New Reward cards
Although many already have talked about this topic, it is not common sense, so I will also put in my two cents:
The new reward cards are completely undervalued.
Since many with a lot bigger reach and audience have talked about this and didn't change anything, I also don't think that this post will change a lot. And this is a good thing, because I will still be able to collect those cheap cards and build up a good and valuable deck.
If you look at the commons you find probably the biggest value for the cheapest price. At time of writing the are priced from $0.15 to $0.21. Of course they come at bigger numbers and are still in print and being distributed over the daily and seasonal quests. But not everyone will get enough of each of them only through quest. I certainly won't.
Why are they valuable? I want to make a “short” series, within my bigger Diary-Series, giving my thoughts on all the new reward cards, and why I think they are all undervalued. This is part one of the commons.
Venari Heatsmith
Right now, this is the cheapest card, and since I started this game, it was most of the time either the cheapest or at least one of the cheaper three. And to be honest, in the current meta this is justified, especially in low ranks. Having Cerberus and Living Lava as tanks, the Heatsmith has a very limited use. Void armour is useful, but at Silver cap (level 5) it has "only" 4 shield. This is great for a three mana card and is useful in low mana battles, but Cerberus has heal, which can be used in different use cases. The big disadvantage of the Heatsmith is his missing damage potential up to gold rank.
Amplify can actually be a really good skill, as soon as combined with magic reflect, return fire and thorns. But the use in fire only teams is very limited. Only Elemental Phoenix, an Alpha/Beta legendary card, has magic reflect, starting at level 3. Magnor is the only fire monster with return fire, but it starts at level 4, making it only available for Diamond and Champion players. Only thorns are a bit more spread among fire attackers. Serpentine Soldier (Alpha/Beta, rare) gets it at level 7, again making it only available for Diamond and Champion. Same goes for Living Lava (Untamed, rare), which get thorns at level 8. At least Naga Fire Wizard (Rewards, rare) gets it at level 5 making it available for Gold league players. And well, there is also Caladuum, but a Dice legendary getting it at level 4, is also only available to the best of the best.
So at time of writing, amplify doesn't really work good with other fire monsters.
If you take into account, that neutrals and dragons can be used from time to time, you can add some cards. Robo-Dragon Knight and Gold Dragon both legendary dragons, get magic reflect at level 4 - so not really big use for most of the new players. Rusty Android and Prismatic Energy, are a different story. Both of them being neutral reward cards and having magic reflect from level one, can definitely be used in combination with the Heatsmith. Lord Arianthus also gets Magic Reflect at level 2, so it will be available before amplify and therefore useable. And Cornealus is again a Diamond/Champion only card profiting from amplify for its magic reflect from level 4.
Return Fire is also a different story: Dragon-wise Naga Brute (Dice, common) gets it at level 8, Robo-Dragon Knight at level 3 and Red Dragon (Promo, legendary) at level 2 - all being available at Gold level. Plus Cornealus and Almo Cambio (Reward, legendary) have return fire at level 3 being able to use it at Gold level. And Onyx Sentinel also gets the ability at level 6, but being a epic (reward) card, this will benefit only the Diamond and Champion players.
Last but not least Thorns. Being already useful for fire alone, this gets more beneficial if you consider Dragon and Neutrals. Draon Whelp (Promo, common) gets Thorns at level 6, Naga Brute gets the ability at level 5, Djinn Chwala (epic rewards) gets the ability at level 1, The Vigilator (Untamed, Legendary) at level 2, and Manticore (Reward, epic) at level 4 making four more additions at Gold rank. Additional there is another legendary dragons in the Chromatic Dragon (Alpha/Beta, legendary), getting thorns at level 4). And then there are Enchanted Defender (Promo, common), getting thorns at level 5, Onix Sentinel also at level 5 (this time available for Gold players), Hydra (Beta, legendary) at level 2, Cornealus at level 2 and Lord Arianthus at level 3, adding five neutrals to the pool.
So if you only look at fire, amplify is pretty limited to a few thorns users (Heatsmith also gets thorns at max level) and a few options for Diamond and Champion players. But considering Dragons and neutrals at least for Thorns and Return Fire, amplify has a good usability. And maybe we get something like Lir Deepswimmer (return fire, legendary, water), Mylor Crowlng (thorns, rare, earth) or Owster Rotwell (magic reflect, rare, death) for fire in the new Chaos Legion summoners. It is not too likely, since all of them summoners are going to be available in the modern format as well, but who knows.
So Heatsmith can be a very good card, combined with many options. And it is not unlikely, that we see one or another fire monster card, that gets Magic Reflect, Return Fire or Thorns in the future, making the Heatsmith even more valuable.
Pelacor Bandit
While it took me some time to explain the Venari Heathsmith, it is a lot easier to explain the usability of the Pelacor Bandit. Low Mana, Sneak and Flying. At Silver Cap (Level 5, 60 BCX), the Pelacor Bandit already has 2 Melee Attack, 4 Speed and 4 HP, which is pretty solid for a 3 Mana card. At Gold Cap (Level 8, 220 BCX) it is at 3 Melee Attack, 6 Speed and 4 HP. So it can be a little pain... It may be not the best card at Level 1-3, since it only is at 1 Melee attack and 3-4 speed, giving it neither a big missing potential nor a big damage potential. But with level 4, giving it 2 melee attack, it start to get valuable. Combined with the Demented Shark (Inspire) or a level 6 Pirate Captain, it is even more dangerous. And maybe there will be a shift in water, with a +1 melee summoner or anything the like in Chaos Legion, making the Bandit even better. It is already a good card and starts being useful earlier than the Venari Heathsmith.
Daily Quest
Nov 17th
After a few pretty good Rewards, this one was not really good.
Nov 18th
But than again this was a quite good one again
Special Thanks
Cheers,