This post was made as entry for Community Engagement Challenge
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After testing different builds and theorycrafting with Conclave Arcana, I finally came up with my personal top 5 picks from the Conclave Arcana set. These cards aren’t just strong and very useful, they’re the units that can take you to at least Diamond 1 when used right in my opinion.
Top 1: Jicarilla the Rime
Stats:
Jicarilla the Rime is a card that only exist in my fantasies. She is the strongest support ever existed. She is also one of the most expensive card ever existed. I wish I could rent this one in the future to try her full potential along with the strongest soulbound rewards card for Rebellion.
The most exciting abilities:
Phase Ward: Phase is something Commander Slade is missing. Commander is fast, high damage with Dodge to top it off, but sure-hit atacks like Magic attack and True Strike abilities will destroy him. Phase Ward gives him Phase which would help a lot against magic attacks especially since it complements Commander Slade's high speed and Dodge.
Echo: Echo allows healing abilities and Repair abilities activate twice per round. This is very strong especially in Water Element where there are tons of these abilities, Jicarilla the Rime's Tank Heal included.
Potential combos or team builds:
Commander Slade is the best tank in the game for Water Element right now. While it doesn't look like that in paper, it is like that in practice. Commander Slade is Rebellion's version of Diemonshark which is used by majority of player as their main tank.
Top 2: Caravan Guard
Stats:
I like having Caravan Guard in my team. You don't need high level to make him useful as you use him mostly for the Triage. The max leel is still better because of the Echo ability but even without it, Triage alone makes him worth.
The most exciting abilities:
Echo: Same with Jicarilla the Rime, Life have a lot of healing and Repair abilities as well including Caravan Guard's Triage.
Triage: I have a good combo with this and it works with Bera Dallin. The only thing is you need a unit with Flank like Ulundin Overseer.
Potential combos or team builds
Triage only works when a unit is not in the front. This means Flank allows Bera Dallin to be played on 2nd position making him a target for Triage. Flank allows Bera Dallin to attack while being in this position as well.
You can also pull this off whenever you are playing on a rule set that allows melee units to attack on other positions like Equal Opportunity, Super Sneak and Melee Mayhem.
Top 3: Cavewise Wayfinder
Stats:
High health, speed, damage, with decent mana requirement and minor inconvenience. This is one of the strongest tank in the game right now and it's even stronger when you have the proper combo with it.
The most exciting abilities:
Reckless: This is a debilitation that deals 1 damage to your unit beside him. This damage passes through armor allowing you to partner this with units with Painforge to increase their attacks.
Potential combos or team builds:
The most common combo with Cavewise Wayfinder is with Vicious Giraffe, a fire unit with both Painforge and Reach. He also has Shield Ward giving Cavewise Wayfinder Shield ability completing his Shield-Void combo.
Both of these units have high health making them perfect with each other. Vicious Giraffe's Painforge allow him to stack damage whenever Cavewise Finder attacks due to Reckless debilitation. You can further improve this combo by using any unit with Triage to restore Vicious Giraffe's health as the increased attack from Painforge is permanent.
Top 4: Abyssal Elemental
Stats:
Abyssal Elemental's stats are decent in low-mid levels. It isn't particularly strong or game changing but Resurgence makes him very durable as he gets full health and armor when revived. He is also a stand-alone card so you can play Abyssal Elemental with or without any combos.
The most exciting abilities:
Resurgence: This ability allows him to be revived again (only happen once) with full health and armor but will deal 1 damage to all of your units.
Potential combos or team builds:
Archmage Yabanius's Empower ability increases Abyssal Elemental's damage even more making him a great combo. You can place Archmage Yabanius at the very last and then Abyssal Elemental. Since Archmage Yabanius have Camouflage, Abyssal Elemental will be attacked with Sneak instead and they need to kill him twice before they get to Archmage Yabanius.
I also did not put Archmage Yabanius as the best card simply because it is very expensive. You can rent a level 1, which only have Camouflage and Empower, for 300 DEC per day. That is too much for a single rental for me but you can rent Abyssal Elemental for a cheaper price for a mid-level.
