Some cards in Splinterlands are simple, others are unique. You look at a Thanalorian Blade and you get bloodlust, expect for a kill. I’ve always liked those kinds of cards, the ones that don’t need a dozen synergies to work. I love them more if they can be obtained for free.

Lore

In the Kingdom of Thanaloria, the House of Arven’gileon is renowned for its warriors and rangers, who devote their lives to perfecting their martial prowess.

Those Arven’gileon warriors who comprise the kingdom’s elven guard are known as blades. It is said they can strike thrice before their opponent reacts: the first to wound, the second to kill, and the third to strike another.

https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/663/regular/13?tab=lore

Stats

Thanalorian Blade is a fast, aggressive melee attacker that shines as sort of an assassin role. With 4 melee attack, solid speed, and the Opportunity, Trample + Execute combo, she’s built to eliminate low-health enemies quickly and repeatedly. I think she’s one of the best finishers that you can use as a free unit via Glint shop and Rewards loot when you increase league rank.

Abilities

Icon	Name	Description
	Opportunity	Units with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy Unit with the lowest health.
		is a match because Trample works great with Opportunity because it targets lowest-health enemies making it easier to land a kill. This can create a deadly chain of attacks and multiple kills per round depending on the enemy line ups.
		is a counter because Taunt breaks Opportunity by forcing attacks toward a specific unit, ignoring the usual target priority given by the ability. This ruins the value of Opportunity completely and makes Thanalorian hit a tank instead of soft targets.

	Execute	If the target has 2 or less health after a successful attack, perform another attack against the same Unit.
		is a match because Execute deals an instant finishing blow on units with 2 health or less, and Opportunity already helps find those lowest health targets. Together, they create a natural synergy where Thanalorian skips past defenses and secures kills more effectively.
		is a counter because If Thanalorian hits a melee unit with Thorns and triggers Execute, she’ll take extra damage each time. Because she’s using melee, this makes trading dangerous even when he's winning.

	Lookout	Adjacent Units receive 1 less damage from attackers with Sneak, Snipe, and Opportunity. Additionally, all units take half damage from ambushes as long as a Lookout Unit is on your team.
		is a match because Lookout weakens Sneak, Snipe, and Opportunity melee or range attacks before they land, and when combined with Shield, those hits are halved after the attack is reduced. This allows Thanalorian to protect his allies while still acting offensively.
		is a counter because Taunt overrides all alternate targeting like Snipe or Sneak, making Lookout’s damage reduction useless. That means the damage still lands full power on your protected allies if they are protected by units with Taunt.

	Trample	When a Unit with Trample hits and kills its target with a Melee attack, it will perform another Melee attack on the next Unit on the enemy Team.
		is a match because Inspire raises Thanalorian's melee damage which makes getting the kill much more likely and activates Trample. With 5 or more damage, he can one-shot a lot of units and start chaining her abilities.
		is a counter because Protect adds extra armor to the enemy team, which blocks the killing blow and stops Trample from activating. Since Thanalorian is melee, that armor can completely shut down her abilities since she won't be landing the killing blow.

Good Rules to Consider

Icon	Name	Reason
	Unprotected	Units do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs.
		No armor means her melee attack goes through clean, giving Execute and Trample better odds of activating. She can tear through low-health, unarmored enemies quickly.
	Stampede	The Trample ability can trigger multiple times per attack if the trampled Units is killed.
		This rule greatly boosts the value of Trample by allowing it to trigger multiple times in a row. If Thanalorian Blade starts a chain, she can tear through multiple low-health units without ever stopping.
	Explosive Weaponry	All units have Blast (deals an additional 50% damage to units adjacent to the target, rounded up).
		If Thanalorian lands a kill and the Blast hits a second enemy hard enough to bring them low, Trample can activate again. This makes her extremely dangerous if there's multiple enemy units that have low health all bundled together.

Bad Rules to Think Twice

Icon	Name	Reason
	Briar Patch	All units have Thorns (returns 2 damage to attacker when hit by a melee attack)
		When everyone has Thorns, every attack by Thanalorian Blade gets her killed. While she may be able to do some damage before she dies, it won't be as effective as when there's no rules that inhibits her survivability.
	Fog of War	Units lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities.
		Fog of War disables all targeting abilities like Sneak, Snipe, and Opportunity. Without Opportunity, Thanalorian Blade loses her best way to reach low-health enemies and may be forced to become a tank just to use her.
	Armored Up	All Units have 2 Armor in addition to their normal Armor stat.
		The extra armor from this rule set blocks her melee attacks and makes it harder to get one-shot kills. That also means Execute and Trample are harder to trigger, reducing her overall threat.

Battle

Link to battle

While Thanalorian Blade struggled at first, she is still very useful in this battle. Targetting low health units first means you can lower your enemy team's damage over time. This gets better as the game goes on which allowed me to get a win in this battle.

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

Support me by joining Splinterlands using my referral code.