Documenting my Splinterlands Knowledge - Rebellion Reward Cards Review: Epics Part 2

Hello there.

In my last post I reviewed the Epic reward cards with debilitations. For this one, I will be talking about the rest of the Epic reward cards. I will be going over the Earth, Life, Death, and Dragon monsters. Epic monsters are a bit harder to come by, and sometimes can be even harder to max compared to Legendary monsters. That is because potions don't increase the chance of Epics appearing compared to Legendary monsters, and they have a low chance too. That is why the rarity draws are really good for those players wanting to max their cards. From the first part, I saw that the Epic cards had insane stats to counterbalance their debilitations. I am curious how the rest stack up as well. Let's get to it.

Thanalorian Blade

Thanalorian Blade is a 6 cost Earth monster. It has the Opportunity ability at level 1, gets Execute at level 2, Lookout at level 3, and Trample at max level. At 6 mana with just 2 melee damage and opportunity at level 1, it is a bit weak and costly for what it brings to the table. Getting Execute increases its viability a lot though. When an enemy is attacked by a monster with execute, if the enemy has 2 or less HP after, the attacker performs another attack to try and execute it. Execute only triggers once. Since Opportunity targets those with the lowest HP when possible, there is already a high chance that it can trigger its execute ability early on. The lookout is also a good addition since there are a lot more monsters with backline access that it can counter.

I think this is one of the monsters where trying to get the max level of the card is good, since Trample is a good addition to the current skillset. Both execute and trample can trigger off of each other. If the first attack kills the enemy and triggers trample, if the trample attack lowers the enemy's life to two or less, then execute will kick in. Similarly, if the first attack puts the enemy to two or less HP and execute kills the enemy, then trample will trigger off of that kill and will perform another attack. Earth doesn't have a lot of melee Sneak and Opportunity monsters, so it can be hard to build around it. Its best summoner to pair with is Underboss Fabino and can work well with Grund and Thane. It is a bit unfortunate that it is countered by Tofu. I think it is a really strong card especially at max level, and can wreak havoc on the backline. If the team is trying to improve the backline attack strategy of Earth, this is a good start.

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Olivia of the Brook

Olivia of the Brook is a 6 cost Life monster. It has a magic and melee attack, and Opportunity at level 1. It gets Mimic at level 2, and Reflection Shield at max level. Mimic lets Olivia copy an opponent's ability each turn, and has a 25 percent chance to copy an attacker's ability. There are some abilities that can't be copied like debilitations and other targeting abilities to give an example. In my last post, I said the Halfling Refugee is the best card in the Rebellion reward cards so far, but Olivia might be the strongest. I think the double attack type partnered with Opportunity is already really strong, but the mimic pushes it over the top. I have seen people share screenshots of Olivia having 3 rows of abilities. Its potential is only limited by the opponent's team; and dispel. But dispel isn't even that big of a deal since it only removes 1 ability and not all.

Olivia is a win condition all on its own once it gets mimic. It can be a bit squishy, but if it gets abilities like heal and scavenger or life leech, then it can easily become unkillable. Since it can even mimic Bloodlust, it can become a better version of Quora. It can work well with Rathe to help it survive longer, but it can really work with almost all summoners since it can just get a lot of abilities over time. Olivia currently has the highest potential among all Splinterlands cards, and is obviously a must have. I don't even know if they plan on putting mimic on other monsters in the future just from how strong it is.

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Arachne Weaver

Arachne Weaver is a 5 cost Death monster. It has 2 damage and Corrupted Healing at level 1, gets Scavenger at level 3, and Poison at max level. Apart from the abilities, it only gets HP as it levels up. Corrupted Healing heals all other allies 70 percent of their HP each turn, rounded down. Anyone healed by this gets its max HP lowered by 1. So it is like a mass heal and cripple in one. Death finally gets its own Healer, and it is a very powerful one at that. 70 percent healing and to the whole team [except itself] is incredible, and the only downside is 1 less max HP. This already makes it very good in the Noxious Fumes ruleset. Death also has a lot of monsters with Scavenger and life leech, so the -1 max HP isn't even that bad. Since the -1 max HP isn't a debuff like cripple, it will still work on Immune monsters.

Like a lot of healers, this card can work with a lot of different summoners and teams. While it doesn't heal itself, the Scavenger can hopefully keep it in the game long enough, and the Poison can make up for its low damage. But even without the poison and its low damage, the insane heal just too good. Blast damage and ruleset is less of a problem now, and monsters like Pelacor Deceiver and Harklaw are even more difficult to kill now. I think getting the scavenger at level 3 can be enough in a lot of instances.

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Night Reaper

Night Reaper is an 11 cost Dragon monster. It has Flying and Wingbreak at level 1, gets Reflection Shield at level 3, and Last Stand at max level. Wingbreak gives the monster +2 damage when attack enemies with Flying, and makes it always attack Flying monsters no matter the position, ruleset, or abilities [except back to basics]. If the Night Reaper is in the first position during fog of war, and the opponent has one flying monster in the last position, and a Taunt monster in the first position, the Night Reaper will still attack the flying monster at the back because of Wingbreak. I gave a review of this card a while back, and I still stand by my statement that this is one of the most fun cards available in the set. It attacking the backline Flying monster even in the first position will always be fun and never get old.

I always try to use it during the Earthquake ruleset. Seeing it kill the Chaos Dragon in two turns is always a treat. The Reflection Shield lets it be a good tank in the second position, or next to a taunt monster. The Last Stand is interesting since it has good stats, but the lack of sustain is a bit of a shame. I guess it will thrive with Kitty in Wild though. Because of the high mana cost, it can be difficult to use all the time. I do risk it from time to time in high mana battles when I think the opponent can use Agor and Chaos Dragon. It can be a high risk monster to use though. If the opponent didn't use any flying monsters, then it just becomes a high cost monster with ok damage.

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Final Thoughts

While the stats of these Epic monsters aren't as high as the ones in part 1, their abilities are very strong, interesting and fun. I think getting Olivia and Thanalorian to level 2 is important, and getting the others to level 3 is ideal. The overall strength of the Rebellion reward cards are high, and I can see a lot of powercreep happening. With that being said, I think the Epic monsters are a bit of a step above and will easily slot in to a lot of teams because of how strong they are.

This wraps up my review of the epic Rebellion reward cards. I don't have any legendary cards yet, but I will still share my thoughts on them for my next post. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for improvement.

And as always, these are Not Financial Advice, and Do Your Own Research.

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