Edited in Canva Pro.
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Last week, I did a reaction on what I expect about the new Rebellion and discussed their post in detail. However, it came to my senses that there are some important things that I missed and I hope I would be able to talk about it this week.
Not only the new Rebellion Series will change the game up to next pack release but based on what's going to happen after the release of Rebellion, I have a prediction that would shake the very foundation of Splinterlands. I have some proofs that I'm sure will convinces you. Not only that, we're probably on a crossroad right now between what will be the old and new Splinterlands.
If I got your attention, I hope you can keep up with me until the end of this post as this prediction will most likely affect you and every player here and realize how important the Rebellion pack will be in the future.
The Death of My Builds, Start of Square One
There was a post I am cooking that get pushed and pushed further back because of Rebellion. There's just so much to talk about Rebellion that this post has been left in the dust and this removal of Untamed set is a big detriment for me.
I really don't want to spoil anything so I'd rather not talk about it. I hope you can stop by next week to see this amazing build that I made a few weeks ago and see for yourself how strong it is.
The only thing I can spoil, probably, is you can only use this build until the removal of Untamed Series three weeks from now.
Actually, I didn't realize that the removal of Untamed would hurt me this much. My builds rely a lot on those Untamed Series. One of my builds is the Life Sneak with Lorna Shine.
As you can see, Lorna Shine, is also from the Untamed Set.
This card would surely be missed as she's my go-to build for any fights lower than 21 mana cap.
Photo from Splinterlands.
Cave Slug, Sand Worm, Parasitic Growth are the other ones hit by this change. I just hope the next Rebellion set has some cards that would be useful for this lineup.
Another one is the post I made recently, the Double Thaddius Build which you can find here:
@konaqua/thaddius-brood-and-his-mini
Death Elemental is from Untamed series
Since Death Elemental is from Untamed, this would have to leave my arsenal as well. Another version of this build is having Chain Golem level 2 in the 1st position as well for the Void+Armor combination. This have to leave my builds as well.
Chain golem is from Untamed Series as well
I am both excited and saddened at this changes because of the wins I shared with these builds. However, I think you will be more surprised of what the Devs are planning for the next few months.
Rebellion will Change Splinterlands for Good
Although I said in the beginning that I have proof, well, that's "technically" not true. But even so, I think you need to hear this out.
I think the Devs are now trying to go on a new path with more player interaction. As they said in their post,
and
"Some of you may also note that this new mechanic seems similar to what we have been planning for the Item and Spell cards that will eventually be produced through the Secret of Praetoria land expansion - and you would be correct."
This meant that this new playing style will be more apparent as years go on and as Splinterlands kept expanding their game.
The release of Rebellion Set pushed out the use of Untamed Set for Modern Format moving forward, right? This actually opens up two possibilities. However, both of those possibilities would involve saving and buying Rebellion set if you want to stay in Modern Format (which is free of bots). Also, both of those predictions involved phasing out the Chaos Legion for Modern Format.
1st Theory: The NEW Modern Format vs OLD Wild Format
In this prediction, after Rebellion and a new set is revealed, the release of that next series after Rebellion would push out the Chaos Legion series. This will put a rift between two types of ranked formats in Splinterlands.
Photo from Splinterlands.
There would be a NEW Modern Format, in which you can use Rebellion sets moving forward with the player input or what Splinterlands call, "Summoner Tactics." This changes the game moving forward as it would affect not only the team selection stage but also the battle stage. Eventually, I see Splinterlands adding spells and items that players can use DURING the match, most likely, at the start and end of every round.
In other words, with this prediction, I am expecting Splinterlands to fully change the Modern Format into a playable battle with Summoner Tactics for start of the battle, and the items and spells that can be used in between the rounds.
The downside of this is if the integration of player choices in between rounds was applied, you cannot skip the battle anymore since it will become more like Heartstone or Yugioh where the game needs to ask if the player has input and the result of each round can change depending on the player choices.
The upside, this would give the Modern Format the complicated gameplay that it needs in order to achieve that Worlds Tournament, if ever they wanted to pursue on that. Right now, without the Summoner Tactics, Splinterlands is just a wallet game. The more funds you have, the better cards you can have which allows you to adapt to different rules of combat better. While this is still going to be true even with the Summoner Tactics and player choices, that advantage can become disadvantage depending on which ability was chosen. As a good example, Splinterlands gave this one on their post:
This example gives you the insight that you can even target your own team for the disadvantages or maybe, in the future, removes the said advantages your opponent have such as forcefully removing a certain ability in that battle.
Brawl has a Guild tactic called, "Banish," that has an effect, "Select one card that the Enemy Team cannot use in Home battles. So, what if this applies as a Summoner Tactic instead that can be used in Ranked battles? A summoner with BANISH ability can have an effect like this, "In this battle, remove X ability from a monster at the start of the battle OR Y."
The X counts for any abilities. Just like how Dispel can remove a positive status of the opponent, the Banish Summoner Tactics can be used to remove a certain ability of one monster. You can remove an opponent's Taunt or Shield or even Immunity for Noxious Fumes rules of combat. The Y part, I really don't care. It could be a status debuff such as -1 range or something.
