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Note: I am a gold league player, so my experience comes primarily from gold and silver league. My knowledge of higher tiers is thus limited. I am also focusing on modern format, but will mention some wild cards if its fitting.
With Riftwatchers being out now, it is time to update our decks and collect the most important cards first. Before the release, I wrote an article ranking all new Riftwatcher summoners.
But before you go and click buy on everything you see, you might want to consider which cards are best to use and which ones you can skip. Why bother buying a new summoner, if a (possibly cheaper one) is better anyways? There are some Chaos Legion summoners that have the power to even beat the mighty Yodin Zaku or Byzantine Kitty, so lets take a closer look:
6. Tarsa
Tarsa is taking the last spot for me. When Chaos Legion was released, I actually liked this summoner and was keen to test her out. I saw her as an upgrade to Malric Inferno for just one more mana.
However, the problems started to show quickly. Fire does encourage the use of melee minions with other summoners such as Malric and Plado Emberstorm, but in my opinion melee is probably the worst attack type in the game, so just upgrading that +1 health is pretty basic in the end and not enough to cut the edge.
Have you noticed that inspire is a thing to buff the attack of melee minions, but there are no abilities for minions to buff ranged or magic attack? Seems like one is not strong enough to stand on its own feet.
Melee minions cannot attack from behind unless given an ability like reach, sneak or opportunity. They are easily countered by armor, shield, demoralize and most importantly: speed.
If they cannot hit their target, the damage is worth nothing. Sadly, most melee minions of the fire splinter have low to average speed.
Grum Flameblade seems like an unstoppable force at first, but with 1 speed he can barely hit anything. Tusk the Wide, The Forgotten one, Radiated Brute and Tenyii Striker all have between 1 and 3 speed at gold, which is really bad to average.
Meanwhile, you will encounter many minions with 4 speed or above in other splinters. Countess Sinash can help a little bit, but is not enough to overcome this weakness.
When Tarsa was first announced, she actually gave +1 melee attack and + 1 speed, but the community feedback was that this would make Malric AND Pyre completly obsolete, a statement I agree with.
In hindsight, this could have been a missed opportunity though, since my main critique here is that now her teams lack speed.
Conquerer Jacek gives fire the speed it needs to be viable, so better try to get this card if you have the money to spare.
5. General Sloan
So as some of you might know, General Sloan is actually my secret favorite summoner out of the 6, because I love ranged decks. Objectively though, Sloan ist on the weaker end of the 4 chaos summoners, some consider her even weaker than Tarsa.
The main problem again is speed. Pelacor Arbalest, Prismologist, Venari Crystalsmith are all good cards by stats and abilities, but in silver league their speed is barely average. If you then encounter a Kelya, Kitty or Jacek, its pretty much over. You will be dead before making your first move, and when you make it you will not hit anything. Gem Meteor is fast, but will hit randomly and with a scattershot it will probably not do much, because so many enemy teams will have armor (Kelya, Queen Mycelia, etc).
In gold league, this gets a lot better, with Venari Crystalsmith reaching 4 speed at lvl 5 and pelacor arbalest reaching 3 speed + flying also at lvl 5, which indirectly buffs its chance to hit by removing the chance to miss other flying minions.
Lens Master and Cornealus are generally very fitting for General Sloan, but are also not that cheap to buy for most players.
Generally though, giving only one buff instead of two like most of the other summoners, means that everything else must be strong enough on its own, and this is where many life cards dont deliver.
I have put a lot of testing and thinking into making Sloan work though, so I can give you some advice on how to build your teams:
You need more speed. Put in Time Mage as often as you can (-1 speed +rust neutralising Kelyas buffs and even allowing you to play Gem Meteor) and consider putting in Supply Runner for some extra speed. In wild you can also add Creeping Ooze easily. My secret tip for wild matches is Baby Unicorn lvl 6. It gives +1 health and +1 speed, making it a great support minion for 3 mana.
Focus on the really good ranged cards. Put in Pelacor Arbalest and Venari Crystalsmith as often as you can and leave it at that if there isnt enough mana to fool around.
Do not go full defense mode. Your strength with Sloan is your damage, not your ability to endure. No Lone Boatman even though it seems to fit well. The Snipe will only slow down your ability to kill the front minion.
Place enough minions up front to secure your ranged minions ability to deal damage. Pelacor Conjurer is always a cheap option to put in. Djinn Renova helps everyone survive while dealing good damage and tanking a bit herself.
Your backline is your weak point, because that is where your main damage comes from. Always consider that if your enemy could play lots of sneak monsters.
I picked out a battle for that will show you how a good General Sloan match can look like. You can watch it here.
4. Thaddius Brood
Thaddius Brood is just a really good and well balanced summoner in my opinion. What I like most about it, is that it does not force any particular playstyle, but instead has stats that are just solid to very good in any matchup.
-1 magic damage is great because magic is the best damage type in the game, while also directly countering summoners like Obsidian. It can be "useless" though, if your opponent does not play any magic at all or minions with just 1 magic damage.
-1 health is probably never going to waste, because every minion has health and more than 1 at that. It is a great ability to be combined with minions who have weaken, which is quite rare in silver/gold to be fair. In wild, Undead Priest is a cheap option for that.
