It’s fun watching how these types of units sneak into the backline and create chaos without even taking damage. Kelan Gaines don’t need big numbers because every attack the enemy dodge feels like attacks done to them and when Kelan Gaines attack twice per turn prioritizing the more fragile parts of an enemy lineup, his impact becomes impossible to ignore. Today, I kinda wanna talk about Kelan Gaines and why I think he's a good additions to any team.

Lore

Beneath the lavish trappings and refined demeanor of Kelan Gaines lies a man of calculated precision and power. He navigates the corridors of influence, always listening, always observing.

Mothrook Goathelm may seem like a simple exploration company, but in truth, it is a cog in Grandmaster Rathe’s vast network of spies, smugglers, and informants—an extension of his will, an instrument of control.

https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/715/regular/2?tab=lore

Stats

Kelan Gaines is a really good unit and has a lot of good combos in the game. His best archon would probably Nidhoggr giving him Blast which is very compatible with his damage and two of his abilities. When you're not using him as a damage dealer, Kelan Gaines can be used to block other's Snipes and with Phase and Backfire, he can really be an effective anti-snipe by himself.

Abilities

Icon	Name	Description
	Snipe	Tagets the frist enemy Unit with Rangd, Maic, or no attack that is not in the first position with Ranged or Magic attacks.
		is a match because Blast works extremely well with Snipe because Kelan Gaines naturally targets middle units which maximizes the damage potential because Blast hits two extra targets. This means every Snipe attack becomes a mini-AoE attack instead of just hitting one squishy unit. When combined with his high speed, these Blast Snipes can wipe the enemy middle units faster than they can react.
		is a counter because Taunt completely disables Snipe by redirecting attacks towards that unit which forces Kelan Gaines to hit a tank instead of the vulnerable backline targets. This is especially bad because Kelan Gaines's strategy focuses on dealing with the weaker enemies quickly. When he is forced to attack tanks, he loses his role until that tank with Taunt is dead.

	Phase	Magic attacks can miss this Unit (using the same hit/miss calculation as Melee and Ranged attacks).
		is a match because Swiftness increases Kelan Gaines’s Speed which increases evasion even against magic users because Phase lets magic attack apply the dodge mechanics as if the attack is melee or range. When his speed is pushed even higher, enemy magic attackers start missing. This is very effective because Phase completely relies on Speed.
		is a counter because Slow counters this ability by lowering his speed which means Phase loses a lot of value. Because Phase depends entirely on being faster than the enemy, one Slow debuff can make him take full magic damage again. This turns this ability to be useless depending on how much faster the enemy is or how many Slow is being stacked on the battle.

	Backfire	If an enemy misses this Unit with an attack, the attacker takes 2 damage.
		is a match because Blind increases the chance of enemy attacks missing across the entire team, and Backfire turns those misses into damage when they miss. When combined with Kelan’s naturally high speed, Blind creates a situation where the enemy ends up hurting themselves more than they hurt you. One big advantage of this ability is that it works on any attack type and at any position. Whether it's melee, range or magic, as long as the enemy miss, they get 2 damage back to them because of Backfire.
		is a counter because True Strike completely removes the chance of missing which means Backfire becomes useless. When enemies never miss, Kelan Gaines loses one of his strongest defensive tools. True Strike will also counter his previous ability, Phase, which makes this ability a good counter against Kelan Gaines overall.

	Double Strike	This unit attacks twice each round.
		is a match because Blast becomes absurd on Double Strike because each attack triggers Blast damage separately. This effectively doubles his spread damage and makes him one of the best units in the game with Blast. When placed safely behind a tank, he consistently erases the enemy team 3 units at a time with the spread damage from Blast.
		is a counter because Enemy Phase means each of Kelan’s two attacks have a chance to miss which can ruin his damage output. Missing both attacks is extremely painful of the damage you would lose. Double Strike relies on hitting twice to be worth the mana cost. Fast units with Phase can completely block and becaome a wall to him if the RNG gods aren't by your side.

Good Rules to Consider

Icon	Name	Reason
	Explosive Weaponry	All units have Blast (deals an additional 50% damage to units adjacent to the target, rounded up).
		Blast with Snipe and Double Strike is one of the strongest combos in the game. Kelan Gaines becomes a true problem for the enemies that melts teams from the middle outward with Blast. With high speed, he almost always attack first and sometimes kill enemies before they even move.
	Up to Eleven	All units have Amplify (increases damage of Retaliate and all Punishment abilities—Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Return Fire, and Thorns—by 1; does not stack).
		Up to Eleven is great for Kelan Gaines because it gives Amplify to all units which increases Backfire damage by 1 and makes enemy misses even more punishing. Since Kelan Gaines already relies on high speed and dodge synergy, Amplify turns every failed enemy hit into 3 damage instead of 2. This damage directly attacks the health which makes it more impactful as normally, units in Splinterlands only have single digit and a 1 additional damage is enough to turn a lose into a win.
	Wands Out	Only units with magic attacks may be used.
		Wands Out is a strong rule for Kelan Gaines because it restricts the battle to magic attackers only. This doesn't affect his Kelan Gaines at all since he has magic attack. With Phase, he can dodge magic attacks that normally never miss giving him a huge survival advantage in magic-only fights. Backfire also becomes a dangerous punish tool in this rule since enemies with magic attack normally have low speed letting him win trades quickly.

Bad Rules to Think Twice

Icon	Name	Reason
	Counterspell	All units have Magic Reflect (returns 50% of magic damage to attacker, rounded up).
		Magic Reflect punishes every single one of Kelan Gaines's hits and Double Strike makes him take damage back twice per round because of Magic Reflect. This can melt him extremely fast. He risks killing himself without the enemies doing anything but receiving your attacks.
	Fog of War	Units lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities.
		Fog of War removes Snipe entirely which is Kelan Gaines’s biggest advantage to bypass the enemy tanks. Without Snipe, his attack falls to the enemy tanks and becomes a normal magic attacker with Double Strike. While it's still okay since he brings the damage, the removal of Snipe still deals a significant disadvantage on removing some of your strategies for that battle.
	Weak Magic	Magic attacks hit Armor before reducing Health.
		Weak Magic forces his hits into armor first, which massively slows down his damage. This makes Double Strike feel weak because he wastes both hits breaking armor instead of killing units. Against armored tanks with Taunt and proper supports, Kelan Gaines's whole purpose gets shut down as he deals with the tanks instead of the priority targets at the back.

Battle

Link to battle

In this battle, the rule is Briar Patch which gives everyone Thorns. This is bad for any melee unit so I chose a team full of units with magic attack instead. My enemy also had the same thought and since Water Element is not available, I have to be a little more creative than normal. I have my 3 main tanks, Infernal Firestorm, Helheim Demon and Umbral Elemental, in the front with Umbral Elemental and Helheim Demon both being Taunt units supported by Arachne Weaver's Corrupted Healing. This setup will be the main defense while I have Kelan Gaines with Snipe and Tasoshi Drakamoto with Sneak being my two menace attackers tearing the enemies from within. With their Arachne Weaver positioned at the very back, this would be an easy battle as Tasoshi Drakamoto kills him in the first few rounds and then I get to dominate the game with my own Arachne Weaver.

Feeling lucky today

Feeling lucky after this battle, I decided to check what I had won after ranking up and decided to open up osme foundation packs and suprised at the result. Most of them are normal but I was able to grab some legendary which is cool. It's not a really strong card but I don't have it so it's a good addition for the team and can be really strong in Equalizer rule.

Images were taken from Splinterlands, made in Canva, drawn in Krita and animated in Photoshop.

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