This is a cross-post from peakd.com

The Deeplurker, monster of the abyss. This is one of the must have cards if you are building a water deck. Why you ask?
Well this is one of the cards that you can play on the higher mana games, but it's also extremely good in low mana games (12 / 14 mana) as a non tank. But we will get to that later on.

Deeplurker

Terrifying to behold, Deeplurkers are a poisonous fish that dwell at the bottom of the ocean and prey on the weak. However, they are known to travel to the surface in times of dire need. Many believe that they are sensitive to the balance of elemental water magic and, when that balance is in danger, the Deeplurkers rise to attack or defend it.

Normal Foil / Gold Foil

• Edition: Chaos Legion
• Rarity: Common
• Element: Water
• CP: 5 / 125
• Cost: $0.28 / $4.55
• Rental a day: 0.1 DEC (Level 1) / 0.195 DEC (Level 3)

Prices are taken from peakmonsters not End Of Season.

Pro's

• High health
• High Attack
• Opportunity
• Poison (level 6)
• Demoralize (level 10)  

In combination with Kelya Frendul as a summoner, it's not only fast but also has defense, making it an extreme version of the Fire splinters Serpentine Spy, ready to do massive damage on your opponents team and take out the weak monsters first.

The Battle

Click on the battle gif to see the full battle

Teams And Rule-set

The rule-set of this battle:

• Mana Cap: 30
• Splinters: All
• Normal Ruleset  

My Team

• Splinter: Water
• Summoner: Kelya Frendul, Buff: +1 Speed, +1 Defense
• Tank: Serpent of Eld, Dodge
• 2nd Line: Scavo Hireling, Repair
• 3rd Line: Merdaali Guardian, Tank Heal
• 4th Line: Deeplurker, Opportunity
• 5th Line: Feasting Seaweed, Opportunity
• 6th Line: Pelacor Bandit, Sneak, Flying

Opponent's Team

• Splinter: Fire
• Summoner: Tarsa Buff: +1 Attack, +1 Health
• Tank: Living Lava, Shield
• 2nd Line: Disintegrator, Demoralize
• 3rd Line: Scavo Hireling, Repair
• 4th Line: Serpentine Spy, Opportunity
• 5th Line: Tenyii Striker, sneak
• 6th Line: Radiated Scorcher  

Tactics

For this higher mana game i used the Serpent of Eld as a tank because of it's dodge ability. If you are against a low speed tank, like the Living Lava in this battle, chances are that there will be a frequent miss. As a follow-up i used the Scavo Hireling for repair on the defense and Merdaali Guardian for healing if a hit would go trough. If i am playing in lower mana games i use 2 low mana monsters like Albatross and Chaos agent to have some breathing room for the Deeplurker to do its job and to take hits first.

After these monsters its time for the star of this battle, the Deeplurker. I put it in 3rd or 4th position so the Opportunity ability can do it's job and take out the lower health competition first because most of the times, these are not in tank position. Then i placed the Feasting Seaweed, for the same reason as the Deeplurker. If i have some mana left, like in this case, i like to play the Pelacor Bandit, which can dodge sneak attacks because of it's flying and yet can attack because it also has sneak.

This worked really well against my opponent, who tried to setup a tactic with the Living Lava (shield) and Disintegrator (Demoralize) so that my team would have had no attack left to hurt his tank, and the remaining monster are able to take out my monster one at a time.

Round 1

After a hit on the Living lava and Radiated Scorcher, the Deeplurker takes out the lowest health monster of my opponent, the Scavo Hireling. Unfortunately the Flying ability didn't save my closer from taking a hit, but because of the added defense by the summoner, it was able to enter round 2. As a last action, the Feasting Seaweed took a swing at the Serpentine Spy.

Round 2

In the second round, the Deeplurker took out the serpentine spy, and the Feasting seaweed and Pelacor Bandit teamed up to end the partition of the Radiated Scorcher to this game. This was possible because the Tenyii Striker was unable to hurt the Pelacor Bandit. So there where 2 less monsters being a threat.

Round 3

In round 3, the Flying could not safe the Pelacor Bandit from being hit, resulting in my first loss. Now all attacks where on the Living Lave, where only the Deeplurker and Serpent of Eld where capable of doing damage.

Round 4

In round 4 nothing noteworthy happened. There was a full attack on the Living Lava, with damage done to the Feasting Seaweed.

Round 5

Round 5 was a copy of round 4, only difference was, that the Feasting Seaweed got taken down by the Tenyii Striker.

Round 6

In round 6, the Living Lava immediately got taken down by the Serpent of Eld, making the Disintegrator the new tank. It was able to hit my tank, and hereby depleting its defense. Also the Tenyii Striker dealt a hit to the Deeplurker.

In the remaining rounds (up to round 9) the Disintegrator got taken down first, and leaving the Tenyii Striker with only 3 health left upon entering the last round. Here he got defeated on the first hit and resulting in a win for my setup in a 9 round battle.

Conclusion

I have found out that this tactic works really great against fire and death splinters. If you enter a lower mana game, swap out the tank and first 2 rows for cannon fodder cards, add the Deeplurker and a closing card like Pelacor Bandit or Feasting Seaweed and most of the battle will come out as win.

I hope you enjoyed my entry for this weeks battle, and hope to see you in the next!

If you want to give splinterlands a try, you are welcome to use my referral link