This is part of the Community Engagement Challenge: @splinterlands/splinterlands-community-engagement-challenge-card-strategy-guides
The Mana Warden seems to be an underrated card, still, due to its limited use cases – but sometimes it’s actually the one to make a difference. It’s most powerful ability comes on level 1 – Shield Ward, giving the monster in front of it the “Shield”-Ability, meaning that melee and ranged damage is reduces by 50%, rounded up.
Additionally to that cool ability, it's also a dual-splinter card, being summoned by both Life and Fire splinters. If that wasn't enough - it's only 4 Mana.
At level 4, Silver League level, it also gains Impede – meaning, it reduces the enemy’s speed by 1 if landing an successful attack. The lower the speed of the enemy, the less likely it is to land a ranged or melee attack, and it’s more likely to be hit by the same types of attacks.
At Diamond Level 10, it gets Piercing – meaning, that after destroying an enemy’s armor, it will still do damage to the life points. Since it has 4 melee damage then, it’s quite a useful skill. For example, it will break through 1 armor and still do 3 damage to the life points – usually, the armor would break and no life points be shed.
Use Cases
Both use cases come from higher leagues, but can be applied even in Novice or Bronce, if you have the same cards in a lower level - all thanks to the Mana Warden having the Shield Ward ability at level 1 already 😍
Tanky Tank
This is an example from a Gold Tier Brawl. Rulesets are quite perfect for the Mana Warden – Little League (only cards with 4 mana or less are allowed), Unprotected (no armor at all), and Melee Mayhem (Melee units like the warden can attack from any position).
The Xenith Monk is a great tank for little league, due to its Self-Heal and Void Ability. It’s not the strongest against many melee- and ranged attacks – usually. That’s when the Mana Warden comes into play. Now, the Monk will take reduced damage from ALL attack types, thanks to Shield.
In this match, the Monk survives without problem – but would’ve been destroyed without the Shield.
Speedy Tank
Here’s another example to use the Mana Warden, this time in a Silver Tier Brawl. The ruleset commands melee only, and gives a beautiful 47 Mana to play with. The Coeurl Lurker is a very fast card with Taunt and Dodge and Phase, making all monsters that can attack it first, but more likely to miss – Jacek is giving him 2 extra speed, so he will be even harder to hit. The Warden gives him Shield while the Disintegrator reduces melee damage by 1.
Meaning: 50% damage from melee reduced by 1. A former 4 damage card now will deal 2 damage (4-1 * 0,5 = 1,5, rounded 2), a 2 damage card none at all – if they even hit the dodgy 6 speed monster. I wrote an extensive article this match here:
@beelzael/a-risky-strategy-in-a-only-melee-battle
Conclusion
The Mana Warden does not have that many use cases, that’s true. But it can be the decisive card in a game by protecting a key card. Another use case would be to use him in “Equal Opportunity”, giving Shield to a Gladiator and that way making it survive long enough to get some bloodlust.
The best part is that it gets its most powerful ability right away, so it costs you 30 vouchers – for only around 120 DEC, that’s a great deal.
I think the Mana Warden is a great card. It doesn't break the meta of the game, but adds a wonderful twist and enhances certain strategies, and is therefor a lot more valuable than most players might give it credit for.
I hope you enjoyed my analysis and that it will help someone. Eager to read some comments and ideas, and don't forget to leave your own posts for me to read and comment. Thank you!