TRAITS MAPPING : FIRE SPLINTER MELEE CARD

We have finally arrived on the next traits mapping project! This time for melee collection. But this isn't gonna be the usual traits mapping. With the arrive of Soulbound Reward card, I've added those editions into this traits mapping. And to focus this traits mapping for Modern Battle format, I've excluded rewards card from Alpha and Beta. Don't forget to read the traits mapping guidance (click here) which will help you understood how to use this posts.

Melee card is your primary line of defense, because they are where you find the big boys with huge health and huge armor. Therefore they are suitable for the frontier row. But uniquely, melee isn't just some foolish monster wanting to clash head-to-head. This is the only cards type which able to make an ambush attack using like Sneak and Opportunity skill. So they surely tough but also tactical. Now traits mapping couldn't be less awesome than this!

Number of Card by Rarity and Mana

Rarity	1 Mana	2 Mana	3 Mana	4 Mana	5 Mana	6 Mana	7 Mana	8 Mana	9 Mana	10 Mana	11 Mana
Normal	2	1	2	1	2			3
Rare				1	1		2
Epic						1			1
Legendary	1						1	1		1	1

With large sum of cards under Fire Splinter Melee cards there are no mana level untouched. On each mana there are around 2 - 3 cards each, with exception to 2, 6, and 9 to 11 mana. Even at 1 mana you can get 3 cards alternatives. And combined with cards concentration on 4 to 5 mana and 7 to 8 mana, this in turn make fire splinter fit to be used either for low, mid, or high mana cap battle (Souldbound reward itself contributed much to the 8 mana value card).

The number of cards on Normal type not only allow melee cards to be affordable, but it also means a lot of potential growth to be pursue. Rare and Epic type are as many, but Legendary have quite a number which concentrated on the highest mana level.

Traits Mapping

There's been several minor changes on the traits mapping chart which is done to ease the reading effort. The changes are:

1. The nodes and number have been scaled down a bit, so to minimize the overlaps between nodes which very close to each other.
2. The listed cards have been ordered from the lowest mana to the highest mana. So we can expect the lower order will spread on the outermost quadrant, while the higher digit will mass up in the specific quadrant.

Most of the cards started at Level 1 with health-mana ratio near the 0.75 to 1.0 tick. But there are several cards which surpassed into the SOUTH quadrant. Even we can see a card at 2.0 tick which is Tusk The Wide (No.12), a 6 mana cards. Card decorated with Armor are also quite a lot; there are 7 cards out of total 22 cards. But Armor only available to mid to high mana cards, with Antoid Platoon (No.7) having the lowest mana among the armored cards.

In tune with health and armor looks promising, damage-mana ratio started quite high. We can see there's some number of cards having damage-mana ratio surpassed 0.50 tick. Compare this with Fire Splinter ranged cards collection (you can find it here), where there are not even one cards surpassed 0.5 tick. Mordeus (No.14) should be a noteable one, having damage-mana ratio at 0.7 when its a 7 mana cards. Although in overall this collection have a good balance between health and damage, there's few exception for example Exploding Rate (No.9) and Ant Miners (No.4) which fallen behind compared to others.

Speed doesn't looks superior with most cards started as red nodes. Fineas Rage (No.13) are the only one to have blue nodes and even have higher than average health. Abilities number are moderate with most cards started with at least single ability.

Tanker roles are pretty much potrayed in Max Level Chart. Almost 70% of the cards concentrated in SOUTH quadrant, and even a few past beyond to SOUTH-EAST quadrant. Now there are 8 cards with Armor traits. One notable thing, armored cards seemed to come from cards with lower tier on health-mana ratio and damage-mana ratio. But this might also be explained from the fact that most armored cards are high mana cards.

I think damage grow fantastically. Almost half of the collection have reach damage-mana ratio beyond 1.0 tick. Magma Trol (No.8) and Tenyii Striker (No.10) have noteworthy damage growth for a mid mana cards. Other cards seemed moderate, especially the high mana cards mostly only maxed their damage at 0.5 to 0.75 tick. Speed have grown fairly, having only few cards turn into blue nodes, and the rest are equal between yellow and red nodes. Flame Monkey (No.1) looks very exception having grown its speed from 1 to 5. Meanwhile Exploding Rats (No.13) is the sole card that able to reached 7 speed, a typical Ninja type.

It seemed typical for melee cards to have limited number of abilities. There are only handful of card having 3 abilities, and yet most of them are the high mana cards. Only Magnor which have 4 abilities at max level. But still its hard to judge abilities solely by number, and we will dig deeper in the next section.

Abilities Mapping

This collection is rich with variety of abilities. But as mentioned before, each and every card have limited number of abilities; with the average around 2 abilities, and 3 abilities might be the most. The abilities come mainly from Striker and Tanker major types. Support abilities are limited, and only few cards have major roles as Support (Flame Monkey and Ferox Defender seemed to be the only one; and then again they only possess 2 abilities compared to other pure Support cards which owned up to 4 or 5 abilities at once).

The Striker Abilities constitute mainly of Atack Targeting sub-types, which mostly are Reach ability. Reach ability are distributed very well from the lowest to the highest mana card. To my surprise, there are very limited number of Opportunity and Sneak ability. In total there might be not enough melee cards available to put ambush attack from the back row.

The number of Tanker abilities are distributed more evenly. Retaliate ability are the most one (which quite rare) with total 3 abilities available. And fortunately enough, they were possessed by cards with balanced melee and health value, which ensure their effectiveness. Defenstuve Abilities (Shield, Void, Void Shield, etc.) also available in quite number; eventhough there are only 2 Void ability, and they were possessed by high mana cards. Leaving this collection limited choice to deal with magic attack in low or mid mana battle.

Taunt which should be a signature ability for Tanker type only appear once (see Magnor). In my opinion there should be more number of this ability since its very tactical for Tanker card. There's also a good reason for this; with fewer number of Taunt ability, then Fury ability will become less efficient to be used.

Personal Thought

This final section, I give my personal thought for several card mentioned below.

'1. Flame Monkey

The most valuable thing brought by Flame Monkey is no other than the Swiftness ability and 1 mana cost. It cost-efficient choice to boost the speed of the formation, while allocation the unused mana for more stronger cards.

'2. Ant Miners & Antoid Platoon

I believe Ant Miners would not be your favorite choice at the first instance. Consider adding 1 additional mana, and you can deploy Kobold Brute or Serpentine Spy instead. But having Scavenger bring a lot of leverages into this cards status. There's one occasion where I accumulate a total 12 health for this card. Antoid Platoon is the sister card of Ant Miners, your option if you feel for secure start before health are accumulated enough.

'3. Tenyii Striker

This would be one of my most favorite card. Having high than average damage, speed, and health deemed Tenyii Striker a powerful card to take back row position. Especially once it gained the Dodge ability. This card not only deal fatal strike, but also guard the back row very well.

'4. Mordeus

This would be perhaps one of the deadliest card which exist. First, the 7 damage combined with Piercing ability is very deadly, and will quickly dissipate any armor and health. Second, supported with Opportunity ability, Mordeus can cover itself from any incoming threat. In my opinion by bringing Mordeus alone, you will be able to allocate more mana towards defensive line, and try bringing the battle into the long game.