Given all the focus on Rebellion and the new Modern format, the value of Untamed has gone down a lot in the last few months. My intentions are to stay with @splinterlands for a VERY long time, so I want to continue expanding my collection and may in the future play in Wild, where I'll need Untamed cards to be at the highest levels of competition. In this series of posts I will look at Untamed cards that may be synergistic with Rebellion cards and may be worth sniping while Untamed is largely being ignored. And in the first edition, I'll focus on the LIFE Splinter.
Untamed x Rebellion Synergies - Life Splinter
No-attack cards
Warrior of Peace and Truthspeaker are the two no-attack cards in the Untamed Life Splinter.
Truthspeaker is an essential card. Protect synergizes well with Mantaroth's Armored Strike, and with Silverblade Fighter due to his Void Armor and also because he's frequently at the front, with a damage dealer right behind him (e.g. Mantaroth or Jared Scar). The cleanse/tank heal combo makes her even more powerful as she can keep your tank (e.g. Silverblade Fighter) alive while quietly sitting in the back. Stick her next to a weapon trainer and she'll even be able to deal some damage. Another thought would be to use Prunda (the Life/Water summoner) and then pair Truthspeaker with Daarg, though the addition of Anasth Soothsayer makes her cleanse/heal a bit redundant for Water. In any case, Truthspeaker will be a force to be reckoned with when paired with Rebellion.
Warrior of Peace is only exciting for Weapon Trainer scenarios. Speaking specifically of Rebellion, he'll be an interesting play with Rage (giving him 3 magic attack to go along with his range of debuffs). He's a good tank and debuffer, but given the slew of other support units in Life he'll get less usage.
Melee cards
Next let's look at Life's melee cards and how they synergize with Rebellion.
Shieldbearer, a staple of the Untamed era, loses a bit of his value with the introduction of Bera, however they'll likely each find their place in the future of Wild. Using the two of them together in melee-only rulesets, with some repair, could be interesting. Runeseer Sevaya is a nice pairing with heavy tanks like Shieldbearer, with the extra protect and cleanse.
Kralus, one of the best cards in the game due to its Immunity and self-heal, could be one of the only cards you'd want to use Avina's +2 speed on (instead of adding a self-heal, since Kralus already has that). Kralus will also pair nicely with Anachron Bolter and Meriput Magician for extra survivability (e.g. with Lily as the summoner, putting the focus fire on Kralus).
At the moment I can't find other strong synergies with Rebellion for melee Untamed cards.
Magic cards
Next up: Magic.
Bila could be interesting with a self-heal given her Life Leech, but there's not a whole lot else there.
Darius is also an interesting one simply because of the Resurrect, which is just very strong in general and can be used in combination with Goff and Adelade to triple-revive Iziar and mega-buff someone like Mantaroth in the front.
Lunakari Mistress is interesting because of Oppress, which gains utility due to the existence of Grim Smith. Problem is that her Cripple won't do anything to him, and she's redundant with Magi of Chaos who costs the same and is neutral. But in theory if you KNEW you were going up against Grim Smith and that there wouldn't be a ton of Silence (i.e. not facing Earth or Death), then you could try to play them both together to try to snipe Grim Smith. A lot of ifs.
Ranged cards
Next we have 7 cards to look at from the Untamed edition.
Lone Boatman immediately stands out thanks to the Repair & Shatter (synergy AND counter for Mantaroth, Grim Smith, and Silverblade Fighter). Silvershield Sheriff a tad less so with his Pierce and Protect (and he's also way more costly in mana).
Hero of Beyond is an interesting choice. Consider a low mana (12-15) ranged-only ruleset and stick Hero of Beyond with Avina giving him a self-heal... If it's 15, stick a rat in front of the Hero and he'll surely be heroic... And if there's a slightly higher mana cap you could stick him in the front and have Anachron Bolter in the back to give him repair.
Evangelist might get a little usage inspiring the likes of Mantaroth while reducing the enemy's armor. Lensmaster could get a tiny bit of usage just for his shatter, which is fairly good value for 1 mana against an armor-heavy Rebellion set.
Summoners
Lastly, let's look at the Untamed Life summoners and see how they synergize with Rebellion.
Not much to say about Mother Khala. She'll likely never get used with the 3-mana dual summoners, unless it's a Life-only little league (and even then, Lorna will probably shine... see what I did there?).
Lorna's great, but not sure she shines too much with Rebellion (did it again!). She'll give a little extra survivability, but in my experience games with Rebellion tend to last a little bit longer (wonder if there's data on that) and so the initial value of having a Divine Shield on everyone may not be worth it. In many cases it's a battle of attrition, and after the shield wears off the lack of other benefits may show.
Chanseus is likely to be great with the Rebellion (and again!! 🤣). Repair, as we've established several times by now, synergizes very well with many Rebellion cards, including the power-duo of Grim Smith and Mantaroth. Whether he's a better pick than Avina will be situational. He'll pair tremendously well with Bera, especially if you stick her in the back allowing her to benefit from Chanseus's Triage. He'll be a force to be reckoned with in melee-only rulesets with the support of Rebellion cards, as well as in weak magic rulesets where you can stack Anachron Bolter's Repair on top of Chanseus's.
Conclusion
I think there are several strong synergies between the Untamed Life set and Rebellion. In my opinion the strongest ones are Truthspeaker, Chanseus, Lone Boatman, and (more situationally) Hero of Beyond is a fun one as well.
What do you think? Did I forget any important synergies?
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