Splinterlands | Rebellion New Card & Ability First Impression!

The new Rebellion set for Splinterlands is about to Release in 12 days. Some of the cards and abilities have already been revealed so it's time to give an initial impression.

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Rebellion Dilemma!

As a player of Splinterlands I'm quite excited to see a new cars set introduced similar to how it was back in the day when I played Hearthstone. However, as an investor it feels like a expense that is simply not worth the opportunity cost. So I really want to play but I'm not willing to spent a ton of money (which is needed to get cards up to Gold Level) just to see the value of the cards drop over time while only earning a small part of it back at the same time seeing the Crypto market (& possibly SPS) explode.

Splinterlands has always been a combination of fun & invetment for me, but the investment part at least when it comes down to cards has pretty much been debunked unless there would be a new crazy adoption phase. This would also mostly benefit older cards at this point which fully have been printed as Rebellion Cards are capped by the pack prices.

So for now i'm keeping myself on the sideline and I will see how big my urge is to potentially get some of these new cards. The main issue when already having a gold collection is that it's impossible to get into Rebellion cheaply and even 200+ packs won't get you anywhere close to what is needed to actually have cards that can be used.

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New Abilities & Changes!

Weapons Training: This is an ability that was introduced with the new reward cards but not that many have been using it mainly because it takes time to level up these cards and few own them at their full power since they are legendaries which are hardest to get. They also require very specific strategies which are not easy to pull off. They now will change it from the no-attack monsters aside from a card with this ability to get half the attack which gets removed the moment the monster with the ability is destroyed. To Getting up to 4 Attack permenetly. The way I see this is as something potentially game braking and ridiculously overpowered to the point where everyone will have to play these cards.

Ambush:

Speed has been the meta for some time now and in order to make it less powerfull, they invented a round 0 where Monster with the Ambush ability are able to attack. I assume when both players have monsters with ambush the one with the higher speed attacks first in round 0.

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Flank:

Another thing that was quite powerful from the Possibilus Legendary Summoner is the ability to give the 2nd card Reach allowing for a double tank line-up. The Flank ability gives the Monster behind it reach from what I understand so it's possible to play this strategy with other splinterls also making Poissibilus less powerful.

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Lookout:

This new ability prevents Monsters that are aside to be hit by monsters using Sneak, Snipe, or Opportunity. This is another reaction ability as having a line-up full of Sneak attack monsters was pretty powerful in the old meta.

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New Card Reviews!

As a player in Gold, I'm looking at them up to gold level and mostly compare it to existing cards measuring if it's not just more cards of it that are printed or if there is too much power creep.

Gobalano Soldier

This is a common Fire Splinter card that at level 8 has 2 Melee Attack, Sneak, Scatter & the new Ambush Ability. The card it best can be compared with (in Wild League) is the Kobold Miner which I consider as a sligh better card especially in very low mana games as it's 2 instead of 3 cost.

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Infernal Firestorm

One of the things that have been done (to sell more packs) is to increase the average mana cap of each game a lot so it was possible to print 14+ Mana cards that players needed to buy in order to stay competitive. The Infernal Firestorm is another high mana tank that can be used in 1st position allowing a 2nd tank behind it. While it has a lot of health, it can be killed as the scatter ability can destroy the shield and it doesn't have any real protection also against Magic attack. This one also feels quite balaced and should be fun in many modern decks.

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Chaos Animator

This is a 3-mana deacth Splinter card that will have to be used with the weapons training ability and monsters with no attack likely will get a big boost in use-case. It's another card that at first sight looks pretty balanced given that a card like Shadow Presence only has a 1 mana cost.

Anasth Soothsayer

This is a rare Water Splinter card with Magic Attack that brings in a lot of support. At level 6 it has 7 health and no dodge ability so its not impossible to kill in 1 round it does offer a lot of support to other monters with the cleanse and Dispel. So this one will have to be used pretty tactically.

Prophet Rosa

This is a rare Water Splinter Summoner which either gives a monster +2 Ranged attack or Shield. If anything I really like the dynamic and believe it will be plenty of fun. on the other hand it feels like Splinterlands going more the route where cards very nich as in 80% of the battles they are weak while in a handul of battles with certain game rules they are unbeatable. This adds to the pay2win dynamics.

Mar Toren Seeker

At level 8, this 4-mana cost card has 7 health, 2 ranged attack and 5 speed with the abilities of Dodge and Phase along with Snipe. This makes it hard to kill but with just 2 attack it doesn't look overpowered.

Moxian Rebel

This is another weapons trainer card and a Neutral one. I can see it useful in battles where a +1 Magic attack summoner is used. The summoner buffs go first so it will get +2 magic attack so the monsters next to if of they have no attack will also get 2 magic attack.

Redwyrm Dragon

This is a Dragon Epic card which has the fly & Immunity abilities that will be useful in battles with eathquake and Noxious Fumes. With only 2 damage it lacks damage output.

Runeseer Sevaya

This is shown as an epic card but it likely is a mistake as it should be a megendary given the levels. It's another support card which looks quite strong giving Cleanse, +2 Armor to all monsters, Blind and Repair at level 3 for a 4 mana cost and the option to get attack through weapons training.

Zeddica

This is a dual element summoner allowing class cards from 2 different splinters to be used without any extra buffs. As an old player of the game this most leans to how the game already was played and this cards tempts me the most to get and have fun with also because Water & Death are 2 of my favorites.

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Conclusion

The way as I see Splinterlands right now is no longer as an investment opportunity (at least not the cards) since there is no reason to believe old cards will ever become really valuable as they simply don't have enough use-case. The new cards sor far at first sight look quite balanced aside from the Weapons Training ability which likely will dominate the new meta. As someone who puts importance of the investment side of things, I am more likely to slowly opt out of Splinterlands during the next adoption even though I still enjoy the game and would love to have all the cards to have fun with them. The time requirement and cost are just way too high at this moment.

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