Slow and ponderous and always scavenging on the dead. Don't disturb it's meal lest you become one yourself 💀⚰️🐞

The thought of bugs creep me out. Now imagine a giant one which feeds on the dead corpses littered deep within caverns or tombs. Many a brave adventurer coming to an ignominious end after their life of adventure leads them to an untoward demise, deep in the bowels of a dungeon. Even the bodies of Kings and Queens in their supposedly impenetrable sarcophaguses, preparing them for an eternity in the afterlife, are not spared. The relentless hunger of a scavenging beetle that moves on from body to body consuming everything in it's path. 😰💀

The theme of this week's Share Your Battle Challenge - I give you the CRYPT BEETLE! 💀⚰️🐞

Any explorers that delve too deeply into the crypts, mausoleums, and necropolises of the world will find a foe they are unprepared for. Not undead, not liches, and not other monsters that can be found in the deep. Instead, tales are told of the crypt beetles. Enormous insects that are found feeding on the corpses within. Most explorers think they are a mere nuisance and will try to scare them away from whatever tomb they are choosing to rob.

But things don't end well for those explorers. These large beetles will defend themselves and their food aggressively. And any explorer that makes it back out alive will have impressive scars to show from the crypt beetle's bite.

💀⚰️🐞From Splinterlands Lore on the CRYPT BEETLE💀⚰️🐞

The Crypt Beetle is a Common card released during the Chaos Legion expansion. It has definitely found it's place in many Death decks given its availability and usefulness. At LEVEL 1, it has 1 ⚔️ATTACK⚔️ and 1 🏃🏻SPEED🏃🏻, with 1 🛡️ARMOR🛡️ and 2 ❤️HEALTH❤️. It has the SHIELD ability. It's summoning cost is also just a mere 3 🧪MANA🧪.

These stats alone make the Crypt Beetle a low cost cannon fodder unit. It's main purpose is to fill up any slots if they're still available, and then take 1 or 2 hits before it dies.

The Crypt Beetle's true strength lies in it's overall cost effectiveness. Even though it has such low stats, it is a really cheap casting cost card that has just enough health to take that crucial few hits. What it loses in stats, it has gained through it's sheer ridiculously low cost. This could make all the difference if the battle comes down to the wire where the slightest advantage is the fine line between victory or defeat! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

The release of Chaos Legion has given the Death splinter a low mana casting cost card with SHIELD at level 1. The ONLY other card which is similar is the Antoid Platoon, a Fire splinter card ALSO from the Chaos Legion release. Seeing as it's "rival" is basically from another splinter entirely, this ensures that the Crypt Beetle is in a league of it's own and will definitely have it's own place here in all Death decks. This is definitely what I'd consider game changing! 😱😱😱

📊Card Stats by Level📊

As we can see here, the main purpose of the Crypt Beetle is to be what I would call "Cannon Fodder". However, every level improves it's stats slightly all the way to level 10. In fact, I would that at max level, the Crypt Beetle actually becomes a really good low cost tank for it's cost! 😱🛡️

My advice is to simply buy and upgrade this card as much as you can depending on your Summoner levels. The Crypt Beetle is really cheap at the moment, with each card costing just 7 cents! Or if you're more inclined towards the Gold Foil version, it is barely a dollar! 💰🤑💸

It's negligible casting cost combined with its Shield and stats really make this a most useful unit with a perfect mix of cost and utility.

📝Important Rulesets Rundown📝

Here, I detail the list of combat rulesets that may affect the Crypt Beetle.