Top 5: Gramel the Hunger
Stats:
Gramel the Hunger is the first unit in Splinterlands that have all the attack types in one unit. Honestly, I never thought this was possible but here we are. When used as a back line, he can use all of his attacks because of Charge and Scattershot.
The most exciting abilities:
Relentless Strike: If the attacked unit has Shield, Void or Forcefield, Relentless Strike not only ignores that effect but also increases the damage done by 1. This makes Gramel the Hunger a very good unit to deal against Shield and Void teams.
Potential combos or team builds
Gramel the Hunger has Shapeshift ability that gives him synergy with all Bloodlines. This means that since he has all the attack types and all the Bloodline types, he is compatible with any unit with Bloodline Tribute like Filthy Scavenger to increase his damage.
Another great combo with him Gramel the Hunger is the archon, Razi Clanktrap, giving him both Close Range and Painforge through Bloodline Dominion. Painforge allows all of his attacks increase damage when the proper conditions are fulfilled. Actually, since Cavefind Wayfinder is a Gnome, you can also use him with Razi Clanktrap due to the same Bloodlines despite being different elements and the Cavefind Wayfinder-Vicious Giraffe combo can also work changing Vicious Giraffe to Gramel the Hunger. The Close Range also works real good in order to use Gramel the Hunger's range attack while in melee position.
Predictions on how Conclave Arcana will reshape the meta
Conclave Arcana started the idea of Bloodlines. These are what unit types are for Splinterlands which is core mechanics in other card games. In the future, I am expecting a more focus on this Bloodline mechanic allowing players to gain more advantage by using and abusing Bloodlines.
I want Bloodlines to have the same idea as an online game I played before called, "Urban Rivals." In this game, they have clan bonuses, which activates when you have at least 2 unit of the same clan. I remembered playing Fang Pi clan which increases any Fang Pi clan damage by 2.
This means you need less wins to kill an enemy. Splinterlands can apply the same idea as a passive bonus, different than Bloodline Dominion. For example, if you have two units with Dwarves Bloodline on the same team, everyone gets a bonus 1 armor. This would be interesting to see what teams others would build around.
You can improve this by using Auto Chess Battlers idea. If you have 2 Dwarves, increase the team's armor by 1, 4 Dwarves increase the team's armor by 2 and 6 Dwarves increases the team's armor by 4. This will make players choose between having a high bonus with one Bloodline or multiple bonuses with multiple Bloodlines.
Lastly, and this is quite simple. We have Dual Elements in the game. It's not hard to imagine having multi-bloodline in one unit. Lore-wise, if I am not mistaken, these are Mundane Beasts but game-wise, since Mundane Beast is a Bloodline, they literally can have two Bloodlines.
Lore or creative storytelling inspired by the new set
I don't have a particular lore in mind but this idea was discussed by @Nate in the discord before when he said he wanted comics in Splinterlands. I will summarize what I said there in here.
It would be cool if Splinterlands would follow the idea of Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends, and have a unified lore across the game. One problem I see lore-wise is that Splinterlands have such a grand, gigantic lore database that is not being utilized. Let's give an example. In Splinterlands, there is a region called Burning Lands. Now, how many times this region has been mentioned in the game? 1? 2? Not a lot, right?
The creative team seems to like the "add and forget" concept in Splinterlands where they add new lore, use it once or twice, then forget it even existed. I mean, how many times had we dove the Planes of Existence? We keep adding new lore instead of tying new ones to existing lore. We have more than 100 Bloodlines and this is because we kept adding lore in the game instead of utilizing what already existed. Yugioh existed for more than 30 years and they have 25 types in the game while Splinterlands has 100+ Bloodlines in 6 years and wanted to add more. How complicated would that be for new players?
TLDR: No new lores and new cards will be tied to existing lores. I want to see the huge lore we have utilized first before we add new lores and stories in the game.
Disclaimer
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About the Author
Hey! I’m Mavis the Muggle, your friendly Splinterlands addict with a slight obsession for all things Harry Potter. 🧙
When I’m not immersed in gaming or wizardry, I’m busy learning new things. Recently, I’ve been having putting a lot of effort and having a blast creating content on Hive so relax!
You can support me by upvoting this post, reblogging, leaving a comment below or by using my Splinterlands referral link.
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