Introduction
This week, let’s dive into the Reach ability in Splinterlands! Reach is a unique skill that allows a melee unit in the second position to join the action and attack – it’s useful for strategies that involve front-line defense.
Some summoners, like Possibilus the Wise, even grant Reach to all friendly units, making it possible to build a team that strikes from all angles.
Nowadays, we’ve got other abilities that give melee units a shot from non-traditional positions too, such as:
Opportunity
Sneak
Charge
Flank
Each one adds an extra layer of versatility to your lineups. Let’s break down how Reach and these other abilities can help turn the tide in battle!
Ability
Melee attack Units with the Reach ability may attack from the second position on the team
Official ability information from splinterlands: List abilities
Synergies / strategy
Abilities benefits
Inspire - This boost all the melee units that you bring.
Be aware of units with
Demoralize - when you bring more units with melee you more subjectable to demoralize which does -1 attack damage of all your melee units.
Blind - is your opponent is using blind you have a 15% increased change in missing your attacks
thorns - melee unit will get return damage of the thorns
Ruleset benefits
Up close & Personal - This method you can make the best out of you placing using a reach unit so it can attack from the second position and fill the rest of the spots with opportunity/sneak/charge units.
Fog of War - With this ruleset reach is still able to attack from the second position.
Stampede - Unit will have the trample ability when attacking the first unit (which reach does) and it kill the melee unit it will attack again.
Be aware of rulesets
Super sneak - Note then when you have a super sneak rule set is applicable reach will be changed to sneak see chart below
Select / favorite
As you can see there are already a lot of units with reach. So it will hard to pick out one that is my favorite because most of them have a certain use case.
And one summoner:
When i go trough my cards and my data i find one unit that excels mainly because of its low mana cost and reach.
So my pick will be the Tide Biter...
I love this unit in low mana battles and little league
Below you find my current stats with this unit. Clearly it often chosen with the lower mana cap battles.
Strategy
Here it is a low mana battle in modern where the tide biter shines.
Low mana battles i often end up selecting water also in this case. In low mana cap battle i try to fill the board with low cost units. Often more unit wins over one higher costing unit. But be careful with the bloodlust unit in the lower leagues that is a valid strategy.
Rulesets
Blood and Sunder:
All units have Corrosive Ward. Meaning: when hit with a Melee attack, unit does 2 armor damage to the attacker, and max armor of the attacker is reduced by 2.
Tis but Scratches:
All units will gain the the cripple ability. Meaning: each time an enemy is hit by a Unit it loses one max health.
The Lineup
Summoner
| Card | Reason |
|---|---|
 | There she is again still going strong in my team. Now trading for just under 200$ that is cheap wow. this is such a versatile unit. even in low mana battle its worth the extra mana cost for the extra health in stead of kelya |
Units Lineup
| #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |  |  |  |
Cruel Sethropod (lvl 10)
High armor and health unit for only 3 mana cost
Tide Biter (lvl 6)
Star of this week with the reach/reflection shield and true stike it will not miss and does a solid 3 damage. with 6 health and only costing 3 mana is great unit to have for the low mana cap battles.
Pelacor Bandit (lvl 10)
Sneak attacker. Most of the time is choose this unit or go for more sustainability with the healer Merdaali Guardian.
Igor Darkspear (lvl 6)
Very low cost unit that has 5 health and does 3 damage.
Torrent Fiend (lvl 4)
Meat shield to protect myself from some sneak play.
The Battle
Reference
Link to the battle:
Link to battle
Rounds
Start :
I have higher level units that for sure a benefit. And the Tide Biter against the Cursed Windeku is perfect counter.
Note the when you are playing in lower leagues you often see the Cursed Windeku, here is a unit that perfectly counters that with the reflection shield
Just hope that the Uraeus does not land its poison to often then I should be taking this battle home.
Round 1:
Meat shield is done and served its purpose.
Need to take out the Uraeus then i have the upper hand in the battle.
Round 2:
That is already it. Because of the higher speed all my unit may attack first slaughtering my opponent and finishing the battle.
Conclusion
Reach is a powerful ability and in the lower leagues I definitely recommend the Tide Biter.
For new players an extra tip. Speed is so important in this game.. it increased you chance to hit (with melee and ranged attackers) and it allows you to go first.
Previous ability strategy posts
Below you will find references to the other ability strategies / analysis posts.
Affliction
Amplify
Backfire
Blast
Bloodlust
Camouflage
Conscript
Close Range
Cleanse
Cripple
Deathblow
Dispel
Divine Shield
Dodge
Double Strike
Enrage
Flying
Forcefield
Fury
Giant Killer
Halving
Headwinds
Heal
Tank Heal
Immunity
Knock Out
Last Stand
Life Leech
Magic Reflect
Martyr
Opportunity
Oppress
Phase
Piercing
Poison
Protect
ReachThat's all for this week hope you enjoyed reading this ability strategy/analysis. See you all on the battlefield.
Do you also want to be part of this amazing play to earn game consider using my referral link.