In my opinion, Thaddius Brood shines through the many strong minions in the death splinter, giving you the option to take out the backline with Silent Sha-Vi, Undead Badger, Uraeus and Sand Worm (last two are neutral) or reducing your opponents stats to the ground with Harklaw, Riftwing, Death Elemental, Octopider (wild) and Phantom Soldier (wild).
You can reflect some damage with Cursed Windeku (who is THE GOAT at lvl 5 when it gets heal), Djinn Muirat and add amplify with Weirding Warrior lvl 4 or now Cabalist (Riftwatchers).
One of the strongest low mana cards in the game in my opinion is Venari Bonesmith. His ability to lifeleech while also poisoning the enemy minions is huge. Abilities such as poison and stun are much better with magic attack anyways, because it almost always ensures a hit and therefore the 50% chance to trigger.
Low mana battles are where Thaddius Shines the most. You have so many good cards to choose from that you will mostly come out on top. Venari Bonesmith, Life Sapper, Shadowy Presence, Undead Badger, Theorosa Nightshade and Riftwing are some examples here.
3. Quix the Devious
Quix the Devious has a similar type of stat combo as Thaddius Brood, but instead of targeting magic and health, he weakens ranged attacks and speed.
Reducing speed is great, because speed is king as I already pointed out. Reducing ranged attacks is nice, but sometimes it will have no effect as well.
The reason I am ranking Quix higher than Thaddius is the fact that the dragon splinter can be used with every other splinter in the game. That gives Quix a lot more cards to be combined with and also adding the strength of the whole dragon splinter to it.
With 4 mana you can play him almost everywhere, but I personally use him to counter General Sloan or to combine him with the water splinter, because there are some extra nice combos hidden.
Carnage Titan and Dhampir Infiltrator (both cards with double strike) can be greatly combined with River Hellondale and Demented Shark, both having the inspire ability to buff melee attacks.
In high mana or earthquake matches, the big dragons who almost always have flying come in handy.
Overall he is just a good summoner, not forcing any particular playstyle down your throat. On the contrary, this is why part of the reason why I do not rank him higher, because in my opinion it is better to buff something and go into a certain direction, rather than nerfing something and having no clear game plan.
2. Obsidian
Obsidian takes the 2nd place in my ranking. With +1 magic attack she also only has one ability, but this time the ability really speaks for itself.
Not only is magic the strongest damage type, the earth splinter also has some of the strongest magic cards in the game:
Kron the Undying and Queen Mycelia are insanely strong cards on their own and with Obsidian they are taken to another level.
Oaken Behemoth, Djinn Biljka, Spirit Druig Grogg (who isnt that good) and now even Runemancer Florre are all legendary cards that profit from the magic buff.
Goblin Psychic, Khmer Princess and Wood Nymph (wild) are all great magic healers.
While most of these cards are slow, they are magic cards which means that is only a problem when phase is involved, otherwise they will hit anyways.
And there are still cards like Reagal Peryton, an insanely fast minion also equipped with magic damage.
The earth cards also synergyze very well with each other.
For example, Grund is a very heavy hitter, but his weakness is his lack of endurance. To take pressure off the front position, you can place Mycelic Slipspawn in the back. This will not only divert most damage to that card, but it can also be healed by Queen Mycelias triage ability and lastly profit from Obsidians magic buff as well.
Mycelia will also provide +2 armor for everyone, making Grund and Slipspawn even tankier.
Another favorite combo of mine in low mana matches is placing Queen Mycelia in the middle, Failed Summoner in the front, Iza the Fanged (who is great at lvl 3 because of the stun) in the back and Djinn Biljka right behind her. If Iza has to move up to the front position, she then can still act as a tank with the life she gathered from scavenger, giving Djinn Biljka more time to finish your opponent.
1. Kelya Frendul
The number one summoner without question for me is Kelya Frendul.
The combination of +1 speed and +1 armor is insane.
Speed is king, I dont need to tell you that, but in my opinion it is even better to gain +1 of anything than reduce it by 1, because it cannot go lower than 1.
The 1 armor is enough to block 1 hit by any melee or ranged minion (except for pierce damage), which makes all minions more durable and helps especcially the small ones.
Additionally, water has some of the best cards in game. There are so many strong minions to choose from, many of them have high speed to begin with. They become unstoppable forces with Kelya.
Just think of Djinn Oshannus, Phantom of the Abyss, Axemaster, Diemonshark, Deeplurker and more.
There is almost no ruleset where I wouldnt pick Kelya. Only Reversed Speed comes to mind for obvious reasons, but even Earthquake or Noxious Fumes can be won just by stomping your opponent before the effects can do anything.
Most of the times your minions will attack first, taking out some of your opponents minions without them being able to do a single hit.
When Kelya was first shown, she gave only 2 armor, which was rightfully criticised by the community. In the end, Tarsa lost her +1 speed and Kelya gained it. It made her the best 4 mana Chaos Legion Summoner and one of the best in the game in my opinion.
I wrote in the beginning, that some are even able to beat the mighty Yodin Zaku, so I am going to show you just that. It is a brawl match (gold fray) I played some time ago, but I think you will see that this was a close and intense match. You can watch it here.
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