For the last three days, I've been slowly teasing about one of the 43 upcoming Conclave Arcana rewards that will shake the modern meta, and which is scheduled to be released on October 21, after the weekly maintenance. And now the wait is over, cause I will finally be revealing the full stats of the reward card, and break it down to have some ideas on how I think this card can possibly be used in modern, such as what rulesets it can benefit from and which archons would synergize well with this card. So let's dive in and take a look at Torrent Sniper.
Torrent Sniper
Torrent Sniper is a 7-mana card with the water attribute and rare rarity. It is a magic unit with a maximum of 3 magic damage, along with 3 speed, 3 armor, and 9 health, making it a decent-looking card at its stats alone. Even at level 1, it is already a beefy card with 8 health, and you can have it with max magic damage as early as level 3.
In terms of ability, as the name implies, Torrent Sniper has the Snipe at level 1 as its first ability, meaning that it will target the closest non-melee enemy unit that is not in the first position. At level 3, it gains the Painforge that will allow this card to gain more magic damage every time it gets damage due to Poison, Burning, or when it is hit by an ally. And when you max this card, it will gain the Weaken ability that reduces the health of all enemy units by -1, not the best ability for that additional 30 BCX that you will need to max this card. But it can be significant if you have multiple cards in your team that have the same ability.
For its Bloodline, it was an Avian, belonging to the Owlkin race, which are characterized by their humanoid owl appearance. As of the moment, there is no Conclave Arcana Archon with the Avian Bloodline, but with the currently shown Conclave Arcana rewards, I have seen a lot of Avian units, so I can only think that one of the Conflict Archons will be an Avian or even have a dual Bloodline that can summon Avian units. That said, it's not as if Torrent Sniper cannot get along with the currently available modern Archons.
Archon Synergies
In modern format, there are currently 10 Archons that can summon Torrent Sniper from Water and Dragon elements. 11, if we include Loving the Moo, which will be coming in more than a month. As I said above, none of these Archons shares the same Bloodline with this card, which is supposed to be the main mechanic that revolves around Conclave Arcana. However, there are still potential synergies that this card can utilize, though how effective it is will be something we can only know when we use it in battle. Anyway, here are some of my Archon candidates.
- Cryptic
By using Cryptic, the opponent team will lose -1 speed, and your team will have +15% chance to evade enemy attack because of the Blind ability, and by giving Torrent Sniper, the Poison and Expose ability will allow it to Poison any non-melee unit that is not in the first position using it's Snipe ability, and can remove any abilities that can be removed through expose. Furthermore, you can boost its damage by adding any water, death, or neutral units with reckless to pump up its magic damage.
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- Elias Max Pruitt
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When it comes to Elias Max Pruitt, I think that it will be worth to try giving Torrent Sniper the Armored Strike and Piercing ability during tactics stage then place it next to your tank that has the Flank ability, so that not only it can attack with magic, but also, it can use its armor to attack the front using its armor, specially on situations where you cannot use either Commander Slade or Leolin Sifu due to mana constrains or with the active rulesets. Again, you can also pump up its magic by adding units with Reckless ability.
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- Loving the Moo
While Torrent Sniper, does not benefit from the Bloodline ability of Loving the Moo, perhaps giving it the Blast and Magic Reflect ability during tactics stage would help to inflict multiple damage to up to 3 units at the same time when it snipe attack the target. And since it has beefy health, it can be used as a tank when playing under Wands Out ruleset, and maybe return some of the damage back to the attacker with Magic Reflect. Again, never forget that Reckless can be used to make its attack more powerful.
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Preferred Rulesets
- Armored Up
Getting 2 additional armor not only gives Torrent Sniper a more sturdy defense against melee and range attack, but it can also increase the potential damage it can inflict when it is given the *Armored Strike* in case it is used together with Elias Max Pruitt and was given the tactics ability.
- Back to Basics
Magic units can attack directly on the opponent's health, bypassing the target's armor, and they can attack regardless of the position, which makes them ideal when cards lose most, if not all, of their abilities
- Broken Arrows
Fire and Regret
When range units are unavailable or their attacks get reflected back at them, using a magic unit like Torrent Sniper is a good alternative for range attacks.
Collateral Damage
Now, this is a ruleset that gives the Reckless ability on all units, so every time units adjacent to Torrent Sniper attack, it will also take damage, resulting in Painforge to activate and boost its magic attack.
Explosive Weaponry
Make use of Torrent Sniper's Snipe ability and inflict multiple damage on the opponent.
Global Warming
Noxious Fumes
By being damaged through Burning, or Poison, Torrent Sniper will be able to activate its Painforge ability and increase its damage, and maybe inflict enough damage to defeat the opponent team before the debilitation takes it down.
Heavy Metal
With units that have armor, the only card that can be used in battle, Torent Sniper, perfectly fit for this ruleset.
Keep Your Distance
Torrent Sniper can be a good tank due to it having a decent amount of health when melee units cannot be used in battle, but even better as a secondary tank and gave it the Armored Strike ability and place it on a non-melee unit with Flank ability like Janni Rebel or Ulundin Overseer.
Odd Ones Out
Torrent Sniper having 7-mana makes it a decent option when cards with only odd mana costs can be used in battle.
Closing
And that was my breakdown on Torrent Sniper with what available information I have. I was a little unsatisfied with its last ability, as it brings very little upside for what is required to get that last ability. But at the same time, it was only a rare card, and we still don't know what these new rewards are fully capable of, unless we play them in the battlefield.
Thank you, and see you on the next post!
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