Grund: A Heavy Beast

Grund: DING DONG - Your Tank is gone!

Hello fellow Splinterlands players. Today we have a look at Grund. This post is part of the weekly Battle Challenge.

Double Strike Giant

With Grund the onomatopoeia of its name is its theme: More Power! (Tim - The Toolman - Taylor would have loved him)

It brings a (for level 1) heavy 3 mana melee attack, with double strike that means 6 damage right from the beginning. The speed of 3 is enough to reasonably expect to hit at least some of those higher speed monsters and the health of 10 destines it to be our Earth splinter goto tank for the time being.

Although expensive we can play it a lot with the recent raise of the normal mana levels but beware the Giant Killer ability, that can be its downfall more often than you would like.

With new levels come new abilities, namely trample at gold league (level 4) and cripple at diamond (level 6).

The Battle

Rules

This is a 34 mana battle in modern silver league. Available are Fire, Water and Earth.

Neutrals are not allowed and all the magic and ranged units have snipe.

Strategy

We can make good use of the setup. With some thorns at the end we poke back at the sneakers.

Since all ranged and magic units have the snipe ability, they will attack the first non melee unit in my lineup as if it were a taunt. So we don't need an actual taunt.

I'm thinking void and armor as protection for the snipe target.

Lineup

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Immortalis will provide the void for our sniper target.

In addition he will give the attackers a little boost with the shatter ability and do some groundwork by reducing the other team's health by one.

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The star of today's show, Grund, with its double strike ability will do some serious damage with the additional shatter. So even if we face a heavily armored tank like Diemonshark, that armor will be gone quickly.

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For only two mana we fill the line with Failed Summoner. This sniper target will reflect the magic damage back.

If there are ranged attackers we will have to compensate for that with some armor of our own, that is gonna come up late.

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The Regal Peryton is the fallback sniper target. If the Failed Summoner goes down too quick it will be because of ranged attackers (void does not help there). We compensate for that with speed and flying ability.

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Queen Mycelia will bring us armor to protect against melee and ranged attackers. The amplification will boost the magic reflect of the failed summoner and our back line thorn monster we will put down later against the sneakers.

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To provide some healing, we bring in Goblin Psychic. Additionally it will try to put affliction on the other tank to keep that one from being healed itself.

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Last in line is Mycelic Morphoid to sting those sneakers with its thorns. Most of those come as melee monster, so the armor provided by Queen Myccelia should make sure at least two hits can be taken here. With the amplification that will cause some serious damage back if sneakers are coming.

The Fight

Ah shoot. As soon as I hit the battle button I realize I did not take opportunity monsters into account. I was too focused on snipers and sneakers.

And there is the prayer of the fool again: "Maybe I'll get lucky?"

Watch the Battle

My opponent went with an Earth team with boosted magic attacks. Void will take care of that.

The taunt at tank position is a good idea, that will keep the snipers focused as long as it is there. Providing healing and armor it looks like a solid plan.

Even some resurrection is in play to revive the taunting tank again if needed.

If the taunt falls, the Mycelic Morphoid will take its place, keeping the Regal Peryton in second position as sniper bait. That looks like the same idea I had, with its speed and flying it should at least keep the ranged attackers busy for a while.

Result

Victory is mine! That strategy worked like a charm. Luckily there were no opportunity monsters involved.

The taunt was gone quickly: Regal Peryton did some magic damage, shattering the armor as a side effect.

Grund did its thing and even resurrection could only bring it back once, after which it was gone again in a heartbeat.

The rest of the other team followed fast as Failed Summoner put in the groundwork and the rest of the team finished them off.

Grund played a big role in this team's success with its heavy double strike.

Conclusion

Grund is a heavy beast. The introduction of Immortalis made it even more powerful. We did not face it today, but even Diemonshark has to look out nowadays, the shatter ability will take away that heavy armor with the first hit.

Ten and more health points is enough to keep it alive for some healing during the match.

Especially when the other team is distracted by sniper rule set or a taunt in the lineup, it can endure until the end of the match during which it delivers a fatal blow more than once.

Thank you for reading, maybe we'll see each other on the battlefield.

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