A Chaos Legion Summoners Tier List

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(Edited)

Splinterlands team released most Chaos Legion cards details. I paid special attention to the six new Summoners and tried to rank them. If you hate spoilers, better to close this article now!

Methodology

I used cards details released on official Splinterlands channels and checked the following criteria for each Summoner:

  • Strength: is the card able to make a difference on its own? How easy is it to counter it? Is it relevant with most rulesets
  • Unicity: are there better alternatives among previous Summoners?
  • Originality: is the Summoner filling a gap on its faction?

Caveat: cards stats are not final and I didn't find all of them. Moreover, at least six new Summoners will be airdropped after the set release. The exercise is speculative and I will happily do a follow-up when the meta is stabilised!

VI. Obsidian

Stats: 4 mana, +1 magic attack, Earth
Ranking: Poor
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Obsidian isn't particularly great. His bonus is directly cancelled or weakened by two rulesets (weak magic, lost magic) and countered by three Summoners (Bortus, Thaddius Brood and Owster). Earth has however cheap magic attackers, and Obsidian could be a more expensive Alric during fights with high mana cap.

V. General Sloan

Stats: 4 mana, +1 ranged attack, Life
Ranking: Poor
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Sloan shares most Obsidian downsides: the card is cancelled by one ruleset (broken arrows) and three Summoners (Contessa, Mimosa, The Peakrider). Worse, a more versatile and cheaper alternative exists: Selenia. The General is however the first Life Summoner with an offensive skillset and it's great to see the faction becoming more aggressive.

IV. Kelya Frendul

Stats: 4 mana, +2 armor, Water
Ranking: Fair
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Water has great offensive and defensive Summoners but Kelya is an interesting case. If you played Life, you already know that stacking armor is a proven strategy. Adding two armor points can quickly go out of control if you throw in the Wavesmith, a Crustacean King or the armored up ruleset. The card can however be cancelled by one modifier (unprotected) and the Wizard of Eastwood. Kelya is comparatively weaker than the next Summoners and will weaken the current Water Magic meta.

III. Tarsa

Stats: 4 mana, +1 melee attack, +1 speed, Fire
Ranking: Good
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Tarsa is one of the first Summoner with two bonuses for 4 mana. She's basically a fusion of Pyre and Malric Inferno. Fire melee was a viable archetype since Splinterlands early days and will probably stay relevant for a while. Sure, Tarsa is a liability during fights with reverse speed and keep your distance rulesets. But she will add a lot of value on most fire setups.

II. Quix The Devious

Stats: 4 mana, -1 ranged attack, -1 speed, Dragon
Ranking: Good
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The first legendary Summoner of the set! Quix is a powerful debuffer, useful in most cases. The speed debuff can stake easily and it's interesting to see a new defensive dragon. Like Tarsa, there are fights making Quix useless or dangerous but I bet it will find its place.

I. Thaddius Brood

Stats: 4 mana, -1 magic attack, -1 life, Death
Ranking: Excellent
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Based on Summoners stats alone, Thaddius is my favourite addition so far. Death has several options to counter magic teams but Thaddius has the particularity to be relevant during all fights thanks to its life debuff. I see him as a cheaper Crypt Mancer, maybe better than him (Crypt Mancer speed debuff is risky during reverse speed fights and 5 mana isn't that easy to spend). A single card isn't enough to define a meta and we will have surprises, but I will definitely max a Thaddius ASAP.

I hope you liked that tier list and feel free to comment with your own ranking! And follow the Wax Street community for more content!

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13 comments
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I don't agree at all with your ranking, Kelya is objectively the worse summoner by far (have you seen the number of cards with Rust in this set ? Do you know that Lir already exists and that he is already "meh" ?) and Tarsa is the best BY REALLY FAR, I don't know how you could have come to the conclusion that 2 debuffs cards could be better than a massive +1 attack/+1 speed (it's litteraly as the same power level than Plado but it's a rare card, not a legendary !), we know since long time that debuffs are worse than buffs, and it's even more the case with Thaddius when you consider that Owster and Mimosa already exists and are better anti-magic options than him.

