Battle Mage Secrets - Do Players Use Dumacke Orc?

The theme for the current "Battle Mage Secret" challenge is Shades of Gray this time! This means only Neutral Units may be used in battles.

It's not always easy to get the specific ruleset, but if you play hard enough, you definitely can find one! This time I was lucky enough to have one - woohoo!

So here's the interesting battle that I encountered.

Anyway, I thought it would be still be interesting to introduce some useful cards and show how their strengths can be maximised especially with a particular ruleset. In this post, the featured card is a Common Neutral card, Dumacke Orc!

Dumacke Orc is one of the later batch of cards that came in my collection. It's Soulbound (which can be soon unbound) but I have never used this card that much. It seems like an abandoned card left in the corner because the stats aren't so appealing. Well, the Shield ability is pretty decent but I think Ever Hungry Skull at 5 mana has better stats at a Gold Foil Level 3. So the question is, do players use Dumacke Orc? I guess the main use case is for such Shades of Gray battles when one is just in need of cards to fill up the mana.

As usual, here's the lore for Dumacke Orc for your reading interest:

Dumacke was a world left to ruin after the Chaos Legions swept through it and Uul had drunk his fill of the planet's lifeblood. But life did hang on. A few creatures were able to survive in the broken and barren world. One such creature was the pale orc.

The pale orcs of Dumacke spent their lives in the lowland caves that surround the windswept plains, scavenging and living off whatever they could find. They lost their natural sight centuries ago due to a virulent strain of fever, and the genetic defect was passed on through future generations. As a result, they developed a fine sense of hearing to compensate and were completely reliant upon it until the wandering technomancer, Yaalbraith, gifted them with the Bright Eyes: goggles infused by tech that synergize with the long-dead optic nerves, enabling the pale orcs to finally see again.

However, after Yaalbraith left, as resilient as the pale orcs were, they fell into a brooding despair, believing their savior had abandoned them. That was when they came upon the Riftwatchers, who offered them sustenance, kindness, and kinship. The pale orcs of Dumacke pledged their loyalty to the Riftwatchers' cause, knowing their newfound comrades would never desert them.

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Battle Type & Team Lineup

Position	Card/Level	Mana
Summoner	Astral Entity	6

With Blast and a Melee bias in play, I opted to go with Astral Entity, which is strong in Melee battles and the extra Resurrection will come in handy for the team.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
1	Ulundin Overseer	11

Ulundin Overseer is one of the strongest tank for all Neutral fights because that 5 Armor and 12 HP alone is enough to withstand a few rounds at least. What's more deadly is its Flank skill, allowing the 2nd card to have Reach ability.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
2	Drybone Raider	12

Drybone Raider when paired with Ulundin Overseer gives it 4 attacks per round and this could be very crucial in a Blast battle.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
3	Sand Worm	9

Mana's a luxury in this battle and we don't have a lot of choices given the limited ruleset. Sand Worm comes in as a strong 5 Melee damage card.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
4	Disintegrator	7

With Melee cards being able to attack from anywhere in the lineup, Disintegrator would be a key card here to demoralise any opposing Melee cards.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
5	Magi Of Chaos	6

We are running short on cards because I don't actually have such a great card collection. Magi Of Chaos comes in a decent Magic damage card in the Neutral deck.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
6	Dumacke Orc	6

Dumacke Orc slots in at the back to absorb any Melee damage. Having Shield ability will come in useful hopefully. I rarely use this card so it would be interesting to see how this card performs.

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• Pre Battle: Even in the Gold Leagues, my opponent did not put out strong cards in the lineup and severely underutilised the 57 mana available. Well, that should work in my favour. Let's see how the battle will turn out.
  

• Round 1: To get the Blast damage going, the most important factor is to land a hit. With Astral Entity pulling the strings behind the scenes, my opponent got a few misses and that gave me additional advantage. My hits were relentless and it was 6 vs 4 after 1 round.
  

• Round 2: And we were done! What a win! Drybone Raider was definitely the star of the battle when 4 hits per round coupled with Blast, which meant 8 hits at least. That was enough to overcome my opponent swiftly within 2 rounds.
  

If you are interested to watch the battle, you can find it here.

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Post Battle

Did my strategy work? There weren't that many strategies that could be employed in this battle because having 3 rulesets make things very restrictive and complicated. That said, Ulundin Overseer and Drybone Raider formed a great partnership and Drybone Raider was just deadly with Blast. I was eager to see who Dumacke Orc would perform but it was pretty quiet this round and didn't not play a big role in this win. Perhaps I will get another chance to use it sometime.

What's the Battle Mage Secret? This time it's actually a question mark in my head. Do players use Dumacke Orc? Is it a good or a lousy card? Or is it just meant for Shades of Gray battles? Haha.

So that's all I have! What are your takeaways from this battle? Feel free to comment below, as I am always keen to learn and improve!

As always, thanks for reading and have a pleasant day ahead!

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