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Card Highlights #57: Redwyrm Hatchling

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Red dragons are the embodiment of fire and rage, the most covetous of all dragons, forever seeking to increase their treasure hoards.
by Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual
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Recently, I've been into a lot of Dragon Element because Lily Shieldpaw is currently affordable to rent. This is a good thing because it can allow me to explore the powerful Dragons which I normally can't do due to the excessive prices they can have. For this week, I'll explore and see the use-case of Redwyrm Hatchling, a unit I never saw in Ranked play. I wonder if this is a sleeper OP unit or it's ridiculously bad which is the reason no one uses him?

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Lore

Before the hatchlings of the Redwyrm dragons can even fly, their mother or father will bring them live prey, and they must learn to kill or be killed. It is a fatally important lesson, but not as important as another:
Never disobey Rage, and never displease Rage.

^{For full lore of this card, visit this website:
https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/621/regular/12/?tab=lore}

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Buy and Rental Costs

Since Redwyrm Hatchling is one of the cards that was just recently released, the price of this legendary unit is high. The low usage of this unit also drives the price higher due to lower demand.

On the contrary, the rental price of Redwyrm Hatchling is lower due to the low demand. They needed to lower the price because there's higher supply in the market as few people are using this unit. This is good as we can now try this unit to see if it's good or bad.

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Card Stats

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Card Effects

^Dodge

Has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks.

Very useful due to its 1 speed. Without Dodge, enemies would hit Redwyrm Hatchling most of the time. This ability will be really useful if you want to use Redwyrm Hatchling as a blocker for possible Sneak attacks.

^{True Strike}

This Unit's attacks cannot miss

True Strike is a must because of how low the speed of Redwyrm Hatchling is. If you use them without True Strike, they will miss their attacks most of the time.

^Oppress

Does double damage when attacking an enemy that has no attacks

Oppress is a good situational ability. It is good against units without attacks or those with Weapons Training making Redwyrm Hatchling deal 8 range per attack.

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Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths
High 4 range sure shot attack because of True Strike. The True Strike and Dodge abilities covers his low Speed that is very important since Redwyrm Hatchling is a range unit.

Weaknesses
Redwyrm Hatchling is very reliant to his abilities. He is extremely bad at Back to Basics because of his 1 speed. Without abilities, most of his attacks would miss and the high 4 range attack will be for nothing.

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When To Use

^{Equal Opportunity}

All units have Opportunity (targets the enemy unit with the least health).

Redwyrm Hatchling has decent health so he wouldn't be targetted by Opportunity most of the time. His 4 range attack is really good at killing low health units.

^{Reverse Speed}

Units with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks.

Extremely strong in this rule set because of his 1 Speed. This changes his weakness to strength making Redwyrm Hatchling as one of the best units to use in this rule set.

^{Keep Your Distance}

Units with Melee attack may not be used in battles.

This rule set does not allow melee units to be used. This increases the chance the enemies would use units without an attack making your Oppress more useful.

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When Not To Use

^{Back to Basics}

Units lose all abilities.

This unit is really bad without abilitties. Even though Redwyrm Hatchling has high attack and stats, he has low speed so most attacks would hit him and most of his attacks would miss if there's no abilities backing him.

^Earthquake

Non-flying Units take 2 Melee damage at the end of each round.

Most Dragons have Flying ability to avoid Earthquake damage but Redwyrm Hatchling does not. He takes damage each turn from Earthquake.

^{What Doesn't Kill You}

All units have Enrage (+50% melee power and speed if not at full health, rounded up).

This rule set increases the unit's melee attack and Speed by half. Both of those stats are not useful with Redwyrm Hatchling as he doesn't have melee attacks and the increase in Speed will only be 1 and will still be bad at 2 speed.

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Battle Sample

^{https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_40ab965235457ae5017c54c7aefdd75a}

With a good mix damage of melee, magic and range attacks, my enemy's Demoralize was not that effective making my units able to deal with them despite the dealing less melee damage than my enemies. Redwyrm Hatchling's attacks was on point as well as his attacks dealt after the melee units took off the enemy's armor. This can be an advantage of the low speed units. Since he attacks last, it was made sure that Redwyrm Hatchling's attacks don't hit armor.

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Final Thoughts

Redwyrm Hatchling is a good unit depending on the situation. The high range attack that cannot miss can be really beneficial as long as you keep him alive until the end. As long as this unit if alive, he can deal consistent high range attacks which is good when enemies are using damage reducing abilities like Demoralize.

The combination of Lily Shieldpaw and Redwyrm Hatchling is good as well. With the Camouflage provided by Lily Shieldpaw, this makes sure that Redwyrm Hatchling will be safe and protected until the end.

Even with those praises, I don't consider Redwyrm Hatchling as a great unit. Yes, he is good and decent but not on the level of, let's say, Chaos Dragon. The low speed is still bad especially since this Rebellion set has a lot of high speed units.

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If you have suggested combos or questions, feel free to comment it down below.

If you are planning to play and is inspired by my post, please consider using my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=kpgamingch

I do not own any of the photos in this post. All credits goes to:

Splinterlands
Peakmonsters
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