with the amount of health it accumulated during the battle.
Featured Battle
I'll show a battle where I used the Dragon Egg Forager. Observe how it accumulates health as the battle goes on.
Featured Battle: Dragon vs Death Splinter
The battle had the Armored Up ruleset so it was advisable to use magic units. It was also a high mana battle, optimal for the Dragon splinter which has a lot of strong units but needing high mana to use in battles. I paired it with the Life splinter who had good synergy with my Dragon units.
My Team
Leolin Sifu (tank)
Leolin Sifu is a damage dealer tank rather than a beefy one. It deals three melee damage complement by her True Strike ability. While she has eight armor and health, she has no abilities for sustainability and no defense against magic attacks. She has to eliminate the enemy tank before she gets defeated.
Janni Rebel (second tank)
The Janni Rebel deals two magic damage and has two speed. For defense she has two armor and nine health. She has the Flank ability making her an ideal tank as well with Leolin Sifu behind her. I chose this positioning because I wanted to retain the magic damage dealers as much as possible. She also has the Inspire ability, adding one attack to melee units.
Night Reaper (third position)
My favorite unit in Earthquake ruleset. It deals three magic damage and has great speed of four. It has three armor and nine health making the Night Reaper able to play tank in certain situations. It has abilities that make it a key card in Earthquake rulesets: Flying and Wingbreak. Flying is self explanatory while Wingbreak is a feared ability by enemy flying units. It targets flying units and adds 2 damage making Night Reaper's damage a total of five against flyers.
Dragon Egg Forager (fourth position)
I discussed its stats and abilities above. I usually place it in front of my ranged units so that it can take the role of tank should my first three units get defeated.
Chaos Battlemage
I picked this unit to counter the enemy armor. Chaos Battlemage deals three ranged damaged and has the Piercing ability, enabling extra damage to go through armor and damage the enemy's health.
Syrenth
I chose Syrenth because of her Taunt ability aside from her four ranged damage. Dividing the enemy attack between my tank and Taunt unit is my bread and butter strategy.
The Enemy Team
The enemy picked a team that I usually use myself had I not chosen Dragon. It's a Death splinter with Ujurak Brave as a tank followed by Thraghun as second tank. This is a combo I frequently use followed by ranged attackers.
The Battle
The enemy team has a good synergy. It's faster than my team because of a boost in speed due to the Swiftness ability of Silverleaf Warlock. My team's health was decreased by one because of the Weaken ability of the enemy's Sorrow Harvester and finally he has a unit that heals the team. My first three units as well as my Taunt unit all had high health while the enemy's health was lower. This gave me an advantage in battle as my units were beefier and difficult to eliminate.
We both lost a unit in the first round. I lost my Taunt unit while the enemy lost his first tank. In the second round, my team defeated two more enemy units including the second tank making the battle much easier.
Final Thoughts
The Dragon Egg Forager is your "sixth man" in the team. Not a superstar but a dependable roleplayer. At maxed level he only has two abilities, a bit disappointing compared to other units. However, he makes up for it with his utility. It's easy to find slots for him since he only needs five mana. He deals decent damage and has innate sustainability from his Scavenger ability. I often use him whenever I choose the Dragon splinter.