Welcome back, friends! 😄
It’s been a little while since I’ve done a deep dive into one of the game’s abilities, but I’m back at it—and this week we’re turning the spotlight on the Slow ability.
If you’ve been following this series, you already know how much I value speed in Splinterlands. Honestly, I still believe it’s one of the most powerful elements of strategy in the entire game.
Just a quick refresher on why speed matters so much:
Attack order - Each Unit has different attacks, speed, rarity, and level, so each Unit will have a hierarchy based on its current modifier. When Reverse Speed is present, the order is reversed.
Attack accuracy - All Units start with 100% attack accuracy, but when a unit attacks, there is a chance that the attack will miss depending on certain variables applied by Unit's abilities and summoner's buffs/debuff.
Here’s a handy little chart to summarize it all:
Alright, enough warm-up—let’s dive into what the Slow ability actually does, how it works, and where it can completely change the course of a battle.
-1 speed to all enemy units.
Notes:
Official ability information from splinterlands: List abilities
Abilities benefits
Swiftness - Combine it with speeding up your own team making it even harder to hit or you may attack even first.
Phase - Now also for magic attackers the miss change applies this increase the usefulness of slow.
Blind/Dodge/Flying - I like to combine it with unit that one of these abilities so it has a increased change of miss.
Be aware of abilities
Magic attack - Even that slow can help attack before you opponent attacks with magic it will not increase the miss change unless you bring phase 
with you
Immunity - If your opponent plays a unit with immunity, Slow will not impact them.
Ruleset benefits
Lost Magic - When there is no magic unit slow will impact all players on attack order and accuracy.
Be aware of ruleset
Aim True - All unit will hit so slow will have less impact on attack accuracy but still on attack order.
Reverse Speed - When this ruleset is in the mix slow will help you opponent attack quicker. So you might want to avoid this ability.
Mine unit with the slow ability:
For me it was a easy decision before i look at the stats i already had Baakjira in mind. The slow is great and combined with the heal a real beast of a tank.
Normally you would hide a slow unit so its not targeted. Because when it is killed the opponent will get the speed back again. But with Baakjira its different it has already enough health and the heal it often very resilliant.
The stat also show that is my most selected slow unit.
Not only because the slow but since rebellion with the weapon training ability is so powerful in combination with Kulu Mastermind.
Here are the specific stats of my Baakjira:
High mana game, with these i like to bring out strong units like Baakjira boosted by Kulu mastermind. In combination with the opportunity i can place it anywhere.
Noxious Fumes:
All unit are poisoned at the start of the game. This can be cleansed or ignored with imunity. Sometime enough health with healing can do the trick also
Equal Opportunity:
All unit have the opportunity ability. Meaning that melee unit can attack from any position.
What Doesn't Kill You:
All unit gain the enrage ability. If it wounded it gain +50% attack and speed.
| Card | Reason |
|---|---|
 | Still going string with the extra health just a small benefit on Kelya and this way i can play my favorite water units. |
| #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  | |  |
Arkemis the Bear (lvl 7)
Heavy health unit in the front that can half the damage of my opponent with the halving ability.
It will not be targeted but when its attacked by a unit with 5 or more attack it reduced the damage to 1.
Coastal Sentry (lvl 10)
It can attack from this position (equal opportunity) and hitting with 10 damage every round. One right is that is does not have much health and will be targeted quickly
Noa the Just (lvl 6)
The high speed is important for this unit in the hope my opponent misses often. It will be boosted by Kulu mastermind and can attack from this position (equal opportunity)
Kulu Mastermind (lvl 4)
Important unit in this strategy for its weapons training ability. So often combined to boost the already mighty Baakjira.
Baakjira (lvl 4)
Here it is the star of this week. Not in the normal position (often its in the front). Here it can attack with 3 damage targeting the weaker unit. When sneak unit are used it will attack even with equal opportunity, so it also protecting the backline
Coeurl Lurker (lvl 2)
A taunt unit that will lure all the attack towards itself. The high speed in combination with dodge and phase we hope on some misses here also.
Link to the battle:
Link to battle
Start :
Wow, my opponent came in with a solid strategy this time—definitely went all-in on speed, which means they’ll be striking first. That kinda puts a dent in my usual “miss ‘em to death” plan... but I’m not too worried just yet.
One of the reasons? Baakjira. With that massive tankiness and self-heal, it can soak up a lot—even with Scattershot flying around from their ranged unit. Sure, it’s unpredictable, but I’m betting Baakjira can handle the pressure.
Also, gotta give it to Drybone Raider. That 4 attack hits hard, and thanks to the Equal Opportunity ruleset, it’s able to launch attacks right out of the gate from wherever it is.
Let’s see how this one plays out...
Round 1:
Kicking off with a pretty intense first round! A few of my attacks missed, which definitely hurt—those backfires are never fun. My opponent had a Martyr unit that got picked off early, which ended up boosting two nearby units. Not ideal for me.
The good news? All my units are still standing, so no losses yet.
The bad news? Coeurl Lurker took a serious beating and is hanging on by a thread. If it goes down next round, I might be in trouble...
Round 2:
Totally forgot about the Poison effect kicking in—and wow, it hit hard! Took out two units right at the start: my Coeurl Lurker and their Tenyii Striker. Brutal trades on both sides.
But after that? The round turned into a total massacre. Even with a few misses my squad cleaned house.
By the end of the round, my opponent’s down to just two units, while I’ve still got five standing strong. It’s looking like GG at this point.
Arkemis the Bear is still hanging on, but with that low health, it’s not really a threat anymore.
Round 3:
Another reminder of why speed matters—but this time, it actually worked in my opponent’s favor. Arkemis the Bear has a whopping 9 speed, and that caused me to miss a few crucial hits. Honestly, that’s the only reason we even got a Round 3.
On top of that, my heavy hitters are getting nerfed hard by Forcefield, dropping from 9 attack down to just 1. Talk about frustrating!
Still, I’m not worried. The win is basically locked in—it’s just taking longer than expected to finish the job.
Round 4:
And there it is—the final push! Got a little extra help from Poison, and that sealed the deal. Game over.
This match was a great example of how you don’t always need Cleanse or Immunity to deal with Poison—sometimes you can just out-heal it with a beast like Baakjira holding the back line.
And while this post was all about the Slow ability, the battle really showed how critical speed is in general. Whether it’s helping you hit first, dodge attacks, or control the pace of the fight—speed wins games.
Slow can flip the script too. It might not always look flashy, but knocking enemy speed down just enough can be the difference between a clean hit… or another hilarious miss. 😂. In this match definitely needed to bring the massive speed bonus of my opponent down.
Below you will find references to the other ability strategies / analysis posts.
That's all for this week hope you enjoyed reading this ability strategy/analysis. See you all on the battlefield.
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Affliction
Amplify
Backfire
Blast
Bloodlust
Camouflage
Conscript
Close Range
Cleanse
Cripple
Deathblow
Demoralize
Dispel
Divine Shield
Double Strike
Enrage
Forcefield
Fury
Giant Killer
Halving
Headwinds
Heal
Tank Heal
Inspire
Knock Out
Last Stand
Life Leech
Magic Reflect
Martyr
Opportunity
Oppress
Piercing
Poison
Protect
Reach
Recharge
Redemption
Reflection Shield
Repair
Resurrect
Retaliate
Return Fire
Rust
Scattershot
Scavenger
Shatter
Shield
Silence
Slow