Cave Slugs - A closer look at Opportunity, Scavenger and Slow abilities

This is my submission to the Splinterlands Weekly Battle Challenge. This time it is featuring the "Cave Slugs".

My own Cave Slugs are only level 4 and don't harmonize too well with my gold to max level decks. With the current rise in card prices for the Untamed collection, I abandoned my goal of levelling them further up for the time being and listed them for rent, so that I might still earn a passive income from them. For that reason, today's match is fought with my alt account @kick-starter which does not hold any cards except for the virtual Spellbook cards. Cave Slugs are playable among that bunch. So this might be a good reference match for new players.

About the card

Max level Cave Slugs have three abilities: Opportunity, Scavenge (from level 6), and Slow (at max level). If you would like to learn more about these or other abilities, be sure to check the official "How to Play" pages.

Opportunity

Before the Untamed edition was released, the only card with the Opportunity ability was the Fiendish Harpy of the dragon splinter.

Gameplay was simpler back then. Your opponent would either attack your tank, or your back row monster. In some cases they might aim for the first distance monster using the Snipe ability but it was always possible to hide low HP monsters like the Vampire from enemy fire.

This is where Opportunity came to spice things up. Targeting the monster with the lowest health, there suddenly was no safe spot in your own lines anymore. You would now need to find other ways of protection your low HP monsters, like working with Shields or buffs.

With 2 ATK points on level 1 and the Opportunity ability already active, the Cave Slug can be quite devastating in the lower leagues, taking out one enemy monster after the other.

Scavenger

Scavenger is also one of the newer abilities. The first card I remember having it was the Gelatinous Cube which was one of the late beta-frame reward cards.

A Scavenger monster earns 1 HP and increases its max HP each time another monster on the field dies. This is triggered by both friendly and enemy monsters. A good strategy with a team that focuses around a Scavenger monster would be to pick several low HP monsters over just one or two strong ones. These would die soon and serve as a sacrifice for the Scavenger.

Scavenger also goes along very well with Opportunity, which by targeting the lowest HP enemies, should get its first kills quick.

Pro-tip: Scavenger goes well with the Noxious Fumes ruleset.

In this ruleset, especially with low-mana caps, many monsters should fall quickly, allowing the Scavenger to pump its own health.

Slow

He who strikes first, kills first. Generally speaking, of course there are exceptions like where you kill yourself by striking first with a low HP magic monster and get that magic back in your face by the Magic Reflect ability (damn you, Fallen Spectre).

The Slow ability can help you achieving the necessary swiftness to get those fast kills. It reduces the Speed of all enemy monsters by 1 point. Affecting the entire enemy team, this debuff can make a huge difference in battle.

Personally, though, I usually refrain from adding the extra final level to a card, if that level increases Speed only. I probably would have decided similarly would I have levelled up my Cave Slugs. Their stats are identical at level 9 and 10 except for the Slow ability.

So, why would I skip on such a powerful ability? Because of the Reverse Speed ruleset.

In the higher leagues, I am getting A LOT of these Reverse Speed matches. and having a fast monster or a monster with Slow on it, would be a disadvantage here. Therefore, buying 100 additional BCX to make the Cave Slug unusable in this ruleset seems inefficient to me.

This week's match

Now let us take a look at this week's match. As mentioned in the intro, I played this with my newbie account and all monsters are level 1 playing in the Novice league. The Cave Slugs have Opportunity on them but the other two abilities are still locked.

Click on the video ^ or view the battle directly on Splinterlands.

You can see how Cave Slugs, selectively targeting the enemy monster with lowest HP, scored three kills in this match! Taking out low HP enemies and delivering final blows, that is where Opportunity monsters excel! In the end, it was a glorious victory for my @kick-starter account.

Promo offer for new players/investors: Use my ref link and contact me here or on discord (handtalk5#6665). I will get a $0.50 referrer bonus if you buy the summoner’s spellbook to unlock the Play2Earn features. If I can confirm you as a referral who made the purchase, I will return that to you in form of Splinterlands cards. Just message me the card(s) you want for up to $0.50 and I will get them off the market for you.

Disclaimer: No financial advice included in this article. Just sharing my personal experience. Do your own research!

Some links in the article might be referral links, feel free to use other sign-up methods.

Images courtesy of Splinterlands.com or @flauwy.

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