December 27, 2023 March 4, 2024
Beastmoon Forms
Spring 2023 Update
Have you taken a peek at the Beastmoon forms released in the Spring 2023 update? Today we will look at the forms that made their debut with this update. The Life Krok and the Death Elf. Both of these forms will be available in Beastmoon Hunt and Beastmoon Monster Mayhem.
Hover over a spell to find out what each spell does. For mobile users, tap on each spell to get more info.
Life Krokomummy
Meet Horus Lifewielder, the Life Krokomummy. Horus has some interesting and useful spells. Although Life forms are often seen as some of the weakest, will Life Krokomummy break free from that stigma?
Life Krok has two blades, a 0-pip blade that can activate a HOT and a 1-pip healing blade. These blades combo well into Horus’ two pip attack. If you can pull off that combo, you can then activate the HOT if necessary.
You might think that a healing blade isn’t much use on anyone that can’t heal. You would be correct to think that, which is why Life Krok has the unique ability to add healing cards into their allies’ hands.
Horus also has some trap counters, which is new to Life forms. He also has an unconditional detonate that can increase the damage of the DOT if you have a blade. Interestingly, this bonus damage is 50 percent and not a flat 50 despite the card not indicating a percentage buff.
Unfortunately for the Life Krok, his deck does not contain a single burst heal. This leaves the Krok in an awkward position if they want to revive a teammate, they must first spend 2 pips to give their team a healing card, then spend the next turn healing. Otherwise, Life Krok has to rely on HOTs, which are sometimes too slow even with the ability to activate them.
Despite Gift Of Life being Life Krok’s main gimmick, it is too costly to want to use most of the time. I think that it should be buffed, either by reducing the pip cost or by buffing the healing cards that Life Krok creates. Simply buffing the main gimmick of Life Krok that it has in lieu of regular heals would go a long way to improving the form’s usability. Even making it a single-target spell and reducing the pip cost to 0 would reduce the opportunity cost of casting the spell.
Currently, the Life Krokomummy is pretty unpopular, thanks to the omission of a burst heal that even the worst Life forms have. Life Krok is otherwise pretty solid, with strong overtime, blade, and healing synergy. Horus is also a decent counter to newer Myth forms, with two trap counter spells and a minion counter that is also a DOT. However, if you are looking for a good healer, I would not recommend Life Krokomummy. You would be better off with Life Draconian or even Death Krokomummy.
Death Elf
Next we have Galladran Skullshot, the Death Elf. This is notably the first Death form that can cast blades, both directly and from conditional effects. He can also counter blades pretty effectively with some solid 2-pip spells. But can Death Elf compete with other glass cannon forms with only 1 bonus pip?
One of Death Elf’s most noteworthy spells is the level 5 spell, which is a 3-pip AOE. The only other 3-pip damage AOEs currently in Beastmoon deal less damage. However, Death Rat’s Ambush can be used on the first turn and is a 200 trap. So Death Elf is outclassed in this regard, aside from the fact that his AOE can be bladed, including by himself.
Where Galladran shines is in his 2-pip hits, one of which deals 250 damage then steals a blade. The other is a 150 drain that clears a blade for a -100 weakness. These are both good options on the first turn of a fight. Interestingly, Death Elf features the first drains with conditional effects in Beastmoon.
But why choose between a drain and a hit when Death Fairy can do almost as much damage with a drain on the first turn? Death Fairy’s 0-pip drain is also a much better spell than either of Death Elf’s 0-pip spells. Galladran’s 0-pip blade is restricted to himself and is only +50. The 0-pip hit stuns the caster, which is contrary to what you would want to be doing when building pips.
Another problem with Death Elf is that his blades and weaknesses are undervalued at 100 per pip. His blades are equivalent value to a Storm Wolf or Colossus blade. While his weakness is just as good as Death Pig’s 1-pip weakness.
Despite Death Elf’s flaws, it is still a decent form overall. Having 125 damage per pip with two good 2-pip hits is good enough by itself. But Galladran couples that with having blade and weakness utility and a turn 2 AOE. This form mainly suffers from only starting with 2 pips, unlike every other small form (besides Storm Rat). Having 1 less pip than other forms with the same damage output really hampers Death Elf’s ability to compete with other small hitters.
