Splinterlands Starter Cards have been announced to be rotating, most likely right when the Chaos Legion packs launch around November 25th, 2021. All new players get access to a batch of ghost cards that can be used in battles, also known as Starter Cards. Half of the current pool of Ghost Cards are Beta cards and half of the cards are Untamed. It was reported that the Beta cards will be replaced by Chaos Legion cards. We do not currently know if the Untamed Ghost cards will stay the same or be shuffling up as well.
Therefore, since we know the Beta cards are leaving I plan to take a closer analysis of each Beta Ghost cards that we are losing in each specific Splinter. The goal is to use this analysis to help predict what holes will be left behind, and perhaps predict what cards will appear in Chaos Legoin or what current cards will become more relevant.
Keep in mind I play mostly Bronze I and Silver 3 level matches and most of my knowledge and market understanding comes from the value of these cards for low level decks.
Beta Ghost Cards Leaving the Fire Splinter
"Summoner" Malric Inferno- One of two Starter Card Summoners for the Fire Splinter, Malric is the over-powering summoner with a very useful melee +1 boost. Malric is very heavily played summoner in lower level players and is very effective. Malric's boost allowed almost all of the ranged melee abilities (opportunity, sneak, snipe) to be useful and losing Malric means that many of those monsters with only 1 attack will have a lot less impact in the future. For example Kobold Miner, who is also rotating out, would be severly less playable if he was around without Malric.It is probably a good bet that Chaos Legion will provide us with another Fire summoner that boosts attack stats in some way as it seems to be a hallmark of the Fire Splinter.
Cerberus- Is an excellent low level tank for the Fire Splinter. Cerberus has a speed of 3, with melee attack of 2, and life gain, with only a 4 mana cost; this made him exceptional with both Marlic in high power decks but also with Pyre for speed decks. Cerberus was almost an auto include for low mana matches in bronze because often the life gain and 5 health could hold of a few rounds of attack and at times after the speedy fire monsters attacking first Cerberus all by himself could stalemate the opponents offense while slowly picking away at the team. Kobold Bruiser and Living Lava are pretty much the only two low mana replacements: Living Lava is a slight upgrade but also more mana (5) and Kobold Bruiser is a severe downgrade, but may become nesessary. All signs point to Chaos Legion printing a few good low level tanks for fire to watch for. It is an important note that Serpentine Soldier would be a relevant card if Cerberus wasn't around, but will also be rotating away and therefore continue to be mostly unplayed. Another important note is that the current reward cards offer no suitible replacement for Cerberus' slot and therefore we should be watching for and trying to pick up whatever Chaos Legoin card that fills that spot.
Fire Bettle- Is worth mentioning because opportunity is a powerful ability. This will leave the Fire splinter only with the Epic card Ferexia General with the opportunity ability. Ranged attackers are not specifically supported in the current meta except for arguably the best summoner in the game Yodin Zaku. If have Yodin the archers are incredibly important and if not, they do not play a big part in the fire splinter (at least not at lower levels).
Giant Roc- Showcases another under-presented abilities in the Fire Splinter, Flying. When Giant Roc rotates out it will leave only 2 cards with flying in the Fire Splinter, making them extremely vulnerable to the Earthquake ruleset. It is also important to note that Giant Roc is not frequently played, it is one of the few starter cards that give two abilities (Flying, Reach) at level 1, and it make this a pretty unique card and a great option for the second slot in your line up. I doubt we see any new starter cards from Chaos Legion with two abilities at level 1. But, I think it is likely to see another fire Flying monster and another fire monster with Reach that could be a good candidate for the number two slot in future games.
Goblin Shaman- At times proved to be a good filler card in certain match ups, especially Pyre/speed match ups where you wanted to Weaken the opponents team for maximum damage in the first two turns. The Weaken ability often times is worth a difference of 6 health points before the game even begins, and can lead to some landslide victories. It is also the only Fire card with this ability. Weaken makes this card quite unusual, and quite an important option especially at only 3 mana. In early level games the Goblin Shaman can seem underwhelming just because he doesn't do any specific damage and is never a good sight to him as your only remaining creature. However, in blow out games his impact is extremely important even if often unnoticed. Based on the direction the Splinterlands team is going, I predict that we see a Chaos Legion summoner with the ability, instead of a regular monster. It seems summoners should have the passive abilities that effect entire teams, while the monsters themselves should be doing the damage.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what cards become more desireable after rotation?
What cards and abilties do you think we will surely see in the Chaos Legion set?
Of these 8 fire cards, which one will you miss the most?