Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge: Splinterlands Harvest of Heroes — A Thanksgiving Tribute!
The topic of this week's Community Engagement Challenge is to shine a spotlight on the battles won and the friendships forged across the battlefield. Whether it’s a favorite card that carried us through a tough league or a guildmate who always has our backs — this is the week to give thanks. So, I have decided to give thanks to definitely the card I have played the most in the past year and that's no other than Commander Slade. That probably comes as no surprise to whoever has paid attention to the Modern meta in the past year both before the release of CA and also after it. Cryptic + Slade + a Phase-giving unit (Jicarilla or Rune Arcanist) has been a painfully efficient combo, and even now it is still very hard to deal with and people still rely heavily on it even though we do have some other very strong plays now as well. But if the choice of elements is limited and Water is available you should always expect some form of Slade line-up is coming up against you.
Commander Slade is a 10-mana Melee unit of the Materran bloodline and a member of the Water element. At level 1 he has 3 Melee Attack, 4 Speed, 5 Armor and 5 Health. He also starts with 2 abilities right off the bat - Enfeeble (-1 to target's melee power after each successful attack) and Dodge (+25% chance to evade physical attacks). At level 4 he gains his 3rd ability - Deflect (0 damage from Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Thorns, Return Fire, and Blast splash damage). Finally at level 8 he has 5 Melee Attack, 6 Speed, 7 Armor and 10 HP. He also gains his 4th and final ability - Backfire (When an enemy unit misses, deals 2 physical damage to them).
<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>BATTLE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>
- The line-up of the Battle and the Ruleset:
There are 3 rulesets in this battle - Now You See Me (All units have the Camouflage ability), Blood and Sunder (All units have Corrosive Ward (-2 to attacker’s armor and maximum armor when hit by a melee attack)), 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)). The mana budget is 29 which is a below-average-amount of mana, so the units have to be chosen carefully. The available Elements are Water, Life and Death. I will obviously go with Cryptic for this one even though the mana is lowish - all Monsters having Camo means that the enemy team will be force to attack the Main Tank (apart from the Monsters with Scattershot (if any)).
The main tank in this battle is the protagonist of this short write-up - Commander Slade. Commander Slade is hands down the best Rebellion reward card, and a tremendously good rare card - might as well be a Legendary and no one would mind. Commander Slade is a 10-mana Melee unit of the Materran bloodline and a member of the Water element. At level 1 he has 3 Melee Attack, 4 Speed, 5 Armor and 5 Health. He also starts with 2 abilities right off the bat - Enfeeble (-1 to target's melee power after each successful attack) and Dodge (+25% chance to evade physical attacks). At level 4 he gains his 3rd ability - Deflect (0 damage from Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Thorns, Return Fire, and Blast splash damage). Finally at level 8 he has 5 Melee Attack, 6 Speed, 7 Armor and 10 HP. He also gains his 4th and final ability - Backfire (When an enemy unit misses, deals 2 physical damage to them). As you can see Slade is very fast, hits hard and is very elusive. His only weakness is Magic Attack but that can be remedied if needed.
In the off-tank spot I have placed Jicarilla the Rime. She's a 7-mana Human Legendary Magic Attacker. At level 1 she starts off with 2 Magic Attack, 1 Speed, 1 Armor and 5 HP. The ability she starts off with is Cleanse Rearguard. At level 2 her stats remain unchanged but she gains her send ability - Tank Heal. That's pretty big as every tank healer is very valuable in general. Next at level 3 she gains +1 Magic Attack for a total of 3 and Phase Ward. This makes her a very viable substitute of the Rune Arcanist whenever Legendaries are playable. Finally at level 4 she gains one more ability for a total of 4 - Amplify. Jicarilla is great support unit and 3 Magic Damage is pretty decent, however, she definitely has to be kept safe from the enemy Opportunity and Snipe units as her 5 Health, 1 Armor and 1 Speed make a very easy prey.
The 3rd spot is for Baron Fyatt. Baron Fyatt is a 5-mana halfling dual-element (Death/Fire) card, which I use quite often. At level 1 he has 1 Magic Attack, 2 Speed, 0 Armor and 6 HP. He starts with his signature ability - Halving (-50% to target's power (rounded down) after a successful attack) as well as Scattershot (Magic and ranged attacks target a random enemy unit). At level 2 he gets an additional point in the Magic Attack department for a total of 2. At level 3 he gets his 3 ability - Ambush (Takes an extra turn prior to the first round of battle). Finally at level 4 stats remain unchanged but he gains his 4th and final ability - Blind (all enemy Melee & Ranged attacks have a 15% higher chance of missing their target. Blind also affects units with phase). Baron Fyatt has the ability to totally ruin the day of your opponent when his halving scattershot lands on just the right enemy target even before the battle official starts (during the ambush phase) or on the other hand he can keep hitting that 0-attack damage sponge of your opponent and do nothing productive for you during half of the battle. That's how RNG works and that's what you know you sign up for when you choose to play him. He's still a fun card to play though. Don't rage at him too much.
It is time for a quick round by round analysis:
- The Archon I am going with for the battle is, as I have already mentioned is Cryptic. This is a pretty unorthodox team for him as I just have Slade and Jicarilla (with not additional Speed modifiers) and I threw in Baron Fyatt for a good measure. My opponent has decided to have a low-mana Hippo play paired with Venka.
- My Baron Fyatt hit exactly what he should have during the Ambush Round - Venka. THat's a huge blow to the enemy offensive capabilities before the actual battle has even begun.
- Round 2 - we're still exchanging blows, my Slade lost his armor but his HP is maxed.
- Round 3 - I have taken down two of the enemy units while my line-up is still intact. 3 out of the 4 remaining enemy units have also been poisoned.
- Round 4 - the enemy team is close to being wiped out while my team is still untouched (apart from Slade's armor, which he lost during the first round)
- Round 5 - just 1 enemy unit remaining. That's how a usual Win involving Slade goes. He's an impregnable fortress when the battle goes his way.
If you don't have Slade yet (you were sleeping under a rock or you're a new player - you can actually buy him now off the secondary market for $23.74 for a maxed card:
That's not expensive at all actually given the power level of Slade.
Over and Out,
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