Soulbound Reward Cards - Usut

Hello everyone! I'm entering the Splinterlands Social Media Challenge with a series of reviews for soulbound reward cards. First, I'll talk about soulbound cards in general and what I think they are doing to the game. After that, I'll proceed to this post's card: Usut.

I am very happy with most things that came with these soulbound cards. We're not seeing them being dumped on the market, we're filtering out huge bot farms that only want to extract value and sell everything as fast as possible and we're creating a sense of progress for players of every league.

I also love being able to get multiple copies of the same card from a single chest and using potions on these chests. Opening a single Venari Heathsmith from a Diamond or Champion chest used to be very sad. Now, when I open common cards, I usually get several copies. I was never going to be able to use all the potions I was getting. I'm still getting more than I'm using, but, at least, they're being useful.

It is cool that no one can just go and buy max copies of everything right away. We all have to slowly accumulate them by playing and getting lucky.

There are a few downsides, though. Players who join in now, or after a break from the game, are at a disadvantage, until these cards are out of print and can be traded. It's good for the game if it makes players not want to take a break but life happens and there are always new players. Some of these cards can be very good and life can be hard for those players until they get them. Venari Marksrat is a very good example. It's a very good card and new players, will be at a disadvantage, when playing those who have it. All you need is one copy, but, until you get it, it's not great.

Another thing that is not an exclusive problem of soulbound cards but it is worse in them is not being able to use lower level versions of cards we own/rent. This is something that should have been implemented a long time ago. Since there are many different rule sets, a higher level card is not always the best. This is most relevant in Reverse Speed but can also happen in other ones. If I have a high level Sand Worm, I should be able to play it at level 1 when I want (Reverse Speed in this case). Or maybe melee monsters are not allowed but Furious Chicken doesn't have attack on the lower levels. Why can't I use it at level 1 or 2? Maybe it's even next to a Weapon's Training monster, so I want it without attack anyway. It's possible to go around these by owning or renting the lower level cards and getting the higher level card out of your account for a bit. But that takes time and it's a pain to do it while the timer goes down. For soulbound cards, there is no way to work around it. Venari Marksrat is a very good example, again. If you combined it before understanding the martyr ability, you're stuck with a worse card. If you open a GF one, you're screwed and you're gonna have to play a level 2.

I also think the team needs to be more careful in designing cards. It's not good for the game when people don't want to combine cards, for gameplay reasons. Martyr cards have been the biggest offenders in these because, unlike Sand Worm, which you only want the lower level in one rule set, a level 1 Venari Marksrat is almost always better than a higher level version. Martyr cards should have the same health for all levels. Vruz is fine because when it gets martyr, it already has 3 health, which is its max.

Let's talk about Usut now. I was lucky enough to open 2 GF copies so I'm already using it at gold level.

At level 1 and level 2, the card is almost the same. Flying and Bloodlust on a magic monster with a lot of health. It shouldn't be too difficult to get some kills. Oppress for level 2 is not very relevant but it can be useful. At level 3 it's when it gets interesting with heal. If it manages to get a couple of kills, it's not gonna be easy to take out this monster! For max level, it gets one more damage, something we see very often in Splinterlands cards. In this case, it's a very big deal. Dealing 3 damage makes Usut much more likely to get kills.

Very restrictive rule sets and splinters available. We both went with Thaddius Brood and Djinn Muirat. My opponent had Ancient Lich as the monster that they hoped to outlast everything else. However, Djinn Muirat prevented that. Most monsters died very quickly. I still had 4 monsters left but they were also very close to dying, except for Usut.

What do you all think about Usut? Do you have a copy? What level? How has it been working for you? Let me know in the comments! Thank you for reading!