When Grandmaster Rathe came along I wasn't quite sure. The abilities he gave just seemed a bit...meh. Overtime though I've learnt to utilise him within my team and have come across arguably one of the greatest partnerships in Splinterlands history. Grandmaster Rathe fielding the indomitable, Lord Arianthus. If you haven't tried this combination yet then why the heck not?! Rent them, get a kind soul to delegate them to you or even just buy them, you will not be disappointed! Why? What's the big deal? Let's take a look...
Grandmaster Rathe
So Rathe gives us +1 armour, which doesn't look like much until you see his next ability which is Void Armour. This means that magic attacks now won't be able to avoid your armour and must hit that first. Useful when up against strong magic teams summoned by the likes of Obsidian or Alric. And then finally we have Amplify which increases Magic Reflect, Return Fire and Thorns damage by an additional 1. I have never really given Amplify much consideration until now, but used with Lord Arianthus or the Pelacor Conjurer, it comes into its own.
Lord Arianthus
Lord Arianthus at level 3 or higher gives you a wonderful assortment of goodies, beautifully complimented by your summoner, Rathe. First off we have Shield and Void which means ALL incoming attack damage is getting halved! Then we have Magic Reflect which is going to bounce back the incoming magic damage whether it hits you or not. It gets divided by 2 and rounded up but with Rathe's Amplify your getting +1 added to that. And lastly we have Thorns which will return damage for up to 2 for any melee attack that hits. Again this gets effected by Amplify and you get +1 damage. Are you starting to see how this combo is lethal?
Who else shall I bring to the Party?
The Pelacor Conjurer is an interesting consideration. I've used it in a couple of different ways. The first would be to place it at the rear of your team to prevent any sneak attacks wiping out your back line. It is fairly competent in this regard and works well. The second, if you've never considered it, has to have the right ruleset in place but is absolutely devastating. Explosive Weaponry. With Lord Arianthus and the Pelacor Conjurer in position one and two, and if you get attacked with magic and Blast, you are going to utterly decimate your opponent. Each magic blast attack will get rebounded twice over and your opponent won't last very long.
The Truthspeaker is an excellent card to bring along for only 3 mana. Her protect, which she gets at level 1, is going to give all of your monsters +2 shield. With Rathe's Void Armour this going to be really useful against magic attacks, as well as melee and ranged damage. The Truthspeaker also has Cleanse which is going to help with any Affliction or Poison sustained by Lord Arianthus, keeping him alive and batting away those incoming attacks. And then we have Tank Heal, which is again going to keep Rathe going that little bit longer because even with all those abilities, he is going to take damage.
Adelade Brightwing is a great addition to your lineup. She has the important Repair ability that is going keep replenishing armour by 2 for every turn. It might not always be Lord Arianthus she decides to repair, but someone is getting 2 of their armour back. Amongst other things she also has Resurrect, so potentially if Lord Arianthus falls in battle first, he is going to get resurrected with his armour back in play. Her other attributes are fairly self explanatory but beware, as she can be quite vulnerable to Opportunity attacks.
The last monster I want to specifically mention is the Scavo Hireling. Again this monster has Repair much like Adelade Brightwing but what he also brings to the field is Camouflage. Camouflage basically means that this monster cannot be targeted unless it's in the first position. This is going to be very useful in repairing the armour of your troops without getting taken out by Sneak or Opportunity attacks. Beware of Blast though as that can still hit you.
In Conclusion
I urge you to try this pairing, I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised. The synergy between the two of them is quite incredible and when I've utilised them together, I've won about 90% of my battles. As you'll see from the battles below, you don't even have to deploy Lord Arianthus in the first position, he can be almost as effective in the rear for the Super Sneak ruleset, or even if you think your opponent is going to field a Sneak-strong team.
Let me know if you've tried this combo before, or why not give it a go and let me know your results and opinions. Drop me a comment below, I'd love to hear your feedback on this one. Are they the greatest partnership in Splinterlands history so far?
