Hi, everyone. Welcome to my post. In the Social Media Challenge, I will discuss anything about SPLINTERLANDS, it can be about cards, abilities, rulesets, battle reviews, End of Season results, or my playing experience.
in this post, I will explain the continuation of my previous post, where I will explain in more detail the new abilities that will be present in REBELLION Edition. In this post, I will explain the FLANK and LOOKOUT abilities. if you want the official explanation directly, you can check it out here
NEW ABILITIES ON REBELLION EDITION (Part 2)
Now we enter the main discussion, which is about the Abilities that will be present on some cards in REBELLION EDITION. I will explain again the details of the abilities according to the official announcement and my comments on the abilities.
However, this time I will add to the explanation with some cards or abilities that will be helped or harmed or that (maybe) can overcome these new abilities.
FLANK
| Ability explanation | My Thought |
|---|---|
| Flank - If the unit with this ability is in the first position, then the unit in the second position gains Reach ability. Prepare to leverage positioning and the element of surprise. Now your first two units can work together to bring down the enemy tank! | This ability is quite useful to help Melee monsters that don't have abilities like SNEAK, REACH, or OPPORTUNITY. FLANK is perfect when combined with Melee monsters (or Dual-Attack Type monsters that have Melee attack type) that have deadly attacks or abilities but are weak in terms of defense. |
As mentioned earlier, the FLANK ability will grant an additional ability if placed in the first position. And that additional ability is REACH, which will be given to the Monster in the second position. REACH ability itself is an ability that is specialized for Melee monsters so that they can still attack even though they are in the second position.
In my previous opinion, some Melee monsters (and Dual-Attack type monsters that have Melee attack as one of their Attack types) can benefit from this ability (FLANK). In addition to high Attack Power, Melee monsters must have one of the abilities below in order to be paired with monsters with the FLANK ability.
PIERCING
PIERCING ability will be very useful especially when dealing with monsters that have ARMOR. And when the monster with PIERCING ability that is in second place has a higher SPEED, it will help FLANK monsters because most likely the ARMOR that is a barrier to attack has been destroyed by monsters with PIERCING ability.
SHATTER
Almost the same as the PIERCING ability, but SHATTER will only destroy ARMOR without reducing the target's HEALTH points (if the attack power is greater than the target's ARMOR).
DOUBLE STRIKE
If it is in the ARMORLESS ruleset (the ARMOR of all monsters in the battle arena is removed) then DOUBLE STRIKE ability is one of the best options that must be owned by Melee monsters in the second position. And it would be great if monsters with this ability had a large Attack Power.
HALVING
This ability can make the ATTACK POWER of all types of attacks only half. And this ability is very rare in monsters. So far there are only 3 monsters that have the HALVING ability, and 2 of them are Melee Attack types.
Of the 2 Melee monsters, there is no ability that supports them to attack in positions other than the first position (SNEAK or OPPORTUNITY). So in order for them to help the attack and weaken the Attack power of the opponent's TANK, we need monsters with FLANK ability to fill the first position and HALVING monsters in the second position.
GIANT KILLER
If you are in a battle with a large Manacap, chances are that your opponent (and yourself) will choose a monster with high Mana (10 or more) to act as a TANK. Then it would be better to bring a monster with the GIANT KILLER ability and place it behind a monster with the FLANK ability to help defeat the opponent's TANK monster faster.
LOOKOUT
| Ability explanation | My Thought |
|---|---|
| Lookout - A unit with this ability results in adjacent allies taking one less damage from attackers with Sneak, Snipe, and Opportunity. Give your team a heads-up when stalkers approach from the shadows. It's always a good idea to have a Lookout! | I don't have a clear depiction of this ability. My opinion about Lookout is nothing but that this ability will be useful in the low Manacap, LITTLE LEAGUE Ruleset, or if it is in the BRONZE League (Where the ATTACK POWER of most monsters is not too big). |
In my previous statement, I still don't understand the LOOKOUT ability. But now I can explain a little about this ability. LOOKOUT ability is like a "warning " to monsters that are the target of attacks from monsters with SNEAK, SNIPE, or OPPORTUNITY ability so that they can "dodge " the attack first. So that they (the target of the attack) will only take 1 point less damage than without carrying a monster with the LOOKOUT ability.
CONs
The disadvantage of this ability if seen from the official explanation is that attacks from monsters with SCATTER SHOT ability cannot be anticipated by LOOKOUT ability (maybe because their attacks are random and unpredictable so monsters with LOOKOUT ability cannot predict their attack targets in each round).
So, when encountering an opponent who uses the SCATTER SHOT ability (especially using Conqueror Jacek as the summoner) it is not recommended to use the LOOKOUT ability.
DOUBT #1
"If a monster with the TAUNT ability is placed near a monster with the LOOKOUT ability, will the damage it (TAUNT monster) takes from all attacks of the opposing monster be reduced by 1 point? or does it only happen when a monster with the SNEAK, SNIPE, OPPORTUNITY ability attacks it?"
When I imagined the combination of LOOKOUT and TAUNT abilities, this question immediately arose.
If all attacks (including those from monsters with SNEAK, SNIPE, and OPPORTUNITY abilities), then this LOOKOUT ability will greatly help monsters with TAUNT abilities to survive longer in the battle arena.
But if only attacks from monsters with SNEAK, SNIPE, and OPPORTUNITY abilities can be reduced in impact. It would be a little less efficient to carry the TAUNT-LOOKOUT ability when your opponent only carries 1 monster that has one of those 3 abilities.
DOUBT #2
Continuing DOUBT #1, there are 2 TAUNT monsters that have the FORCEFIELD ability. This ability will reduce the impact of attacks from monsters that have an ATTACK POWER of 5 points and more.
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What happens when a monster's TAUNT near a monster's LOOKOUT gets attacked by a monster with high ATTACK POWER?
If the LOOKOUT ability is activated first, then when the TAUNT monster is hit by a monster with ATTACK POWER 5 Points, it will take 4 Points of damage and FORCEFIELD fails to activate.
If the FORCEFIELD ability activates first, then all attacks from monsters with Attack power 5 or more that the monster's TAUNT receives will be 1 point and LOOKOUT fails to activate (or if it is possible to activate the effect of LOOKOUT, then the monster's TAUNT will take no damage at all).
Alternative Options for TAUNT
There are still some questions when combining a monster's LOOKOUT with a monster's TAUNT, so I'm reminded that there's an alternative to a monster's TAUNT that can make your opponent's monster attacks focus on a single monster.
By using Lily Shieldpaw, the opponent's attack can only be aimed at the monster in the first position. Meanwhile, the other monsters will "hide " with the CAMOUFLAGE ability. By placing the LOOKOUT monster in the second position, every attack received by TANK (the monster in the first position) will be reduced by 1 point.
Those are the kinds of things I discussed in this Social Media Challenge. Thank you for reading to the end and see you in other discussions in next week's Social Media Challenge.
For those of you who are curious and want to experience how fierce the battles are in the Modern League but haven't joined Splinterlands yet, you can use THIS LINK.
Link to this week's Social media Challenge (Here)