Champion Spotlight: Stink

At first glance, Stink simply looks like an average champion in a faction full of powerful and dominant champions, so most players forego adding Stink to their deck when playing as the Sand Goblins.With only 3 health and 1 attack, along with a 5 magic cost and an ability that appears only average at best, I can understand why so many players leave Stink out of their Sand Goblins deck. I however, never play as the Sand Goblins without having Stink as one of my champions, and he is easily one of my top 5 favorite champions (My other favorites from SG are Tark and Biter). I'll explain why below.

For many, but not all champions in Summoner Wars, their abilities are highly situational. This means that while a "situational" champion has an ability that is extremely powerful and effective in one type of situation, that champion's ability or even the champion itself may be useless or disadvantaged outside of that situation. To make my point more clear, I will provide an example.

With Sand Wyrm, the advantageous and disadvantageous situations are obvious. If the player limits Sand Wyrm's movements during his or her turn and has the ability to attack an enemy unit with little movement involved, there is an opportunity for Sand Wyrm to inflict heavy damage. However, most seasoned players know not to move their units close to Sand Wyrm if it can be avoided, forcing Sand Wyrm to move to attack other units, lowering its attack value with each space moved. 

Now I still believe that Sand Wyrm is a powerful champion and like to use him in my SG decks from time to time, but I merely wanted to illustrate the point that he, like many other champions, has situations where he is great and others where he is not so great. Stink on the other hand, has an ability that is essentially (not always) unaffected by the situation he is in. The only situation in which his ability will not be used is during a turn where the player controlling him does not roll any dice or rolls perfectly with no need for a re-roll. 

In my experience, I would say that I average about 3 dice rolls per turn. Probability theory says that in my 3 dice rolls, I am most likely to 'hit' (if attacking) on 2 out of 3 of those dice rolls. However, if I have stink on the board, I am able to re-roll the dice that I missed to have a 66% chance of turning that miss into a hit. I can't tell you how many times having Stink has helped me to destroy units in battle that would have stayed alive for one more turn with the opportunity to strike back on my unit. 

The best part about Stink is that his ability can be used EVERY turn as long as he is on the board. No, he does not need to be adjacent, or within 4 spaces of the unit employing his ability, nor does he need to spend magic to use this ability. Did I mention it can be used EVERY SINGLE TURN? And with as often as dice are rolled in Summoner Wars, you likely will use his ability almost every turn. 

Drawing and summoning him at the beginning of the game is obviously the best possible scenario, as he will place you at a huge advantage in the dice rolling department against your opponent until he is destroyed. 

Now, after you summon Stink, your opponent may either completely ignore the fact that he is on the board and continue with his or her overall plan, or he or she may make it a point to destroy Stink ASAP. Either scenario is to your advantage. If your opponent chooses to ignore Stink and does not go after him, you will obviously enjoy an advantage in dice rolling for the rest of the game, and as dice can often decide how a Summoner Wars match goes, you will be in a better position to win. 

If your opponent recognizes the threat of having Stink on the board and decides to go after him, you can play this to your advantage as well. When you summon Stink, because he is not a combat oriented champion, you should hide him much like you would your summoner. If you hide him on your side of the board, and your opponent insists on taking him out, he or she will be forced to go on the offensive and place his or her units in vulnerable positions. Most of the time you will find that your opponent will not want to go through a hassle to destroy Stink, and will only go after him if the opportunity presents itself. After all, he is not the unit who's survival determines whether the match is won or lost (Although his influence on the outcome of a game is greater than some realize). 

So that's my take on Stink as a champion never to leave out of your Sand Goblin deck. Please share your comments and feedback and let me know if you either agree or disagree with my position on Stink.