Splinterlands Modern Format - Water Element

Hello everyone! Lester here! Splinterlands Modern and Wild Format is almost at your door step. While waiting for these awesome changes, check the latest Splinterlands Town Hall Summary - May 9th, 2022 - 10AM Eastern! for the latest updates in Splinterlands.

Just in case you are not aware, in Wild format - any card can be used while in Modern Format - only cards from Untamed, Chaos Legion, Dice and any card frame that looks like Untamed or Chaos Legion will be allowed. And in this post, I will share about my opinion in using Water Element in the Modern format - Novice/Bronze League.

As you can see in the list above, the only Vera Salacia (Dice), Bortus (Untamed), Kelya Frendul (Chaos Legion) and Lir Deepswimmer (Untamed) are allowed to be used. What does this mean? It means that we can no longer spam the Water Magic Line Up in the Modern Format because Alric Stormbringer and Valnamor are from Alpha and Beta editions. And if you are kinda sick of losing from enemy Water Magic line ups, better move to Modern Format. Also, we can no longer use Xia Seachan (Beta) which is a very important summoner when the ruleset has Silenced Summoner. So in Modern Format, I think Kelya Frendul will be heavily used because of its +1 Speed buff and Water element users will switch from Magic Attack to Physical Attack and Speed is one of the stats to consider in doing so. Lir Deepswimmer also has a nice set of effects but the downside is its 7-mana cost.

Here are the monsters that I considered as Tank in the Modern Format - Water Element. But since I will focus on using Kelya Frendul as a Summoner, I would invest on Diemonshark, Serpent of Eld and Djinn Oshannus. These monsters have 4/5 Speed and if you add Kelya Frendul's Speed buff, enemy monsters Physical Attacks will like miss. Serpent of Eld has the Dodge ability which when combined with Baakjira's Slow and Kelya Frendul's Speed buff, then you have a higher chance of winning the battle. And if the enemy might use a Magic Attack line up, I will go for Djinn Oshannus because of its Void ability. Torhilo The Frozen also has Void, however, its Speed is only 1, so it will be hard to make its attacks reach the enemy. But hey, you might also want to have this card just in case the ruleset has Reverse Speed. Diemonshark is a nice to have if the ruleset has Super Sneak or Equal Opportunity. And I think I will seldomly use Lobstradamus because my main focus will be Speed.

Here are the support monsters that you might also want to consider adding to your deck. River Nymph has the Cleanse ability at Level 1 and very useful for Noxious Fumes ruleset. Merdaali Guardian replaced Crustacean King that has the same Tank Heal ability. Venari Wavesmith is very useful when you do not have Flying in you deck and the ruleset has Earthquake. Its Protect ability gives addition defense on the effect of Earthquake for non-flying monsters. And lastly, Demented Shark provides +1 Melee Attack and nice to have for rulesets Super Sneak and Equal Opportunity.

Let us move on to back line attackers and mostly are Melee Monsters. First on my list is the Deeplurker with 3 Melee Attack and 6 HP. It has 3 Speed at level 2 and combined with Demented Shark, its an easy 4 Melee Damage to the enemy with the lowest HP. Feasting Seaweed also has Opportunity same with Deeplurker however, it only has 2 HP and might die first in the battle. Next is Pelacor Bandit with Sneak and Flying ability. This is one of my go to monster when the ruleset has Earthquake. Also, it has 3 Speed which is pretty good considering that it costs 3 mana only. And lastly, we have Coral Wraith here. Though it only has 2 HP, its Magic Attack will sure ignore the enemy armor to easily kill supports at the back.

Let's not totally forget Magic Attackers just incase a wild KEEP YOUR DISTANCE ruleset appear. Phantom of the Abyss is a nice to have considering that it has Flying and Dodge and if you use Kelya Frendul, the probability of the opponent hitting Phantom of the Abyss will become lower. River Hellondale is also a nice to have card because of its Resurrect Ability. Imagine, your opponent took 5 rounds to kill Phantom of the Abyss and then will have another round or two to kill it after being resurrected. Nerissa Tridawn has a nice 3 Magic Attack, however, its mana cost is 9 and you might want to only use this when the mana cap is over 40. Lastly, we have Captain's Ghost with its nasty Affliction ability. So if you encounter an enemy that always us Heal/Tank Heal, use this monster to counter it.

And of course, we should still consider Range Attackers when building our deck. These are the nice to have monster cards but personally, I will only invest to Axemaster and Igor Darkspear. Axemaster has a pretty good Speed and has the Double Strike ability which gives 4 damage to the enemy. Igor Darkspear also has a pretty good Speed considering that it costs 2 mana only and has 4 HP. Pretty good choice for Little League Ruleset. Azmare Harpoonist, Poseidon and Sniping Narwhal are nice to have but you must also consider that the enemy might use Lir Deepswimmer, so too much Range Attack Monsters is not good.