The Splinterfest has started!
I was fortunate to attend the first Spliterfest in Luxor, Las Vegas! I met so many great people that I recognize from watching Youtube videos, and Splinterlands TV. It has been a blast experiencing this big event in the history of Splinterlands!
There were so many cool stuff that were shared in the splinterfest, day 1 but I'm going to talk about the utility of Lux Vega in the game in this post.
Revealing the stats of Lux Vega
I was dying to see the stats of the neutral summoner, Lux Vega. Now we know!
5 mana summoner, +1 armor, +1 speed, +1 heart.
Immediate community response to the stats
Everyone is calling her "Neutral Kelya with a heart". I found it to be very accurate statement. I also heard mixed opinions on the stats. A lot of people thought it's not too OP but it's good. I heard some people thought that it could become like Waka (end up becoming not popular summoner) because it's not very different from dragon summoner and stats didn't give them a spark in their mind. I also heard some people say the card is OP.
Before I reach to my conclusion, I'd like to compare the card with other existing summoners.
Comparison with Kelya Frendul
Kelya is a great summoner in low mana and also in high mana battles too in diamond/champion. The win rate seems to be around 59% according to summonerlabs. I use Kelya the most by far among all the Chaos legion summoners.
Especially, I love Kalya in low mana matches or little league matches. I use her with sneak monsters like pelacor conjurer. I also use with archery monsters like Kulu swimhunter especially in little league ruleset.
You can use Kelya in little league but you can't use Lux Vega in little league rulest. If Lux Vega was 4 mana summoner, it destroys the value of Kelya. I think that's why Lux Vega had to be 5 mana and +1 heart was added for the extra mana.
It sounds like you can use Lux Vega with most of the splinters if not all. According to Nate, Lux Vega would be used in a similar way that you use a dragon summoner.
Rulesets that Kelya is not good at: Reverse speed, Unprotected (no armor)
We will hear clearer explanation on Lux Vega utility more in the townhall on 10/9, day 2 of Splinterfest.
Kelya can be good in almost all the ruleset except 2. Lux Vega will probably be very similar except that Lux Vega can't be used in little league ruleset.
Comparison with Beta Legendary Summoners
Let's compare Lux Vega stats with beta summoners because they're 5 mana as well.
Valnamor: Very popular summoner, used for magic spam and also melee with Kraken or Naga Warrior.
Prince Rennyn: Popular for speedy range build. Snipe is popular because of the Spirit of the forest.
Those 2 summoners are used a lot by far compared to the other 3.
Crypt Mancer: Often used in up close personal (melee only) and suicide squid (redemption build)
Plado Emberstorm: Often used in up close personal (melee only), equalizer ruleset often with exploding dwarf or exploding rats.
The peakrider: I almost never see this summoner being used.
Unlike Kelya which is often used in many rulesets, those beta summoners have their niches. I believe Valnamor covers the biggest area out of those 5 beta summoners.
If Lux Vega existed along with those beta summoners, she will be the most versatile one that can be in many more rulesets. It can substitute Plado Emberstorm and Crypto Mancer in some cases because you can bring inspire or demoralize from monsters you pick to create the same effect.
While it is impossible to fill the niches of Rennyn (+1 Archery) and Valnamor (+1 Magic), Lux Vega will offer more defensive ability instead.
What if Kelya existed in other splinters?
Another question we should ask in order to evaluate Lux Vega is that "What if Kelya existed in other splinters other than water?"
We should expect Kelya in many cases if water is available. When Lux Vega is usable, we should always think about Lux Vega being used probably except reverse speed, unprotected, little league rulesets.
Sneak, Opportunity, Rust monsters just got a buff
Kelya is often used with sneak monsters like pelacor conjurer, Sabre shark etc. Opportunity monsters like deeplurker, feasting seaweed are often used with Kelya too.
When we also think about going against Kelya, rust can be very effective to remove the armor Kelya provides. So the utility of rust just got increased because Lux Vega will be used often more than Kelya.
LIFE: has very strong sneak monsters ...
Feral Spirit, Silvershield Assassin, Stitch Leech, Dumacke Exile.
Lorna Shine was often used with those cards but Lux Vega might become more popular since Lux increases speed, which is huge with sneak vs sneak matches.
DEATH: has very strong sneak monsters...
with shadowy presence (1 mana Inspire)
Skeleton Assassin, Undead Badger, Silent Sha-vi.
Crypto mancer was often used with those cards but Lux might become more popular since we don't know if the enemy will use many melee monsters, so it'd be better to have +1 armor than -1 melee.
