Rebellion was recently release earlier this month, and there are a whole lot of new cards to play with. That means new summoners and monsters on the field, with a host of new abilities and fun interactions. Today, I will be sharing a battle which includes a few of those Rebellion cards - in fact, it ONLY includes Rebellion cards, as it was from a Rebellion-only tournament battle. In this post we will be highlighting a few of the new cards, as well as their usefulness in battle. In a brand new format, it is even more important than usual to be aware of the meta - it would be unfortunate to get blindsided by a strategy or card combination that you never saw before!
If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup? Read on further!
Here are the rules for our battle - we have Silenced Summoners, Healed Out, and Up Close and Personal. This means that summoner abilities will be negated, healing abilities have no effect, and that only melee attackers are eligible for this battle. To go along with our ruleset, we are limited to three splinters with Water, Earth, and Dragon to choose from, and a medium-ish mana cap of 30.
Silenced Summoners is ordinarily a disappointment since we all love to play with fun summoner abilities, but thanks to Rebellion we have a great summoner for this situation. The dual element summoners don't have any summoner abilities, and instead allow you to choose monsters from two different splinters for your team. Conveniently, that dual splinter mechanic is not nullified by Silenced Summoners. Our summoner of choice for this battle is Chuul Jujinchi, the Earth/Life summoner. While the splinter options for this battle mean that we will only be using Earth (and Neutral) monsters, it is a very nice option to have.
I started my team with my tank, who also happens to be the promo card I received from the Rebellion presale. Mantaroth costs quite a bit to bring into battle, weighing in at 11 mana. But you get a whole lot of tank for that mana - 3 armor and 11 health is plenty of bulk, not to mention the Shield ability. Mantaroth can also attack, going in for 3 per turn as well as packing the Armored Strike ability, which grants an additional attack based on armor.
Pallus is an outstanding off- or secondary tank. Pallus is another heavy hitter with 3 melee damage, and being able to attack out of the second position with Reach is very helpful. Finally, 8 health and Flying means that even if Pallus comes under attack, it is a bit harder to hit and can stand to take some damage.
I rounded out my lineup with Mad Ogre Anarchist, and Opportunistic attacker who is great in Up Close and Personal battles. A melee attacker who can attack from the back of a lineup is always nice, and Mad Ogre Anarchist can do all that, and even comes with a respectable amount of bulk with 5 health and 2 armor. For those of you keeping track at home, you may notice that I was not able to use all of my mana for this battle. That is an interesting quirk of Rebellion - unfortunately, there seem to be very few of those low cost cards that can help you fill out the spaces in your lineup.
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I am hopeful - my Mantaroth at the front is great as a tank in melee-only battles. And my opponent's lack of a Reach or alternative Sneak/Opportunity monster in the second position means that they will be getting off two attacks each round compared with my lineup's three.
In the first round of battle my monsters are able to knock out my opponent's Lioceros out of the fight - that was a huge move, I don't like to see too much Thorns on the other side of the battlefield, especially in an all-melee ruleset!
One more round and my team has dealt heavy damage to the enemy Grimbardun Fighter. With just a single monster behind it and plenty of bulk still remaining on my side of the battlefield, my team is looking to be in an excellent position.
By the beginning of round 4, the battle was all but over. All that remained of the enemy team was a lone Mad Ogre Anarchist, with just a single health point remaining. One quick attack later and I was able to claim my victory! And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.
This battle, along with the new Rebellion-only tournaments, is a great way to see the new Rebellion cards in action. It is entirely too easy to fall back on old familiar cards, but as you can see in battles like these, the Rebellion set has some great new toys to play with - all you have to do is give them a chance to shine!
Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:
Weaker, Stronger - Battling with Weak Magic! - A Splinterlands battle analysis, featuring the Weak Magic ruleset!
Eyes On the Prize - Setting your Splinterlands Goals - Starting out in Splinterlands? Be sure to come up with a plan!
Rebellion Sale Plans and Goals - My plans and goals as we approach the Rebellion release!
Thinking about giving Splinterlands a try but haven't signed up yet? Feel free to use my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=bteim, and be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions!
All images used in this article are open source and obtained from Pixabay or Unsplash. Thumbnails borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Canva.