Tonight during the Town Hall, we got our first look at the new summoners coming in Riftwatchers.
The Riftwatchers summoners will all cost 4 mana, just like the Chaos Legion summoners. They will be epic though, so at some levels they will be slightly better, as they can play higher level monsters.
Here is my hot take on how good they are, and if they can compete with the Chaos Legion summoners, as they have the same mana cost.
Skargore
Enrage is a strong ability, but will you want to choose it over Tarsa’s + 1 health and + 1 attack? The short answer is no.
The number one problem is that a lot of fire monsters are slow because of Yodin, and slow cards with enrage will still just become medium speed and will miss more often than not vs a fast team.
I would go so far as to say that Skargore will be played less than Qid Yuff from Dice, and that´s quite an accomplishment in itself!
Aquatus
Backfire is a really strong ability if you can build a team with high speed. Kelya has the + 1 speed buff, but are water monsters fast enough without Kelyas buff? I say yes!
Water does have some relatively fast monsters in general, and cards like Oshannus with Phase can become very hard to deal with for many line ups. Furthermore, at max level, River Nymph gets swiftness and Torrent Fiend gets headwinds. Both of these cards could become very important to water lineups, and it would be better to max them out sooner rather than later.
Aquatus might not be better than Kelya, but it is certainly a good card. We may see some very fast teams being created when the players get their hands on him and start theorycrafting.
Fernhearth
+1 Health and Close Range is a strong combo, especially if you have access to good ranged monsters. This is even more powerful if the monsters have Scavenger, and Earth has just that!
Cards like Venari Seedsmith, Iza The Fanged, Vampiric Blossom and Mitica Headhunter have been waiting for a summoner like this to show how they can shine.
I think Fernheart will easily become a meta summoner. Obsidian is very strong, but there is more Magic Reflect, Void Shield and Amplify being played than ever before. Because of this, Obsidian has been sliding for a while, and the meta is shifting away from Magic.
Ilthain
+1 Speed and Return Fire, great synergy and this might be the strongest of these cards.
Life is very strong, but also disliked by many as it relies on expensive cards, and can at times be hard to play well. With Ilthain, we have a really good option to play cheap life in low and mid mana battles.
A line up that is already meta is Quix/Life, with Pelacor Conjurer as a tank, Stitch Leach and Uraeus as Sneakers and some combination of Time Mage, Dax Paragon and Venari Crystalsmith in the mix, depending on mana. Ilthain will make this possible even when Dragon is not available, and a max level Pelacor Conjurer will become a cheap version of Almo Cambio.
Goodbye Sloan, there is a new boss in town!
Dallan
Cripple as a solo ability seems a bit disappointing, even if it is made undispellable.
We already have Thaddius Brood in Death, and while he is not the best of the Chaos Legion summoners, he is played a fair amount, especially in lower leagues. Thaddius is carried a bit by a few strong death cards such as Cursed Windeku, Magi Necrosi and Silent-Sha-vi. All of these cards I would rather play with Thaddius than Dallan.
Thaddius is still king, at least until they print a good death summoner.
Sthispa
Phase needs Speed, Dodge or Flying, and since many dragon cards already have ok speed and can fly, we are off to a good start.
The question is whether there will be enough magic in the meta to justify playing a summoner that just brings Phase to the table. Personally, I don´t think so. If we are fairly certain that Magic is coming, Sthispa could be the way to go, but in most other cases, I would choose Quix without much consideration.
Unless some really specific dragon monsters are coming with Riftwatchers, I don’t think that we will see this card played a lot.
I think we can divide the new summoners into 3 categories, the good, the bad and the ones with potential, and I can't wait to get my hands on them to test them out!
I hope you found this interesting, and I would love to hear what you think of the cards! What cards or strategies are you looking forward to testing out with them?