However, I REALLY want Splinterlands to do a double edged sword in this summoner tactics. I hope, in the future, they decide on something like, "Increase 5 max health for all your monsters but every monster gets Poisoned OR increase 3 melee damage of one team at the cost of 3 max health."
The reason for this is I wanted to have that edgy decision making of you need to think about your choices. I think it would be cool to see such choices that would certainly bring out player's skills for decision making. "Would you pick a Slow Death or Do a Blitz strategy."
For more information, you can check out this post by 
Sorry for rambling. I got too many ideas that I wanted to share but I will keep the next section really quick as we have more things to talk about.
For this first prediction, I think Splinterlands would go with two sets changing for Modern format.
So, first, we would have the Chaos Legion and Rebellion for Modern and Alpha to Untamed for Wild. Then, the next set after Rebellion, we will have Rebellion and X series for Modern and Alpha to Chaos Legion for wild. Then, the next set after X series, we will have X series and Y series for Modern and Alpha to Rebellion for Wild.
The idea is to have 2 series for Modern Format to encourage you to buy packs if you want to play a botless Modern Format.
Of course, while there's 2 changing series only Modern, they can make the Wild from Alpha to whatever the latest series is just like in this upcoming season. Whatever their decision is, I think you can use Rebellion series for at least 2 more series before they decide what to do next making the investment on the Rebellion series much better.
2nd Theory: The NEW Modern Format vs NEW Wild Format
IN this next theory, while I really want this to happen, I really doubt Splinterlands, even DAO would accept. While this would be interesting moving forward, it would "look like" the Splinterlands will be neglecting a lot of their investors. Here's why.
In this theory, I think it would be a clash between Modern and Wild. With the new Summoner Tactics introduced and the plan to make it a mainstay in the future, they could make it a difference in game mode instead.
BY that, I meant that the NEW Modern format will be the Rebellion cards and any new installment in the series. Anything with the Summoner Tactics will be absorbed as Modern Ranked. In other words, all Modern Ranked will have Summoner Tactics, spells, and items.
On the other hand, Wild Format will stop until Chaos Legion. Just like how everything below Chaos Legion "right now," cannot be played in Modern Ranked Format, I think it would also go for the Wild Ranked Format. For the NEW Wild Format, anything that is pre-Rebellion, without the Summoner Tactics, are the only cards playable in Wild Format.
The problem with this theory is that it's as if they would stop supporting the growth of Wild, which is post Rebellion.
A branch of this theory is like what I said above on the first theory. They can still allow in Wild Format everything from Alpha to the latest Series.
The main difference between the two theories is that in the second theory, the support will be Rebellion and above for the Modern and not limited to the two latest packs.
How to Counter the New Abilities
Since we don't have enough information regarding the Summoner Tactics, since we really don't know what kinds of options we can get unless the summoners with the Summoner Tactics gets revealed, let's prepare for the new abilities instead that was hinted a few days ago.
Armored Strike - Any unit with this ability gains an ADDITIONAL Melee attack using its Armor stat. This allows characters to improvise with deadly force, using their gauntlets, shields, helmets, or perhaps physical attributes (spikes, hard shells, etc) as weapons!
While I don't know what's with the "using their gauntlets, shields, helmets, or perhaps physical attributes (spikes, hard shells, etc) as weapons!" part, I think these are the items that can be used in the future in order to increase one's stats. In other words, they kept this hint in order to hint furthermore in their plans.
Countering Armored Strike seems really easy. Simple use of Rust and Shatter abilities are the easiest. This also gives a niche use for Shatter ability which I found REALLY underwhelming, most of the times.
While Rust is pretty straightforward, Shatter's issue is very apparent. Shatter's issue lies on the fact that the damage is subtracted first before the ability applies. Therefore, if you have a monster with 1 range damage and shatter ability, then the opponent has a monster with 1 health and 1 armor, once your monster attacks, his 1 range damage would remove the armor and the Shatter ability would lose effect since the opponent now has no armor.
With the new Armored Strike, the Shatter ability now has a new niche. Even if it attacks and damages first, the excess armor will be removed completely neutralizing the effect of Armored Strike. Monsters such as War Pegasus and Radiated Scorcher now have use instead of just an additional monster on the board.
Corrosive Ward - When hit with a Melee attack, a unit with this ability does 2 damage to the attacker's Armor AND reduces the max Armor of the attacker by 2. This is the nemesis to the Repair ability. You can't Repair something that's been melted into acidic goo! Note that this only affects units with Armor.
The description completely explains why the ability was invented. I also think that Repair ability is really strong since it also passes through the restrictions of Healed Out so I think we'll also receive a rule of combat like Healed Out but for armor.
As to countering this ability, for now, playing range and magic damage comp is best. Think of Corrossive Ward as an upgraded Thorns ability. It only affects melee attacks so monsters with range and magic damage is safe.