EARTH: has good opportunity mosnters....
with Brownie (1 mana Inspire)
Screeching Vulture, Venari Scout
Mylor is often used with those cards butt Lux will be better in some situations. Think about both sides having Queen Mycelia, one used Lux, one used Mylor. Mylor is good against melee but queen mycelia on Mylor side will not have any armor but queen mycelia on Lux side will have 1 armor. If Lux side has opportunity, queen mycelia on Mylor side will most likely die in 1 or 2 turns, which can change the tide.
Suicide squad just got a formidable enemy
What I call suicide squad is the lineup that has a lot of weaken and redemption, reducing the health to 1 or 2 and redemption will kill most of the enemies. In order to make this work, people add a monster with rust with weaken and redemption. 1 armor will waste 1 redemption.
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_f14537cdc4345a29405470a73c7d6693
Since Lux Vega provides +1 armor and +1 health, suicide meta became harder to use!
Can Lux Vega be used with dragon?
This is a big question that we are not sure about yet. I think this is a big question because Lux Vega will be very good with some dragon cards like below.
Using Lux Vega with those sneak, opportunity cards along with sneak, opportunity cards with the selected splinter, that is huge!
I also want to add that other type of attacks, archery and magic monsters will get equal benefits just like melee monsters, so we might see new strong archery or magic teams as well.
What will the demand be to get the card?
I think the demand is high because of the versatility of the card. The card is in the similar level as beta legendary summoners. It is going to be used in so many rulesets and I think you can use it with any splinter. If you don't have max level summoner but wanting one, Lux Vega is perfect because you only need 1 summoner, Lux Vega to play max level monster cards!
Compare it with other promo cards in the market
Lux Vega, total cards will be 1000. Equivalend total BCX is 11 * 1000 = 11,000.
It's hard to compare it with Waka because the demand is low but the total cards will be more than double of waka. I assume the demand for Lux Vega will be more than double.
The total cards of Lux Vega will be somewhat close to that of chain golem.
Lux Vega will be much more scarce than Dr.Blight.
Max level Dr.Blight is around $680, max level chain golem is about $1115.
Max level Kelya would cost around $450, but Total BCX: 300,403, Total Cards: 71,034 available.
I believe Lux Vega will be more versatile and usable than those 2 beta summoners.
Max level Plado is around $940, max level crypt mancer is around $1800. Total cards are around 690. Total bcx is a little less than 2700.
my evaluation
Thinking about these numbers, I think the card would be worth at least $1300 - $1800 in my opinion.
Lux Vega offers similar level of versatility as Dr.Blight but much more scarce than Dr.Blight. It offers similar level of competitiveness as some of the beta legendary summoners and a lot more versatile than beta summoners but not as scarse as beta summoners (not too far away).
This is just my speculation based on my instinct, definitely not financial advice.
Current thoughts on Lux Vega
I can't deny that the stats of the card didn't blow my mind. It doesn't feel like game breaking like Kitty, or Yodin. However it is probably the most versatile card that exists in the game, which is probably what the team went for.
It makes a lot of sense because the team usually wants promo cards to be used very often, just think about Dr.Blight. If Dr.Blight is not playable in your deck, you're in a big disadvantage if you're playing very competitively. Just like that, it could be a big disadvantage if you can't use Lux Vega especially in the tournament.
This is just an idea. We will see how it goes.
I am keeping my full judgement until we hear about the key point... neutral summoner work like dragon summoner? Can we pick dragon monsters with Lux Vega?
We will hear it soon. I heard that splinterfest attendeeds will get an email after the event is over.
What is your opinion on Lux Vega? Let me know in the comment section as I'm curious to hear about other people's thoughts!
P.S.
In the townhall held at the day 2 of the splinterfest, it was announced that you can not select dragon cards with Lux Vega. It will be usable in no neutral ruleset because the ruleset says no neutral monsters are available. The only ruleset that you can't use Lux Vega is little league. Other than that, you can use it like a dragon summoner.
I really wish it allowed us to pick dragon monsters for utility because if the dragon is available, why would I use Lux Vega instead of other dragon cards? I wouldn't most of the time because dragon cards are powerful.
However, the decision totally make sense to me, since dragons are special. Yabapmatt also said that he might add more neutral summoners in the future. Maybe for the 2023 splinterfest? (speculation) Yabapmatt also said that he would rather add a ruleset to let you pick two colors instead of giving a summoner an ability to pick 2 colors.
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