I think it has passed enough time since the new set of Soulbound Reward Cards was published, so it is time to analyze some of those!
I chose to analyze the Epic cards because, in my opinion, they are the most interesting cards in this set, for two different reasons:
All the Monsters have no offensive skills, so they could look like simple support cards.
The new Weapons Training ability.
Before I start analyzing those cards let's specify one important thing, I'll study those cards for the Bronze League, so at Level 2, that's because after the last updates the Modern Bronze League has become really competitive and full of real players, so I spend my "battling time" between Bronze and Silver, and I want to talk about my experiences.
So, as I said, the first reason to consider those cards is the "support utility", every card has one or more abilities that help us in various ways, let's see how every card works:
- Thane Newsong
This Earth element card combines a nice Health stat with the Inspire ability:
This ability can perfectly synergize with all the Melee Attack Monsters, giving them an important buff.
Some of the most deployed Earth element Monsters that could benefit from this ability:
- Iidri Fyre
This Fire element card is one of my favorite new Soulbound cards, it combines a really nice Speed stat with a high Health stat, and it has 3 points in Armor stat and two useful abilities, Redemption and Taunt:
Thanks to the Taunt ability it can redirect every Opponent's Monsters' attack and thanks to its high Speed stat it can avoid some physical attacks and extend its life, finally when it dies the Iidri Fyre will deal 1 physical damage to every Opponent's Monster, simply amazing.
- Noah the Just
This Water element card has a really high speed stat, useful to avoid physical attacks, and the Rust ability:
Considering the high Speed stat and Melee attack stat of some of the Water element Monsters, removing the Opponent's Monsters' Armor could be really game-changing.
- Evelyn Auvera
This Life element card has a really high Armor stat, making it really resistant to physical attacks, but it has an ability useful only in certain circumstances, the Immunity ability:
In a battle with the Noxious Fumes battle rule (where all the Monsters start the battle poisoned) the Evelyn Auvera could be interesting, but only in that specific case...probably is the least versatile card between the Epic Soulbound cards.
- Will-O-Wisp
This Death element card is the other one besides the Iidri Fyre that has two abilities, but in my opinion, is definitely less useful than the Fire element card, the Will-O-Wisp can count on the Flying ability, and the Weaken ability:
It could be interesting to be used to decrease Opponent's Monsters' health stat or in a battle with the Earthquake battle rule (where all the non-flying Monsters take physical damage every turn), but considering the Mana cost, in a Death deck there are often better choices:
Just three examples.
- Clockwork Aide
This Neutral card in my opinion is probably the second-best one among the cards that we are analyzing, being neutral means that it can be used with every Summoner the Mana cost is decently low and it has a really high Armor stat, plus it has the super useful Swiftness ability:
It is important to never forget how the Speed stat influences the game:
Furthermore deploying the Clockwork Aide in the last position thanks to its high Armor stat can be useful to absorb the Melee attacks from Monsters with the Sneak ability (They target the last unit on the enemy Team instead of the first one).
- Kra'ar Xoc
This Dragon element card at low levels is simply a bait, a card that thanks to its low Mana cost and its ability Scavenger can complete the team by redirecting and resisting some of the Opponent's Monsters' attacks:
Thanks to its 4 in Speed stat can be pretty hard to hit.
Now that I finished analyzing the cards themselves I would like to focus on the importance of the new ability Weapons Training:
Not the same attack, but half of it!
This ability means that all the cards that I just analyzed could become able to attack and really powerful, able to grant support, and, at the same time, able to deal damage, but it is really that simple to deploy a card with the Weapons Training ability near a card with no attacks to make it game-changing?
First thing, let's see which cards have the Weapon Traning ability:
As you can see, excluding Zyriel, that was a special promo card, all the cards with the Weapon Training ability are Legendary Soulbound cards, which means that they are really difficult to find and not tradeable, you can't buy them on the market, so especially at Bronze level the odds to find those Legendary cards are really low.
Furthermore, at the moment, there are no Neutral cards with the aforementioned ability, so you need to find every card for every element!
Obviously, in case you find those legendary cards, you could deploy some amazing line-ups, for example, one of my favorites, a really particular scenario: the Ferexian Hero between the Iidri Fyre and the Scavo Hireling with one of the Battle Rules that allows Melee Monsters to attack from any position:
Considering using the Tarsa Fire Summoner (+1 buff in Melee Attack and Health stats) I would have a fast Monster with 3 in Melee Attack with the Taunt ability and a Monster able to repair its Armor like the Scavo Hireling and, at the same time, able to deal 3 Melee damages. Obviously with one of those rules:
Final conclusions: the Epic Soulbound cards are more or less useful and interesting, for the Bronze level, in my opinion, the Iidri Fyre and the Clockwork Aide are a cut above the rest.
Being able to use them with a card with the Weapon Training ability is really satisfying and can lead you to victory, but as I always say, in Splinterlands, there are a lot of different strategies and tactics, and it is impossible to take a victory per granted until the battle is over.
I hope you enjoyed this post about Splinterlands cards
Best regards,
Magalli
P.S. My referral link is: https://splinterlands.com?ref=magalli
Posted using Splintertalk