Another counter is using monsters without armor but high health. Life Splinter's Drybone Barbarian fits the bill. While it is a melee monster, it doesn't have any armor so there's nothing to be "melted" by Corrossive Ward. In other words, he won't be affected by this ability.
Compounding Armor by use of multiple monsters with Protect ability is another strategy. However, it's much better to just use the first two strategies than to buldozer with this.
Lastly, same with strategy against Thorns, if you can't attack, they can't counter. So, monsters like Evelyn Auvera, even though she has 8 armor, won't be affected since she cannot attack.
Flank - If the unit with this ability is in the first position, then the unit in the second position gains the Reach ability. Prepare to leverage positioning and the element of surprise. Now your first two units can work together to bring down the enemy tank!
Like I said in the other post of mine, I feel like this is just an extended Possibilus the Wise. However, I realized that this is a monster ability, meaning, it can be used by other Splinters. It would be interesting if they would put this ability on a Dragon or Neutral monster.
If put on a Neutral, monsters with Dual Attacks are good combinations with this. An example of this core is you can put a monster with Flank ability on the 1st position and then Agor Longtail on the second with Lily Shieldpaw as the Summoner.
This core allows Agor Longtail to attack while on second position with his melee and magic damage. His Taunt ability would also activate supporting your team while taking the damage except the opponent's monster on the 1st position. This would allow you to diverse a bit of attack to make both monster on the first and Agor Longtail in the second survive. Add a Tank Heal monster to support the monster with the Flank ability on the first, while Lily Shieldpaw's Triage heals Agor Longtail on the second, gives you a solid 1-2 tank for the 1st and 2nd positions.
Now, to counter this, including the strategy above, just dish the highest damage as you can. That's really the only solution to this. If they won't use the strategy above though, it really doesn't matter since you can just think of the second monster as someone with Reach ability just like how they use Possibilus the Wise.
Lookout - A unit with this ability results in adjacent allies taking one less damage from attackers with Sneak, Snipe, and Opportunity. Give your team a heads-up when stalkers approach from the shadows. It's always a good idea to have a Lookout!
This one's going to be a problem. There's a lot of combinations that you can use to support a lookout monster. By simply using him on the 5th position with a monster with range or magic damage on the 4th position, he can support both the monster on the 6th position and 4th position without being in danger of a monster with a Snipe ability. This is a card I am really looking forward to as it eliminates a lot of opponent's strategy if placed correctly.
To counter this, all you can do is what I call a "Focus Fire" strategy. This meant focusing on either the front of back of the opponent. So, a full Sneak team or a team without target prioritizing abilities such as Snipe, Sneak or Opportunity, will maw your opponent to the ground by implementing a strategy surrounding Lookout ability.
Another strategy, which would probably only work in Wild Format (fortunately), is Yodin Zaku Snipe build. If your opponent tries to use the strategy I said above supporting the Lookout monster with a damage type of range or magic damage in front of them, then the monster with the Lookout ability will be torched with Blast from your Snipe monsters.
The removal of Untamed Set is probably what hit me the most. I never realized I relied on so many Untamed cards for my builds and I think no player thought the removal of Untamed Series. That's a big surprise for everyone but just like in this post, I think we're in for a bigger surprise.
Until all the chips are on the table and until all the summoners and monsters are released, all we can really do is speculate. However, regardless of how the game would move, moving forward, my best bet is trying to accumulate Rebellion monsters as I think they would be pivotal to the continuation of the game.
Like I said in the predictions, whether they do the 1st or 2nd prediction, the only thing that's sure is that you can use Rebellion cards for a long time. Also, let's be real, who can resist that awesome borders of the new Rebellion cards?
Regarding the new abilities. It was actually underwhelming for a big change. With the new abilities, they also teased new rules of combat being released but no hints whatsoever about those. So, I hope that the new abilities would be compatible with the new rules of combat. This would make it more exciting and more fulfilling getting the new abilities since, as of now, I think that only the Lookout is the most appealing. Flank would be good as well but that's only if they put it on a Dragon or Neutral monster that can be flexible. Otherwise, that ability would be very limiting.
All in all, I still think this is a good change for the game. The removal of Untamed Series sucked but to be honest, it felt really unfair whenever I fight against a level 2 Yodin Zaku. It's really unwinnable and seeing that ALL of the top 10 or top 20 of the Modern Format in Bronze and Silver all runs a level 2 Yodin Zaku, it's IMPOSSIBLE for a new player to get to that top 20 and get a taste of the DEC rewards.
I'm not a "new" player and I find it impossible. Think of how much harder it is for players newer than me who started less than a year ago?
For the -LATEST- post from Splinterlands regarding the Rebellion Series, click the link below:
@splinterlands/rebellion-pre-sale
For the -FULL- detailed post from Splinterlands regarding the Rebellion Series, click the link below:
@splinterlands/the-rebellion-is-coming
- This post is an entry for Splinterlands Social Media Contest.
- Other sources that I do not own are cited under their respective photos. Photos and drawings without cited sources are mine and made for this post.
- Animated Banners and Dividers are edited in Canva Pro.
- Some of the fonts used are from instafonts.io
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