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<div class="text-justify">This week in Splinterlands... has been a bit slow in terms of news so I decided to share a battle instead. Since the "Share Your Battle Challenge" as we knew it has been suspended, I'll just got ahead and continue doing it from time to time as a part of the weekly Social Media Challenge.</div>
The Monster I'll showcase today is one of the newer promo cards, namely Vruz. Before getting into his stats and the battle itself let's have a look at his [LORE](https://splinterlands.com/?p=card_details&id=555&gold=true&edition=2&tab=lore) first.
<div class="text-justify">So, Vruz is a gremlin who is really good at stealing stuff. I can definitely see that working well for him. </div>
<div class="text-justify"> Alright, we've got some idea of what **Vruz** is, after glancing at his lore. Let us have a look at his stats and abilities at different key levels now.</div>
<div class="text-justify">While he could be useful at the Bronze level in some instances, the level which he really becomes useful at is in the Silver league range - level 5, where he gets his Martyr ability (When this Monster dies, adjacent Monsters get +1 to all stats). The 2nd point I would consider after having him at level 5, would be level 8, where he gains his 2nd point in Melee Attack for a total of 2. Level 8 is also max for Gold league which also means that you can use him in Diamond league with no penalty. And, of course, maxed at level 10, he also gets True Strike. I feel True Strike is not that vital for his performance since he already has 6 Speed at level 8 so he is more unlikely to miss, having said that, we still need to keep in mind that if you want to be 100% sure he won't miss and if you play in Diamond, then True Strike will definitely give you the sense of security you are looking for. </div>
Now that we know what the card does (or doesn't do) at the different levels of play, let us have a look at the battle I have chosen to showcase.
<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>[BATTLE](https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sm_DgW1vBgWwAHW65XQSdWB)<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>
- The line-up of the Battle and the Ruleset:
<div class="text-justify">The rulesets for this battle are Tis but Scratches (All Monsters have the Cripple ability), Little League (Only Monsters & Summoners that cost 4 Mana or less may be used in battles) and Up Close & Personal (Only Monsters with Melee attack may be used in battles). The mana budget is 53, however, it does not really matter since you can't spend that much mana in a battle with the Little League ruleset. The available Splinters are all but Life. I will go with Dragon and Water as the supporting Splinter.
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<div class="text-justify"> First in the line-up I have one of my favorite tanks for low-mana battles and Little League - the Xenith Monk. At level 8 for 4 mana I get 2 attack, 8 health and a total of 3 abilities - Heal (restores a portion of the Monster's health each round), Void (reduced damage from Magic attacks) and Magic Reflect (when hit with Magic damage, does reduced Magic damage back to the attacker). Even though this battle will not involve any Magic Monsters in the enemy line-up due to the rulesets, Heal is still enough of a reason to include the Xenith Monk in my team.
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<div class="text-justify"> The 2nd place in the line-up goes to the Twilight Basilisk. It is a very good Monster to use as an off-tank in low-mana battles, as well as Little League, of course. In addition to its Reach (melee attack Monsters with the Reach ability may attack from the second position on the team) ability, it also has Stun (when a Monster with Stun hits a target, it has a chance to stun the target causing it to skip its next turn) which could often determine the outcome of the whole battle if it procs at the right time.</div>
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<div class="text-justify">3rd in the line-up is one of my favorite Sneak Monsters - Uraeus. For its mana cost of 3 mana it definitely packs a pretty good punch with its 3 Melee Attack. What makes it even better is that it also has the Poison (Attacks have a chance to apply poison, which does automatic damage to the target at the beginning of each round after the poison is applied) ability. Poison is actually pretty good for battles against Monsters with larger health pools as it needs more rounds to do work but it will get it done eventually.</div>
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<div class="text-justify"> The 4th spot is reserved for the Pelacor Bandit. I've put it here since it has a decent amount of speed so it can dodge a hit or two if the enemy has decided to go through the "backdoor" and gets to it. Generally it's a Flying (has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Monsters who do not have the Flying ability) Monster with a high amount of speed. It is also a Sneak Monster so it can often be a pain in the enemy backline. </div>
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<div class="text-justify">The 5th spot goes to the Dhampir Infiltrator. It is actually a pretty good Sneak Monster at max level. In addition to Sneak (Targets the last Monster on the enemy Team instead of the first Monster), it has Double Strike (Monster attacks twice each round), Cripple and Affliction (when a Monster with Affliction hits a target, it has a chance of applying Affliction on the target causing it to be unable to be healed). It can definitely cause a lot of damage to the enemy backline, especially if it has other Sneak Monsters to work together with. </div>
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<div class="text-justify">Last in the line-up is our protagonist - Vruz (in his shiny form). His job in this spot is obvious - inflict as much damage as possible and/or die early and buff the Dhampir Infiltrator.</div>
It is time for a quick round by round analysis:
- The Summoner I am going with for the battle is Quix. He is my favorite Dragon Summoner, and thankfully he can also be used in Little League battles due to the fact that he is the only Chaos Legion Legendary Summoner who costs 4 mana. My opponent has also decided to go with the Dragon splinter and Fire as the secondary one and his Summoner is Quix as well. Let's see how this goes.
- After 1 round of exchanging blows my Sneak team has totally ravaged the enemy back-line. Vruz has sacrificed himself and has buffed my Dhampir Infiltrator which is great.
- Round 3 begins and all that is left for me is to finish off the enemy Xenith Monk.
- My victory seemed really, really easy, but let's see what [Splintertools.io](https://splintertools.io/) has to say about that. I actually had a **100%** chance to win so definitely no surprises here.
**Vruz** is a great very low cost Monster for the Dragon Splinter. He comes a probably still a bit inflated price of $0.34 per BCX. I think it is worth it to have him at level 5 but the better place for the card to be is definitely level 8 if you play in Gold/Diamond/Champ.
Over and Out,
[Referral](https://splinterlands.com?ref=ghostlybg)
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