Hello Splinterlands summoners and welcome back to my blog! I previously wrote about the new common cards shared in the discord 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 rare cards. There are twelve rare cards not counting Doldrus, the promo card. I already wrote about a post about the promo cards so I will not include them here.

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The Rare Cards

The rare cards look more balanced. It still has some high mana and high stats cards like the commons but it also has some no attack, support cards including Doldrus. Here they are in order of mana.

Empusan Darkguard

The Empusan Darkguard is a nine mana Earth card. He boasts of five melee attack, three speed, six armor and nine health. Unlike the common cards that play tank with this mana and stats, he can play in the back because of his Opportunity ability. In addition, he has the new ability Shadow Focus that grants plus one attack to all allies in return for losing his own attacking power if he is in the last position. It depends on the situation, but in general, I think it's a waste of his five melee attack.

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Grimshield Hexpriest

Grimshield Hexpriest is a Death splinter card with nine mana. It deals four magic damage and has three speed. On defense he has four armor and seven health. It seems he's a good tank in Wands Out ruleset since he has two abilities that's effective against magic attacks. Counterspell returns magic damage to attacker and Void decreases magic damage received by half.

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Ironcoil Burlwark

Ironcoil Bulwark is a good offensive tank of the Dragon splinter. She deals five melee damage and has five speed. She's beefy with eight armor and eleven health. As a frontline unit, she has good offensive abilities. She gains 50% more power when not in full health and she has Trample that will carry her damage to the next unit if her target gets defeated. She also has Retaliate to counterattack.

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Darkguard Ironwing

Darkguard Ironwing is a support and debuffer unit. It deals two range damage and has seven armor, six health and four speed. It can halve it's target's damage with Halving ability. It's offense is supplemented by Armored Strike ability but since it's a melee attack, its use will depend on rulesets that allow it to attack with melee from afar. It has a support ability, Repair.

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Firebrand Ranger

Fire splinter has a lot of new magic units. This includes the seven mana card, Firebrand Ranger. She deals three magic damage, has three armor, seven health and insanely fast with six speed. It has Snipe abilities that will be a great weapon against enemy range and magic units. It's Painforge ability makes it a good unit in Noxious Fumes or Burning rulesets or combo with units with Incendiary or Electrified units. It can be a good second tank because it has Shield Ward ability that grants Shield to units in front of it.

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Lady Stealthfire

Lady Stealthfire is a great support for tanks and melee units. She has Repair and Inspire abilities that will strengthen the defense of tanks and increase attacks of melee units. Her stats are also good with three range attack, four armor, seven health and three speed. She's can be used by any splinter since she's a neutral unit.

The next cards are no attack, support units.

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Ignited Alchemist

Ignited Alchemist is a five mana Death splinter card. He has six armor, five health and four speed. He's a good unit in Earthquake ruleset since he can fly. I'm not too impressed with Scattershot and Affliction since he has no attack to begin with. You'll need a unit with Weapons Training and be able to hit the correct target for Affliction to work. The combination of Flame Red and Incendiary is a great synergy of abilities though, making him gain one health every round if he is burning.

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Kobold of Burden

Kobold Burden is a Life splinter, five mana card. It has five armor, nine health and three speed. It's Reprisal ability looks situational but other players can probably think of a good strategy with this ability. Swiftness and Resurrect are definitely useful as well as Pinpoint to assist allied sneak attackers.

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Ashveil Tactician

Ashveil Tactician must have been created with Grove Doomblade in Mind. She has Inspire abilities that adds attack to melee units and Pinpoint that ensure that sneak attackers hit their target. She also has Shield Ward that grants Shield ability to units in front of it.

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Earthwork Sentinel

Earthwork Sentinel is a three mana, Earth splinter unit. It has a combination of support and debuff abilities. It has Slow that decreases the enemy's speed. Reveal unmasks enemy's camouflaged units. Its support abilities includes Shield Ward and Triage making it a good combo to cards like Silverleaf Mage who has Taunt ability.

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Drifting Manatee

Drifiting Manatee is a three mana Water card. It has no attack but can be trainable if used with a unit with Weapons Training ability. It has good defensive stats of five armor and seven health though it's speed is lacking. It has Dodge ability that doesn't work well with its speed stat of only one. It has Cleanse Rearguard ability that makes it useful in rulesets like Noxious Fumes. It has Amplify that makes it a good combo to units with Thorns, Return Fire and Magic Reflect abilities and finally, it has Stun ability that will work if you pair it with a unit with Weapons Training.

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Lifeward Channeler

Lifeward Channeler has the lowest mana in the bunch with two. It deals two magic damage and has good defense of six armor and eight health. It has defense against magic attack with Void Armor ability and has a support ability of tank heal. It seems this card is a good choice to tank in Wands Out battle but it has a drawback with Weary debilitation.

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Final Thoughts

That wraps up the rare cards. They are a combination of offensive and support cards that brings new strategies and combos to the game. In my next post, we'll check out the epic 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.