	Crypt Beetle
	👍🏻 It's attack will never miss
	👍🏻 Gives itself more protection. Always good, especially for a unit whose purpose is to take hits.
	👍🏻 Loses all it's abilities. But that doesn't really affect it's cannon fodder purpose though.
	👍🏻 Ranged units can't be used.
	N.A. Ranged units can attack from the front.
	👎🏻 will be able to last at least 2 round with it's health/armor though.
	👍🏻 With its really low HP, it gains the most from such rulesets.
	👍🏻 Able to lend it's attack from any slot.
	👎🏻 Even summoning cost
	👎🏻 Blast will probably kill it instantly
	N.A
	N.A
	Situational. Could add more damage if the opponent's front unit is stunned
	👍🏻 Improve it's own survivability
	👎🏻 Melee units are affected.
	👍🏻 Costs 4 or less mana
	👍🏻 It's a common card
	👍🏻 Magic units cannot be used
	👍🏻 Gives melee the positional attack advantage enjoyed by ranged/magic
	👎🏻 Will die to poison.
	👍🏻 Odd summoning cost
	👍🏻 It's slow speed makes it fast
	👍🏻 It's a common
	👍🏻 Doesn't really depend on Summoner abilities
	👎🏻 Enrage works out well for units who can take a few hits
	N.A
	👍🏻 All units abilities stay intact
	👍🏻 Allows melee to attack even if it's not in the first slot.
	👍🏻 It is NOT a Neutral unit.
	N.A. All ranged/magic units have the Snipe ability.
	👎🏻 Loses all it's armor.
	👍🏻 Only Melee units can be used
	N.A.

⚔️🛡My Battle Showcase🛡⚔️

Let me present a battle I fought recently in which I used the Crypt Beetle. My opponent used the WATER splinter (although technically, his Summoner, the Archmage Arius, was from the Dragon Splinter) while I went for the DEATH splinter. 💧💀

At first glance, it would seem like my opponent had an overwhelming advantage.

• Firstly, he had the Archmage Arius!!! 😱💰 Quite possibly the most expensive card (or at least, one of the) in the game! 🤯😱😵

• He had a level 2 Phantom of the Abyss, one of the strongest and most expensive Water magic cards in the game. 💰💧

• A level 8 Pelacor Bandit (yes thank god for a common card at last 🤣)

• A level 5 Gold Foil Axemaster! 🪓🪓🪓

I mean, what did I have to worry about? It's just a deck which cost 5 figures against my cheap rented cards 😜🤣. Would I be able to turn the tide of battle against such an opponent then? Victory or defeat would lie in the small details.

I would say that the Crypt Beetle was DEFINITELY the MVP of this match, having played it's role in turning the tide of battle. It did what it was supposed to do by tanking and holding it's ground right at the forefront of the battlefield! All the while chipping off at the opponent with it's small amounts of damage. This ensured that the other units could eventually wear down the opponent until victory was achieved! 🏆🏆🏆

LINK TO FIGHT WITH MY CRYPT BEETLE

👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️LINEUP CHOICES👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️

1st CARD SLOT

Crypt Beetle takes the role of the Main Tank in the first slot here. It will be the most important role since the backline will fall if the Main Tank goes.

2nd CARD SLOT

Furious Chicken fills this slot. It's role is simply to absorb 1 hit before the actual battle starts. At 0 mana cost, it's an obvious choice to use to fill up any available slots.

3rd CARD SLOT

Death Elemental occupies the 3rd slot. It is a low cost Magic Damage dealer which I can fit into my deck given the mana constraints. It should also have sufficient protection over here.

4th CARD SLOT

Spirit Hoarder fills the 4th slot. It is able to heal any backline units via it's Triage ability and can also deal some damage. It's low cost is also a factor. Putting it in the middle where it'll be the safest is the best choice.

5th CARD SLOT

Screaming Banshee occupies the 5th slot. It does very good damage for it's low cost of just 3 mana. It's main drawback is it's low HP, and therefore, it sits behind here for protection.

6th CARD SLOT

Ancient Lich occupies the last slot. It is the main damage dealer and with it's Life Leech, it should get some protection by constantly increasing it's own HP. In the event that there are no sneak attackers, the Ancient Lich will have ample time to grow into a massive juggernaut if/when it goes down to the last man standing.

