Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge: WAVE RUNNER: "Just go with the Flow, man"

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The Wave Runner

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A powerful predatorial fish, the Wave Runner is a Position 2 Reach Attacker for the Water Splinter. He is a reward card, and a Common one.

Stats

That doesn't make him a week card, at 5 Mana, with Reach, 2 Melee, 3 Speed, and 4 Health, he's actually quite a good card for his costs, his lower cost is largely due to his lack of synergy with a lot of meta Water teams.

He pairs nicely with Demented Shark and Sabre Shark, but has been lacking other support melee cards. Though this new expansion may change everything, and after seeing Pelacor Bandit, I am convinced that this will see a lot more use soon.

Cost & Levels

Currently sitting at $0.48 Cost per 1BCX, he's a relatively cheap water card, being beaten only by a few other cards.

Milestones for Levels

@ Level 4: He gains +1 Melee, costing 30 BCX, or about $15.
@ Level 5: He gains Knockout doing double damage to Stunned enemies, costing 60 BCX, or about $30.
@ Level 9: He gains Snare which allows him to hit Flying targets 100% of the time, and remove Flying. This costs about 300 BCX, or a whopping $150

Preferred Summoner

I think Wave Runner benefits the most from Lir Deepswimmer who makes its high speed in later levels a nightmare to deal with and adds further tankiness and anti-range capabilities to this monster, making him a very effective off-tank.

Unfortunately it's end of season right now and I'm NOT renting anything new, so Level 1 Wave Runner and Level 1 Bortus is going to have to make due in Gold.

Bortus is a good choice for Wave Runner as many of the Melee focused Water builds struggle greatly against Magic builds. Vera is another choice, but is much more situational for Dragon users and Earthquake rounds if you don't have Brighton.

The Battle Ahead

Blast & Equalizer @ 26 Mana
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_adea87437d69b3e24c4b9622af87f8af&ref=jakkal

That didn't take long actually,

A long battle, in which Equalizer turned Wave Runner into a fast and dangerous 2nd Tank, even against an Ancient Lich, who is very powerful in Equalizer, Sea Monster acting as a front tank, with boosted healing from itself and Crustacean King was enough to out-sustain. I would have definitely lost this match if my opponent had opted for a Haunted Spirit & Grim Reaper instead of Dark Ha'on and Shadowy Presence.

Conclusion

A narrow win IMO that could have gone very differently from simply one monster being different, I think this battle shows Wave Runner's potency under certain circumstances, even in the current meta.

I also think Dark Ha'on was a terrible choice in Equalizer, as it empowers all of my cards, and cost a LOT of mana. All of my cards had very low base Health comparatively. This buff was more to my opponent's detriment than mine, IMO. Even with Taunt.

I think in order for Wave Runner to shine, Water needs a new, Modern Format sustain or traditional tank, especially a taunt tank like Kraken. That, or Wave Runner needs a new Stun attacker to pair with in order to maximize its Knockout ability, which only currently pairs well with Medusa at Level 3.

Sign Up for Splinterlands now!

Never played? Interested in getting in on the action? Want to find out what all the fuss is about for these battles, or maybe you've seen a bunch about SPS? You can play the game 100% for free initially, without earning currency. If you like it, you pay $10 to get in on the action by buying a Spellbook!

Join me on Splinterlands, if you use my link, here:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=jakkal
I'll send you 100 DEC when you sign up and get a spellbook, (as long as you show up as referred) which should help you get started via renting! Also, feel free to message me, I can answer any questions, give tips, etc.

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