The Goblin Shaman: The power of support monsters in Splinterlands

Magic takes the stage as the Fire Splinter's Goblin Shaman casts its spells to weaken the enemy and give his team the edge in this week's SHARE YOUR BATTLE CHALLENGE.

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It's a Yodin Zaku vs. Yodin Zaku fight, but it looks like the Goblin Shaman is the real star as he casts his magic spells to weaken the enemy and give his team the edge. Will his debuffs be enough to win the battle for his team? Let's find out in my entry for this week's SHARE YOUR BATTLE WEEKLY CHALLENGE over at Splinterlands.

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Theme: Goblin Shaman

This week, the challenge is to include the Goblin Shaman, a Common Card from the Fire Splinter, in the battle lineup.

Unlike most monsters in the Fire Splinter, the Goblin Shaman doesn't pack a punch. Even when maxed at Level 10, its basic stats are unimpressive with just 1 magic attack, 4 speed, and 6 life points.

However, what it lacks in power, it makes up for with its two abilities—Weaken and Slow, both of which are active at Level 5. Together, these abilities allow the Goblin Shaman to reduce both the enemy team's life points and their speed. This results in an offensive boost to any Fire Splinter team. It can also be effective in shifting the tide of battle when dealing with more powerful monsters.

As a support card, the only reason not to use the Goblin Shaman is when dealing with the Reverse Speed ruleset where its speed debuff is a disadvantage.

When comparing it to other support cards, the ones most like the Goblin Shaman are the Death Splinter's Undead Priest and the Earth Splinter's Swamp Thing.

With that in mind, let's see the Goblin Shaman in action.

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The Gameplan

For this battle, the Aim True and Close Range rulesets apply. The battle also has a high mana cap at 99, and the Fire, Water, Death, and Dragon splinters were active.

Thus, with high mana limits and the advantage to ranged monsters because of the Close Range ruleset, I decided to go with Yodin Zaku as a summoner.

And because everyone will hit with the Aim True ruleset, I chose Serpent of the Flame in the first position, followed by Fineas Rage in the second position, both of which have high life points, enough to withstand multiple attacks. Furthermore, because they are both fast monsters with 6 speed, they are also likely to attack first in battle.

To further increase my speed advantage, I added Spirit Miner with his +1 speed buff and this week's featured monster, the Goblin Shaman with his -1 speed debuff to the enemy team.

Finally, I rounded up the team with Spark Pixies and Tower Griffin to take advantage of the Close Range ruleset, as well as Yodin Zaku's +1 ranged attack.

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The Battle

It turns out that my opponent also built a team with Yodin Zaku as a summoner. However, compared to my team, he built a team with high-attack monsters, instead.

Thus, by the time all buffs and debuffs are applied, the opponent's attack was immense: four out of his six monsters had at least 4-attack damage points, while I only had one heavy hitter with 4-attack damage.

In total, assuming all monsters attack once, the opponent's team can inflict up to 28 damage (25, if War Chaang is limited to only his ranged attack) in one round. On the other hand, my team had a total of 14 attack damage points, just half of the opponent's.

However, I had an ace—speed. While the opponent focused on powerful monsters, I focused on speedy monsters and speed buffs.

Thus, not only did I have three monsters start the round with a base speed of 6, but I also included the Spirit Miner, which adds +1 Speed, and the Goblin Shaman, which has a -1 speed effect on the opposing team. In addition to buffing my speed, the Goblin Shaman also helped reduce the health of enemy monsters by 1, thus making up for my lack of power.

Here are the resulting stats after the buffs and debuff:

So, with the battle on the way, will my team be fast enough to inflict enough damage to eliminate the other team's monsters before they attack? Or will the opponent's high-attack team overpower my weaker lineup?

It turns out, at least in this battle, speed trumps power as my speedy monsters with weaker attacks won over the opponent's stronger team in four rounds.

Here is a link to the battle.

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The little support monster that could

Although the Goblin Shaman isn't as powerful as the other monsters in the fire splinter, it's always a great addition to any fire team because of its debuffs.

It's -1 speed debuff, when paired with another speed buff or debuff, can be devastating to the opponent. After all, what good is power if you're too slow to land a hit? In this case, because most monsters in my team attacked first in every round, it gave me the advantage to inflict damage before the opponent's volley of attacks.

Combined with its -1 life effect on the other team, it also helped my offense by making it easier to eliminate the monsters on the other team. As in the battle above, my team's attack needed help. And without the -1 life effect on the opponent, my speed would not have been enough to win the battle alone.

Thus, while it did not inflict any real damage on the other team, the Goblin Shaman's abilities were crucial in winning this battle.

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Final Musings

What's my favorite thing about the Goblin Shaman?

It's that all of its abilities are available at Level 5. This means that you don't need to upgrade the card to its maximum level in order to take full advantage of its effects.

And this is one of the best things about support monsters. They can cast their magic even at lower levels. They're pretty efficient like that.

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That's it for this post. Thanks for stopping by. 😀

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The cover image and all other images in this post are taken from Splinterlands artworks or screen captures from the Official Splinterlands website.

The post also appears in SplinterTalk.io, a place for content all about the Splinterlands. (That's my affiliate link, if you're wondering.)