The Greatest Archmage Has Been Born
With Conclave Arcana at our doorsteps in just a few days, a new Promo card has been announced and it's a great card for so many reasons. First, this card is in honor of the Splinterlands Co-Founder 
Hive account@yabapmatt who if not for him, this game wont be possible. Second, it features a new CA abilities. Third, and probably not the last, it is a Dragon/Water dual element card that packs amazing stats. This promo card is none other than Archmage Yabanius. Let's dive in.
Archmage Yabanius in honor of Splinterlands Co-Founder
Initial Card Look
At maxed level, Yabanius has 6 Mana requirement and packs 3 Ranged Attack, 6 Health and 5 Speed. It belongs to Human Bloodline that is under the Water and Dragon elements. It's known abilities are:
Ability | Name | Description |
|---|
 | Camouflage | Cannot be directly targeted unless in the first position. Does not affect indirect attacks (e.g. Scattershot, Blast splash damage, or Trample) or Wingbreak. |
 | Shatter | Successful attacks destroy the target's armor. |
 | Stun | 50% chance to apply Stunned for one round after a successful attack. Stunned units skip their turn and cannot Retaliate. |
 | Relentless Strike | Attacks deal true damage. +1 damage if the target has Void, Shield or Forcefield. |
Archmage Yabanius has another CA ability that hasn't been revealed yet. I asked around discord and it is speculated to be called Empowered. But what does it do exactly?
Empower: New CA Ability?
CA New Ability: Empower
The new ability looks like a man transforming into a bigger or more muscular build. Going by the trend of abilities with the same logo as this new ability, let us analyze what this card do:
Last Stand is an ability with the similar look to this new ability. Last Stand increases all stats of a Unit by 50% when the unit is the only one left in their party. Empowered ability could have the same effect as increasing the stats of the unit as it looks like 'empowering' or 'strengthening' it. As for the condition that will trigger its effects, let us look at the other ability - Strengthen.
Strengthen is the ability that increases the Health of all friendly units. There are no conditions involved. No need for the friendly units to be attacked, damaged, stunned or be afflicted with any negative effects. It just works at the beginning of the battle. This could probably be the case for Empowered. It could increase the stats of all friendly units by +1 at the beginning of the battle. As OP as it may sound, this looks legit. Probably the unit itself would not be affected to balance it out. A typically Yabapmatt move, I must say. Empowering us, battlemages without thinking about himself.
In a nutshell, this Empowered ability could work as Strengthen but grants +1 on all stats and not just Health. It could work like Last Stand but with no other conditions but just at the beginning of the battle. It may or may not grant the same effect to the unit itself but I guess that works too.
Card Miscellaneous Facts
According to the Splinterlands Announcement, this card will be available in packs. It will have individual card copies of 1,500 Regular Foils and 30 Gold Foils. The following versions will be max level cards straight out of the pack, 5 Black Foils, 5 Gold Foil Arcanes and 1 of 1 Black Foil Arcane. The maxed level cards will be scarce and very limited.
As for Lore enthusiasts, according to the Splinterlands announcement:
"Archmage Yabanius is a master of the Wizards’ Council. He was betrayed by Portia Nyr when she opened the rifts under the guise of progress. He was casted into exile. He descended into the Deep in search of a way to stop the chaos Portia Nyr unleashed. Among warped ley lines and daedok horrors, he found a hidden fortress beneath Mount Praetorous, where an ancient rift pulsed with the gaze of a dark god. There, alongside Aggroedius Lightbringer—one of the few remaining loyal mages—they held the rift at bay for five years. Spell by spell, rune by rune, Yabanius refused to let the Splinterlands fall. When the final seal was cast, Aggroedius vanished... and the darkness held.
Yabanius rose from the Deep changed, not defeated. The war isn’t over. And Portia has no idea what’s coming."
I don't know about you guys but this bit of Yabanius lore makes me more excited as it implies more SPL team cards will be introduced in the future. This is a welcome development as we honor the people behind this wonderful Web3 game.
Closing
In closing, this a very exciting time for Splinterlands. And there are more to come. Personally, I can't wait for the other team member's card like Aggroed and Nate's card. Are you excited too? Let's go and buy some packs.
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Sources: Splintercards, Splinterlands