⚔️🛡Battle Action Report🛡⚔️

As you can see, both of us fielded very different decks from different splinters. 💀 DEATH 💀 VS 🌊 WATER 🌊.

(I know the opponent technically used the dragon splinter, but as all his units are water based, I think it'll be more appropriate to classify it under water 😜)

My opponent used the Torrent Fiend as his cannon fodder tank in the first slot and the Phantom of the Abyss stood behind as the real Main Tank/Snipe Tank/Main DPS. Both of which were VERY good choices, given how suitable they are as tanks. His Pelacor Bandit and Creeping Ooze were lined up in the 3rd and 4th slots, and the Axemaster rounded off the rest of his team.

My choice of the Main Tank was the Crypt Beetle in the first slot, followed by the Furious Chicken in the second. The Chicken would be my backup tank or snipe tank. The middle 3rd, 4th, and 5th slots were occupied by my low cost damage dealers, while the Ancient Lich took the last slot as the main DPS.

The battle started out with all our units just duking it out pound for pound via the TARGET PRACTICE Ruleset which basically gave all ranged/magic units the Snipe ability.

• This resulted in both our units in the 2nd position dying off in the first round. It seemed like we were even so far.

• This is where my team started to get an advantage (surprisingly). 😱

• His Pelacor bandit dealt a lot of damage but because it was a SNEAK unit, his damage was split up. My Ancient Lich also admirably held the line absorbing damage via it's Life Leech ability.

• My Spirit Hoarder also gave my units in backline constant topups of health which meant that a war of attrition would go in my favour as the battle went on.

• His Axemaster was very dangerous with it double strike dealing a massive 6 damage every turn. But the focus fire finished it off before it could take out too much of my DPS.

• My Mycelic Morphoid managed to use it's SHIELD to tank the entirety of the match! 😱🛡️ It ended up being the MVP card by holding off the enemy at the gates!

Talk about doing WAY MORE than it was supposed to!!! 😱🤯🥳 All i expected was for it to take a few hits before dying. Yet it did more than that and lasted through the entire battle! Surely that made it the Man of the Match for this battle, punching way above it's weight!

Well as you can see here in this GIF of my battle, the results were pretty good! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

This was truly an eye opener! 😁🏆

Slowly, but surely, I wore down the opponent's team and the match was won handily with 2 of my units still left standing. My team selection proved to be the edge I needed to eventually overpower my opponent. 💪🏻

🔮🔮🔮Hindsight is 20/20🔮🔮🔮

Would I have done anything differently? 🤔 This might have seemed like a lost cause at the start but I ended up winning handily. IF I had to use the same cards again, there would be no better lineup than what I had already used for the match. Any other combination MIGHT have resulted in a loss for me. I'm really satisfied with the results against such a worthy opponent. 🏆🥇

💭🧐💭Ending Thoughts💭🧐💭

I definitely can appreciate the Crypt Beetle and it's strengths. This is one of those cards which are very strong if surrounded with the proper team. The role it brings to the battlefield will give a player the edge in squeezing out every tiny advantage to get the win. 👍🏻

For any players looking to try out the Crypt Beetle, I hope this article has given you some insight into its potential. 😉

To any new players who wish to explore the world of Splinterlands, do feel free to sign up with my REFERRAL LINK 😊.

I am also a member of the SPLINTERLANDS PIZZA guild and the PIZZA community.

PIZZA is an active gaming and creative arts crypto community on the HIVE blockchain. Popular games on HIVE like SPLINTERLANDS, RISING STAR, EXODE, HASHKINGS, WOO, BANG!DEFENSE have their own PIZZA communities here.

Don't miss out more events that are always being organised. Join the PIZZA DISCORD. Even if you aren't interested in the 💰🍕🎁GIVEAWAYS & AIRDROPS💰🍕🎁, there is a vibrant and friendly community there awaiting you.