Splinterlands Social Media Challenge! + A CA Card Reveal! :-)

In this week's edition of the Social Media Challenge, I'll do a quick recap of the stats of a few newly revealed Conclave Arcana cards and showcase a quick battle with them from the test server. The battle is nothing special but it does a good job showing them in action.

Gorgug the Endless is one of the new rare Archons (summoners) coming to Conclave Arcana which take advantage of the Bloodlines. His 1-st ability is very standard. It's actually a debuff - All enemy Ranged Attackers have their Ranged Attacks reduced by one. The other ability he has is Bloodline Dominion:

As you can see it is the general ability all Bloodline Archons have and then each Bloodline has its own flavor added to that. In the case of the Orcs it's Enrage. That's to be expected. We all know Orcs get angry very easily and are bloodthirsty often. So, let's recap - Gorgug allows for all Orcs (from any Element) to be used in the same team and also grants them an additional ability - Enrage.

Grimward Ruinshot is the card I have the pleasure to reveal in this post. She is a 7-mana Rare Neutral Ranged Attacker. Let's have a look at her stats at different levels and how they progress. At level 1 she starts off with 2 Ranged Attack, 2 Speed, 1 Armor and 5 Health. She has no abilities at level 1 - that's not very common. A level 2 her stats remain unchanged but she gets her first ability - Dispel. Then fast forward a bit to level 4 where she gains her 2nd ability (which is getting introduced with the release of CA) - Relentless Strike:

So, attacks deal True damage. Phase and Dodge do not reduce chance to hit. Not only do her attacks not get mitigated but she also is not affected by Dodge and on top of that she does +1 extra damage to targets with Void, Shield and/or Forcefield. Next at level 5 she gains an additional Ranged Attack point for a total of 3, which is great for a definite damage dealer. Finally at level 8 (max) her stats are as follows: 4 Ranged Attack, 3 Speed, 2 Armor and 7 Health. She also gets her final ability - Piercing. Grimward Ruinshot looks like a pretty versatile Ranged Attacker, however, I am not sure if the 7-mana cost will allow her to compete with the likes of Delya. Of course, if you don't have Delya (the only promo card of the series I did not get), then you don't have nothing to worry about. And let's not forget she's an Orc, so she does have Enrage with Gorgug.

Zargrul is definitely one of my favorites in term of his kit. But let's start from the beginning. He's an 8-mana Legendary card and an Orc of the Water element. His stats at level one are as follows: 1 Magic Attack, 3 Speed, 1 Armor and 11 Health. He also starts off with the Taunt ability. So, at level 1 he's already a candidate for a backline taunt unit, however, he does lack any damage mitigation. At level 2 his stats remain unchanged but he gets one very important ability:

You can immediately see why this ability is pretty epic on him as he's the one with Taunt hence he's supposed to be the first to die during the battle. If you can get him resurrected several times, this can get out of control pretty quickly, especially if you have a stacked Orc team. But wait.. there's more - at level 3 he gains +1 Magic Damage for a total of 2 and 1 HP for a total of 12 but most importantly he gains another new ability:

Painforge is another one of the more interesting new abilities added to the game. You can definitely explore all sorts of combos to make it work.

Finally at level 4 he does not undergo any stats changes but he does get one more ability - Expose. What's interesting about Zargrul is that he's built very offensively while being a Taunt unit. Orc are definitely coming to get you and they are very angry.

By now you've definitely seen Gramel the Hunger and his stats as he is the Legendary promo card in the set but he's in my line-up so I just can't skip him. Gramel is an 11-mana Neutral Legendary of the Fiend bloodline. What's more spectacular about him is that he is the first unit in Splinterlands' history to have a triple attack - he has 1 Magic Attack, 2 Ranged Attack and 1 Melee Attack and level 1. His other stats are 1 Armor, 7 HP and 3 Speed. At level 1 he starts off with 2 abilities - Charge and Scatter Shot. At level 2 his stats remain unchanged, however, he get an extra ability we've already discussed - Bloodline Tribute. Level 3 is the most interesting one. That's because at that level he gains the Shapeshift ability:

This essentially means that Gramel is viable choice for all Bloodline Archons apart from all Archons in general as he is a Neutral unit anyway. And more importantly, he gains the specific ability of each Bloodline when played with a Bloodline Archon. Finally at level 4 he gains 1 more Magic damage for a total of 2 as well as his final ability - Camouflage. I think Gramel is a very fun card and will be the center of some very entertaining battles for sure.

The Steppe Stalker is a Common Orc Ranged Attacker from the Water Element. At level 1 she starts off with 2 Ranged Attack, 2 Speed, 2 Armor and 4 Health as well as the Close Range ability. Next at level 3 She gains her second ability - Slow. A pivotal point, in my view, is level 5 where she gets her next ability - Painforge. We've already discussed it but it is definitely worth highlighting. Then at level 8 she gains an additional Ranged Attack for a total of 3. Finally at level 10 she has the following stats: 3 Ranged Attack, 2 Speed, 2 Armor and 8 Health. She also gains her final ability - Shield. I actually like her quite a bit. She seems to be a very decent off-tank and also a tank when it comes to it as her Close Range ability allows her to attack from the first spot and she does have the Shield ability at level 10 (you just have to get her there - 400 copies ;)).

The Warwall Juggernaut is a 9-mana Epic unit of the Ulund bloodline. He's a beefy boy, build as a literal wall. The two shields he's holding are a dead giveaway for sure. At level 1 he has 1 Melee Attack, 3 Speed, 2 Armor and 10 HP. He also has Reach and Armored Strike. So, he's a perfect off-tank off the get-go. At level 2 he gains an extra melee attack for a total of 2. Next at level 3 he gains Painforge, which is great for an off-tank. At level 4 he gains one more melee attack point for a total of 3 as well as 1 more Armor for a total of 4. Next at level 5 his life and armor totals grow by one for for a total of 11 and 5 respectively. He also gains Amplify - his final ability, also pretty useful in general. Finally at level 6 he has 4 Melee Attack, 3 Speed, 5 Armor and 12 HP. I think he's a pretty nice unit, however, his mana cost of 9 might reduce his playability in general as there are so many units competing in that range.

The Tidal Tsunamist is a 5-mana Common Tideborn unit. At level 1 she starts with 2 Melee Attack, 2 Speed 0 Armor and 6 HP. She also has the Sneak ability. Then at level 3 she gains 1 more Melee Attack for a total of 3. Then level 5 is pivotal since she gains Repair, which might prove to be a very sought-after ability in CA. She does lose 1 Health (she gains at level 4) as a trade-off for a total of 6. Then at level 8 she gains her final ability - Fury. Maxed out at level 10 she has 4 Melee Attack, 4 Speed, 0 Armor and 7 HP. As a whole she seems to be a very useful Sneak unit for the Water/Tideborn team as well as support with Repair.

The Caravan Guard is a 3-mana Life unit. She's a human. At level 1 she has 1 Ranged Attack, 1 Speed, 0 Armor and 4 HP. She has no abilities at level 1. At level 3 she gets her first ability - Triage, which makes her a nice support unit. At level 5 - yet again pivotal - she gains Headwinds, which enhances her usability as a support/de-buffer. AT level 8 she gains her second point in the Ranged Attack section of a total of 2. Finally at level 10 she has 2 Ranged Attack, 3 Speed, 0 Armor and 5 HP. She also gains her 3rd ability cementing her as a low-budget support - Amplify. I think that for 3 mana she brings quite a lot to the table in terms of usefulness for her whole team and she will be played a lot.

Last but definitely not least - 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.