Also Obsidian is just strong, Earth splinter have lot of solid magic cards, and 1 mana is not so much compared to Alric (and we when we consider that Alric is by far the best 3 mana summoner, we can imagine that this card will also be good).

Even Sloan is not that bad, yes of course Selenia exists but not in modern. I think Lorna will still be a better option most of time but some new cards like Pelacor Arbalest or Prismologist are such strong with him, it's definetvely a better card than the crappy blue summoner.

Finally, the only thing I can agree with you is Quix, speed debuff is the best debuff possible because it will be always usefull (except reverse speed ofc) and better than health debuff (because speed is far more valuable than health). And archery debuff is not excellent but it's also a fine addition. It seems to be a good card to challenge Yodin.

So, my ranking would be : Tarsa > Quix > Obsidian > Thaddius > Sloan > Kelya

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(Edited)

Thanks for your detailed answer! It's great to disagree, especially since Splinterlands leaves room for different approaches. We aren't that far with 2/5 choices in common and wanted to add two things:

  1. Fire melee is an already strong archetype but is countered by armor stacking and Mylord. I expect him to be still to be meta and great for fights under 16 or with some rulesets. At 16-17, a Llama + Flesh golem, Kron or even Pelacor Merc or a new card like Grund is a deadly setup and Obsidian can't really compete. It leaves probably a place for Obsidian on fights with a high mana limit. Alric is a strong card because - as you mentioned - Water doesn't have as much Splinters options as Earth if you exclude Valnamor and he was rare enough to not meet him that often. We'll see soon how the matchup Mylord + Llama vs Obsidian is.
  2. Formats won't be splitted immediatly and the impacts on other competitive game modes (brawls + tournaments) is unclear atm. You can make very different rankings depending on the restrictions.
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I'm worried about Tarsa because of Mylor + Amplify. Taking 3 damage per melee attack is gonna be brutal, and it's gonna be everywhere. I'm mentally downgrading any melee card I see because of how common I think this is gonna be.

I'd also nitpick the word "objectively". Nothing about CL is objective yet. Wavesmith is more expensive than the reward epics and has exactly the same buff. I don't often bring rust to a fight because I don't see armor stacking very often. If it becomes meta, rust will be more important, but ATM, it's no so important.

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Nicely done. Appreciate this analysis. One thing, these are Summoners not Splinters. Splinters are Earth, Death, Fire, Water, Life and Dragon.

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(Edited)

Woops, you're absolutely right. I used splinters as a shorthand and am wrong. I edit, thanks a lot.

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(Edited)

Hi there! is fun to review cards before you can actually use them but I really dont agree with your ranking for the summoners.

Tarsa is by far the best and will probably be nerfed before it comes out.

Thaddius in paper seems good but... death splinter already has a lot of way to counter magic attacks. Also if you feel like the opponent will use magic Owster is probably a best option. The card is ok. I think is balanced. Not overpowered but it can be useful.

Quix seems like a pretty strong card just for the -speed wich is pretty valuable.

General Sloan is ok I guess. I just dont see why would you play him when dragon splinter is active and you have selenia to choose from.The fact that all the other life summoners are pretty bad helps this card a lot.

Obsidian Honestly I dont know about this card. In paper seems bad but maybe when we see it in action can be quite good especially against mylor and such. I guess it will depend a lot on the magic cards available for the earth splinter. They only way to know for sure for me will be playing it.

Kelya Frendul This is by far the worst summoner in my opinion. The fact that you can completelly counter him with a 3 mana summoner makes it really bad. I know people are saying "oh but you can make a great combo, you add this, and this and this etc etc"... yeah for sure, you can make a pretty good combo with anything but the card in itself seems underpowered just because is a 4 mana card. If it was a 3 mana card it would be fine. Or even if it was +3 armor.
I mean this card is even worst than drake of arnak. I dont know how anyone can say otherwise. In almost every scenario drake of arnak will be a better choice.

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And stats are changed! Keep in mind nothing is definitive before the release.

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