Uriel Battle Challenge. Beware of Purity. And My First Giveaway!

This weeks Battle Challenge asked us to utilize new legendary Chaos Legion, Uriel the Purifier. Some reflections and strategy notes are below. You can watch the battle here.

About our "Hero"
Uriel boasts the new Recharge ability which allows him to attack every other round and deliver three times the damage. So he's a heavy hitter but needs to be able to take some real damage. At level 2, he gains the heal ability, which will help with his slow recovery. That alone might be reason for me to finally level up my Lorna.

Reflections on Purity
Before we get to the BATTLE, a few words about Uriel and the notion of purity,

My first thought, whenever I read the word "pure," "purifier," or "purity," is... be careful. The idea that purity exists, particularly in people, breeds extremists. The idea of purification was central to Nazi Germany, ideas of Eugenics, and any number of other historic ethnic "cleansing" campaigns. It is deeply engrained in ideas of white supremacy... that the dark is unpure or dirty. So... when I read the lore, I wasn't surprised that Uriel - a childhood victim of war trauma, has a religious extremist back story. Kudos to the lore writers for giving this character a background and story that aligns with the problematics of "Purifier."

Here's an excerpt from the lore:
"The Khymerian leaders banished him from their land, believing that his over-zealous and fanatical behavior was becoming a danger to their people. This sent Uriel into a wild rage and he left them with a promise, that when he finally found what he sought, the magic of life would eventually know the true purity of what was missing from its white light, and when that day came they would also feel the sharp edge of his sword."

Armed with a holy book as his shield, a flaming sword, and his unwavering belief, this flying zealot with an anger problem has killed priests just for asking that he join them or step out of the way of their religious procession. Ruthless! So how did this deadly zealot do in battle?

The Starting Line Up

With 99 Mana, I got to play with all the big holy life stars. The trick with Uriel is to keep him alive long enough to attack a few times.

Lorna, with her Divine Shield, allows everyone to receive an initial painless attack. I have the Shield Bearer to redirect the blows, Adelade to keep rebuilding the armor, High Priest Darius to bring the Shield Bearer back for another few blows, and Djinn Renova for one more life all around. I skipped a healer in favor of the heavy hitters. The Sand Worm is the only one that doesn't reinforce Uriel's longevity, but it works well to take down the back line so both fronts are getting addressed.

Mycelic Slipspawn is taken down Round 1 and Uriel gets his first hit off the Horned Horse at the beginning of Round 2 with 4 points (down 2 from what it would have been without Disintegrator's Demoralizing.

Shiel Bearer did return from the dead and absorbed one more blow from the Goblin Tower before falling pray to the Golden Peryton. He would have taken a few more shots if it ween't for magic.

The Magic three took out Disintegrator, Sand WOrm took out the Goblin Tower, leaving Uriel to land an astounding 9 point blow to take out that Pesky Peryton in a single blow.

The Goblin Healer didn't stand a chance from there. The game ended with Uriel still boasting 5 armor and only the Shield Bearer to mourn.

Conclusion
Uriel is something special when he has a supportive back up team. But he's too erratic and slow to stand well on his own. If you have the resources to level him up so he has his own healing, or can tag on cards that heal and repair him, he can take the beating necessary to leave him exposed on the front line.

Giveaway!!
I'd like to try a new kind of giveaway contest.
I'm sticking with the Life Splinter and giving away a Chaos Knight for my first ever giveaway.

The Rules
In the comments please leave ONE title or caption for this battle along with your in game name.

• Upvotes, Reblogs, and reward tokens (like !PIZZA and the like) are welcome but not required.
• Everyone is allowed to vote on up to 3 names or captions you like the most. You have until the post pays out to vote.
• Everyone who offers a title or caption will get one entry. Everyone who votes on a title or caption will get one additional entry. The Titles or captions with the top three votes will each get an additional 2 entries.
• No multiple account entries please.
• Winner will be chosen at random when the post pays out.

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