Sometimes the best defense is not just a wall but it’s a wall that hits back. Lately, in Splinterlands, I’ve noticed more and more people trying to out-speed and burst through everything, but that doesn’t always work. It reminds me of a time I played Yugioh and just thinking about damage and got rolled by defensive oriented decks that just wouldn’t die. That was a moment that really shifted how I think about my Splinterlands games. Instead of always chasing max damage, I started looking at balance. I want units that do something even when they’re not attacking. Some of them just sit there and win the battle by making the enemy fall apart slowly. One of those is the subject of today’s post.

Lore

Once an influential overlord in the Belurocian Empire’s military, Slade was quick to forsake his oath and swear a new one to Silus of the Rift and the Chaos Empire. With his military acumen and knowledge of Belurocian strategy, he proved decidedly effective at crushing his former compatriots.

His brutality and mercilessness were rewarded with a promotion to commander and an assignment as the puppet-chancellor of the Republic of Fireboro, where his battalion of legionnaires enforces his decrees without compromise or compunction.

https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/668/regular/13?tab=lore

Stats

Commander Slade is a rare unit with a powerful presence on the battlefield thanks to his 5 melee damage, 6 speed, and a bulky 7 armor and 10 health. He feels like that frontline bruiser that seems unstoppable and can disable enemy frontline through Enfeeble. I think this unit excels in any type of strategies as long as you have the excess mana to spend for other units.

Abilities

Icon	Name	Description
	Enfeeble	Each successful attack reduces the defender's melee attack by 1.
		is a match because Demoralize weakens enemy melee attackers, and when combined with Enfeeble, their lowered melee attack makes them much easier to eliminate. This combo reduces melee attackers to the point that Commander Slade can easily crush them in just a few rounds.
		is a counter because Enfeeble requires this unit's attack to hit the enemy to applyit. High speed or abilities that affect this unit's hit like the enemy having Dodge will greatly decrease this unit's effectiveness.

	Dodge	Has a 25% chance of evading melee or ranged attacks.
		is a match because Blind gives all enemy units a chance to miss, which makes Dodge even more valuable by stacking evasion chances. With Commander Slade’s naturally high speed, this synergy makes him very hard to land a hit on.
		is a counter because True Strike completely ignores Dodge by always landing attacks. That removes one of Slade’s biggest survival abilities especially against fast or high-damage melee and ranged enemies.

	Deflect	This Unit doesn't take damage from Blast, Magic Reflect, Thorns, or Return fire.
		is a match because Deflect negates any damages this unit take that is not an effect or direct damage. This includes the damage from Blast, Thorns, Magic Reflect and Return Fire. You can use this unit to negate damage from enemy Thorns or Blast attacks.
		is a counter because In this rule, your enemies might use more melee units which will target your tanks. This might be not ideal with Commander Slade since he may get overwhelmed and Deflect will not help with any of that.

	Backfire	If an enemy misses this Unit with an attack, the attacker takes 2 damage.
		is a match because Swiftness increases the speed of all friendly units, making it even harder for the enemy to land attacks on Commander Slade. The faster he becomes, the more frequently Backfire will trigger and return damage.
		is a counter because Backfire depends on missed attacks, and True Strike completely shuts that down by ensuring enemies always hit. This directly prevents Slade from retaliating with Backfire damage.

Good Rules to Consider

Icon	Name	Reason
	Up Close & Personal	Only Units with Melee attack may be used in battles.
		In this rule where only melee units are allowed, Enfeeble lowers enemy HP and Dodge can make him hard to hit in direct fights.
	What Doesn't Kill You	All units have Enrage (+50% melee power and speed if not at full health, rounded up).
		Slade’s high speed and Dodge become even stronger with Enrage after taking damage.
	Briar Patch	All units have Thorns (returns 2 damage to attacker when hit by a melee attack)
		Even though melee units are a disadvantage during this rule, this is favorable for Commander Slade as he is unaffected by Thorns because of Deflect. This is a good rule to use him in as your enemies would be having a hard time using the same.

Bad Rules to Think Twice

Icon	Name	Reason
	Aim True	All units gain True Strike (attacks will never miss).
		This rule disables the effectiveness of Dodge and Backfire, which are two of Commander Slade’s core abilities. Without the chance for enemies to miss, Commander Slade loses a big part of his survivability and becomes much easier to take down.
	Reverse Speed	Units with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks.
		Commander Slade’s 6 speed becomes a huge disadvantage, making him hit last and get hit more often.
	Unprotected	Units do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs.
		Removes all armor, negating one of his biggest defensive strengths.

Battle

Link to battle

Even though my units cannot resist the poison in this battle, I had the advantage of armor, Repair and Cleanse on my side with Elias Max Pruitt. Since the units in this battle has no abilities due to Back to Basics, this is just a battle of stats and Commander slade's stats is way up there for his rarity. This gave me a huge advantage in this battle giving me the win.

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

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