Hello Splinterlands summoners and welcome back to my blog! I previously wrote about the Escalation common and rare cards shared in this link. We can test the cards in ghost card challenges and tournaments hosted by the team. In today's post, let's cover the epic cards.

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The Epic Units

There are eight epic cards in the Escalation mini set. Instead of tanks and supports like the commons and rares, the epic cards are the middle position damage dealers with support and debuff abilities. As usual, we'll cover them in the order of highest mana.

Lord Alwen Graymane

Lord Alwen is the fattest in this group in terms of mana. He needs eight mana to be fielded in battle. He is a neutral unit so he can be paired with any splinter. He is best placed in the backline where his Amplify ability will increase Thorns damage of units like Oridum Graybow. He will be a good unit in Wands Out rulesets with his Silence ability to decrease the enemy's magic attacks.

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Shiraza

Shiraza is a neutral card with great utility, probably the best card among the epics. He is a seven mana card that deals three magic damage, has five speed and eight health. Aside from his stats, his value comes from his Weapons Training ability. The rare Escalation card comes with a lot of no attack units and they can all be paired with Shiraza to give them magic attacks. Shiraza also has Halving to decrease the attacks of his targets and Phase that works well with his speed to dodge magic attacks.

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Obsidian Dreadcore

The Obsidian Dreadcore is a monster damage dealer with six melee attack. He also has three speed and five health. He can attack with melee from afar with his Charge ability. His Determined ability raises the chances that his attack will hit his target. He also has a couple of debuff abilities against melee enemy units. Demoralize decreases enemy melee attacks by one while Enfeeble substracts his targets melee attack by one each time he hits it.

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Sable Dustpaw

Sable Dustpaw is one of the three mana card in this group. She is an Earth splinter card that deals two magic damage, has seven health and three speed. She has the Decoy ability to attract attacks by units with Opportunity, Snipe and Apex Strike. She also has a good defensive ability, Reflexes that enable her to dodge subsequent attacks after an initial successful attack by an enemy. Being a Canisan bloodline, she gains the Poison ability from legendary archon Loving the Moo.

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Saltwraith Corsair

Saltwraithe Corsair is another three melee card. She is a Water splinter unit that deals three range damage, has five health and three speed. I don't find much use to her abilities though in regular battles. They can be useful in certain situations so I don't find much utility in her other than in low mana battles. She will have the Inspire ability if used with the legendary archon, Captain Frankie.

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Vextali

Vextali is a Death card that is also low mana. She deals two range damage, has three speed, three armor and six health. Similar to Saltwraith Corsair, her abilities are situational at best. I think she can be placed in the rear and counter range units with Sneak ability like Aranduriel and Bren Palesworn with her Return Fire ability. Being a Goblin, she can be summoned by the new Conflicts archon, HANV where she can gain Deflect ability.

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Snippet

Snippet is a Life splinter, three mana card. He deals three melee damage and has three speed. He has decent defense of one armor and four health. He has Sneak ability that allows him to attack with melee from afar. He also has Bloodline Tribute, making him a possible sacrifice to raise the stats of other Mundane Beasts.

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Tazagantha

Tazagantha is a Fire card that deals two range damage, has one armor, four health and five speed. She has a Bloodlust ability common among gladiator cards. She also has Close Range ability, enabling her to attack with range from first position. She will be a good unit in Going the Distance ruleset where only range units can be summoned.

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Final Thoughts

The epic units provide us with choices for mid position damage dealers and support units. They also bring new strategies and synergies in team building. I particularly like Shiraza, a neutral unit that can be paired with the rare no attack units covered in my previous post while Dreadcore gives us a low mana card with insane attacking power. In my next post, we'll check out the legendary cards!

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Come Play Splinterlands!

Start your Splinterlands adventure today with my referral. You can play the game for free in the Frontier Mode or take your game to the next level by purchasing a spellbook. Buying a spellbook allows you to earn SPS tokens and use the market to sell in game assets. Also, we will both get 500 Credits which can be used top purchase cards once you buy a spellbook.