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![deeplurkerchallenge.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bulldog1205/23vsHsT1xgPEY3D9F8g7o4QX4JJ7WnJYZBZG16dLv8mdjCNGpQS8SAx7du9dmhSL5K5GG.jpg)</center>

This week's Battle Challenge character is 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." - Splinterlands lore

### <center>The Stats</center>

<center>![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bulldog1205/23w29AgsAVzte6A1HcM2ZeoCL5TaodHTNbryMZNZnB8S6nGTViefsAvkRkgYFZPXQhA15.png) </center>


### <center>The Strategy</center>
Deeplurker is the most expensive common card in Chaos Legion, and rightfully so. Even at level 1 he possesses opportunity, one of the most powerful abilities in the game. Opportunity will attack the opponent with the lowest amount of health, allowing you to pick off those "glass cannons" or vulnerable support characters early in the battle.

I almost always want to make sure I am focusing on as few targets as possible in order to get the most out of my damage. This means I like to pair opportunity cards together if possible! Water has one other opportunity attacker in Feasting Seaweed, so I almost always run these two cards in tandem if I have the mana to do so. Parastic Growth (neutral), Battering Ram (neutral), and Dragon Jumper (dragon) are other opportunity cards that could potentially be on the table as well.

I do frequently make an exception to my focus fire rule though! Another combo I love to add to this opportunity team is Coral Wraith! This monster has sneak, which isn't always ideal, but the attack is actually not what this monster is there for. Coral Wraith is the only water monster that has rust! Rust reduces the armor of my opponent by 2. This is key to giving my opportunity attackers a better chance at knocking out opposing monsters early in the battle. The 3 magic sneak damage it brings is just an added bonus. While many players place cards in the back that are capable of countering sneak, many times these cards are designed to counter melee sneak attacks, not magical ones. Even as a lone sneak attacker a coral wraith can sometimes wreak havoc. Plus those opportunity monsters will come to clean up any weakened back line monster! 


### <center>[The Battle](https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_433ce49bd1b896773b2863c6c144a03f)</center>

In this battle I had no neutrals, so I was limited to only 2 opportunity cards. I opted to go with a more defensive strategy, going with 3 cards that had no attacks. I love to use the combination of Kelp Initiate, Merdaali Guardian, and Baakjira regardless of my offensive strategy. This combo has a ton of sustainability for only 11 total mana. Baakjira ends up with 18 health and 1 armor, void, a self heal, tank heal, repair, and cleanse. That's capable of soaking up a ton of damage! And if my opponent attempts to go around him using sneak, I've got Kelp Initiate in the back with 11 health, 1 armor, and triage. I will also move Kelp Initiate to the 2nd spot sometimes if I'm anticipating snipe or would like a second tank. In this battle the available options were water and life, both which have very good sneak monsters, so Kelp went to the back. 

This tank combo bought me more than enough time for Deeplurker and his buddies to do their thing. While they didn't have a ton of damage output, opportunity + rust allowed them to be very efficient with their damage, picking off key opposing cards with only a couple of attacks each. The end result was a near flawless victory, losing only a total of 2 armor thanks to some thorns damage at the very end. 

<center>https://images.hive.blog/0x0/https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/flauwy/1dXdqlCA-splinterlands-divider-pure.png</center>

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