Hello Splinterlands summoners and welcome back to my blog! When judging to buy cards, I would often consider its attack first. I hold high value to units that deals huge damage. Next I would look at its defensive stats like armor and health since these determine how long the unit can stay in battle. Speed is just a bonus stats for me and not considered that much. Like a high attack unit with high speed is considered a plus when compared to one with lower speed. However, speed is just as important as the other stats and here's why.
The Need for Speed
Faster Units Attack First
Units with higher speed attack first which means that they can eliminate the enemy before they can even attack. They can break armor or apply debuffs to enemy units first thus swinging the momentum to the team that attacked first. Units with high attack like Calabash Sage will mean nothing if they get defeated even before they get a chance to act.
Faster Units has Higher Chance to Dodge Attacks
Speed stats influences a unit's chances to dodge attacks. The speed stat is especially effective when comboed with abilities like Flying, Dodge or Phase.
Commander Slade is one of the best tanks in the game and can stand toe to toe against legendary cards. He combines his high speed stats with his Dodge ability to evade physical attacks. His high speed also means that it's hard for him to miss thus ensuring that his five melee damage hits his target and apply the Enfeeble debuff even before the enemy gets a chance to act.
Similarly, units like the Giant Alpine Skink and Mindless Thrall are very effective in dodging magic attacks with their combination of speed and Phase abilities. They also get to attack first per round thus immediately reducing the enemy's health or even eliminate them.
In the Frontier, we have the pesky no attack cards Arcane Curator and Scales of Justice. Their high speed stats combined with their abilities make them great defensive low mana tanks. The Arcane Curator can even do damage with her Backfire ability when the enemy misses its attack.
Featured Battle
The battle shows how speed can make a difference in a battle.
I had the Frontier Fire archon, Barthalamas who gives +1 speed to units. In the frontline, I had a dual tank combo of Drybone Megalodon and Doomshield Warden. Both deal four melee attack. In third I had Grove Doomblade who has one speed stat but helped by the +1 speed from the archon. In fourth is Mindless Thrall who is already a fast unit. In fifth is Chaos Battlemage and last is Kha'zi Conjurer. My strategy was to strike first and do significant damage before the enemy can act.
The enemy had one of the best rare archons from the Rebellion set. Avina of the Wolf grants +2 speed stats to two units or Heal to one unit. He chose Heal and gave it to his tank. I would have done the same, self healing is an important ability for a tank, making him sustain himself and stay in battle longer. This means his damage dealers are safe as long as their tank holds the line. Unfortunately, this was not so. The enemy tank got defeated in the first round even before he can take action to heal himself.
My faster units proved effective in eliminating units first. Losing their tank was an early disadvantage but the enemy had powerful legendary units and soon fought back.
However, my faster units eliminated the last enemy defender and got the victory.
Closing Thoughts
Speed is an underrated stat but its equally important as the others. Faster teams land the first attack, applies the first debuffs and eliminates enemy units first to get the momentum going. Speed is also crucial on defense as it increases the chance to evade attacks, physical or magic. Next time you do battles, consider speed in your strategies.
Come Play Splinterlands!
Start your Splinterlands adventure today with my referral. You can play the game for free in the Frontier Mode or take your game to the next level by purchasing a spellbook. Buying a spellbook allows you to earn SPS tokens and use the market to sell in game assets. Also, we will both get 500 Credits which can be used top purchase cards once you buy a spellbook.