Hello there! @saydie here, playing Splinterlands everyday!
With the release of the new Conclave Arcana Rewards, the game's modern meta has been slowly evolving once again, as these new cards provide new synergies with the cards that we already have. I say slowly because most of the players do not have them at the level appropriate with the league that they are playing in, and thus, they do not yet have the stats and abilities of the cards. That said, when used at the right moment, even these under-leveled rewards can still provide good assistance for us to break through certain situations and carry us to victory.
At least, that was the case when I used Thornmaw Berserker that prevented my opponent team to trigger any abilities that only activates when the opponent was defeated with Final Rest, and that will be my main topic for this week's Community Engagement Challenge.
Thornmaw Berserker
| Edition |  Conclave Arcana (Reward) |
|---|---|
| Mana Cost | 11 |
| Element |  Death |
| Bloodline | Avian |
| Rarity | Common |
| Max Armor | 4  |
| Max Health | 9  |
| Max Speed | 4  |
| Max Damage | 3  |
| Abilities/Debilitations | Lvl 1 -  Lvl 4 -  Magic ReflectLvl 8 -  Life LeechLvl 10 -  Charge |
Thornmaw Berserker is a common melee unit from the Death element that has the Avian Bloodline, and is one of the new Conclave Arcana Rewards that has the Final Rest ability only at level 1. Its effects are that both allied and enemy units with abilities that can only activate during death will not activate, such as Bloodlust, Redemption, Scavenger, Martyr, Resurrect, Rebirth, Trample, Bloodline Tribute, Soul Siphon, Poison Burst, and Resurgence. With these many abilities being nullified by Final Rest, make Thornmaw Berserker a really good card even at level 1, and in the battle that I'm about to show, it was able to prevent my opponent from triggering its Bloodline Tribute ability that increases the stats of units with the same bloodline, avoiding a situation where my opponent gets stronger.
Battlefield Rulesets
Rulesets are the modifiers that change how a player will build their lineup with the cards at their disposal. In the match that I am about to share, there is only the Standard ruleset, meaning no change for the gameplay rules with a 45 mana cap and only Fire and Death elements playable.
 Standard | No modifications to the standard gameplay rules and mechanics. |
My Lineup
With the Archon Cryptic, I get the means to give Poison and Expose ability on 2 units, and at the same time, the -1 speed is nice so that I can attack much faster, and the Blind increases my chance to dodge opponent attacks.
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In this battle, I had Grimbardun Smith as my main tank, cause while it does not have any damage, it has both the Shield and Void ability that reduces the attack from melee, range and magic attacks by half, and it has Immunity, so it will not get debuffs from the opponent, then I had Arachne Weaver to provide it with healing.
I do not really have a main attacker, since most of the opponent's unit has Void and armor but my card with the Strongest damage was Meriput Slinger, placed in the last position with the tactics abilities given to it, same with Baron Fyatt next to it, and can attack random targets with Scattershot.
Dark Arborist on the 3,sup>rd position helps a little by reducing my opponent's melee damage, and while Thornmaw Berserker cannot attack yet since it is still low level to acquire Charge, its Final Rest is more than enough to suppress the Bloodline Tribute of Swiftbeard Stout.
Battle Showcase
With no ruleset modifiers affecting the battle, the result of the match relies on which has the better lineup, and at first, it may seem that my opponent has the upper hand since my first and second position units cannot attack, while the 3 magic units I had have been nerfed of their magic damage. The only one with decent damage was Meriput Slinger, but before it can inflict damage, it will need to go through the opponent's armor first.
In round 1, it definitely seems like I will lose the battle with my Grimbardun Smith, only having 3 health remaining, while the opponent team did not take any damage, aside from Swiftbeard Stout being poisoned and Blazebeard Merc getting its damage cut with Halving.
But then during round 2, both Swiftbeard Stout and Blazebeard Merc gets the Burning debilitation, resulting in them losing 2 health along with the Poison on Swiftbeard Stout for another 2 health loss, resulting in its faster defeat. And because I have Swiftbeard Stout, the opponent was not able to activate its Bloodline Tribute ability.
Fast forward to round 10, the opponent team finally gives in with Molten Elemental, dying from Poison. Meanwhile, the rest of my team did not take any damage aside from Grimbardun Smith, which got its max health reduced to 5 as a side effect of Corrupted Healing. But it is clear that Thornmaw Berserker plays an important role in the outcome of the battle. If not for it, the opponent team will get additional damage, which makes it more likely that they can defeat Grimbardun Smith then the rest of my team will follow through.
Closing
And that was how I was able to go against my opponent's strong lineup, by preventing them from using one of their abilities, using one of the new reward cards. Well, the lesson here is to never underestimate cards just because they are still low-level. As long as you use them at the right moment, they can become a big help in achieving victory. That said, knowing what Thornmaw Berserker can do even at a low level, I now really want to max this card ASAP.
Thank you, and see you on the next post!
Splinterlands Free Assets
This were assets that I edited using Adobe Photoshop and more of this assets were available in this post for anyone who likes to use them.
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Thanks for sharing! - @rehan12
