Prologue
The Legionnaire is a card that I barely ever play. There are not many occasions besides the Ranged-Only rule set. But just the other day, I found the perfect combination of rules to try my luck and see if Bravetofu is right with putting the Legionnaire in D/F Tier - check out his awesome rating-post about all the Rebellion-Reward-Cards: Click me!
With 8 Mana a costly card, the Leggionaire starts out with Close Range. It gains thorns at level 2 and Void at level 4 - this is good for a tank, but still costly. At level 8, it finally gains Bloodlust.
Bravetofu wrote:
This guy's in the same group as the Chieftain, i.e. it's not sure what it wants to be. Anti melee? Anti magic? Void makes no sense in this kit. 2 Ranged damage also doesn't do much, and even if it gets a Bloodlust or two, so what? would 4 ranged damage really make a difference? If the Void was a Piercing, maybe. But with this kit, there's just way better choices for 8 mana.
Answer: Yes to all of them! The damage is the only thing that really doesn't work out. One has to be lucky to really make a kill with only 2 damage, but once that's done, it can go rolling, as I will show.
Also, it can get extra kills with Thorns. If you use it with Amplify, that's even more likely. Click here for more information about that kind of combos.
Let's go! Click here for the Battle Link
Honestly, I was expecting a magic heavy enemy, because the rule sets are: Equal Opportunity, Rise of the Commons, and Armored up. The extra 2 armor makes it harder for non-magic monsters to get a kill, while the Equal Opportunity makes it easier for magic monsters to get a kill.
My opponent was expecting a Melee-heavy set, using two Demoralize and one Blind monster. Their team is actually quite good - with more magic, it would've been better.
My strategy
Immortalis for protection against magic and shatter. Arkemis is always a great tank, and the Pelacor Mercenary as second tank is solid, too. Then comes the heart of my strategy: the Legionnaire flanked by low health martyr units. The latter are going to be killed first, giving the Legionnaire already a boost to 4 damage. The Peryton in the end is to make sure that there's no armor left (Shatter), as he is faster and hits the enemy first.
Why Legionnaire, and not Gladiator?
Because I don't have a maxed Gladiator-Summoner besides the Matriarch, and Dragon was excluded... 😥
Round 1
It starts way better than expected! Martyr gets killed, and the Legionnaire gets a Bloodlust because even with martyr-bonus, the Mercenary makes only 2 damage to the Disintegrator, leaving it with 1 LP - easy kill.
Round 2
They're down one, I'm down one - but mine is intended. Keep them coming!
The second martyr gets killed right away, giving another boost - now, the Legionnaire has 5 speed as well, just like the Mercenary. But it's Rare, so it gets to go before the Mercenary - and kills the Deeplurker. 6 AP now!
Arkemis gets stunned, the others miss.
Round 3
It's getting exciting! 4 monsters left on either side. Every missed strike can mean bad things now!
The Peryton - Legionnaire combo strikes again, and hard. The Gargoyle goes down, but so does Arkemis. The trample from the Diemonshark provokes a retaliate from the Mercenary, shattering some serious shield (mind the alliteration!), and the Mercenary get's another strike destroying more shield. That's basically all it did so far.
Round 4
Peryton strikes with 4 Damage. The Legionnaire does 7 damage, so the Shield only absorbes 3 - the Skink is history, the legionnaire is in legit beast mode. it gets ALL the kills. Not just one or two, but all of them.
It got that last one, too.
Conclusion
I admit, this was luck. A lot of it. Everything fell into place. But I don't think that the legionnaire is a D/F tier. With this specific combination of rules (and the absence of gladiators), it actually is quite useful. It still provides some Tank quality with Void, and the thorns might help for a kill, too.
I wouldn't but it into B Tier, either, it's not good enough for that. I think it can be a solid C Tier - where I'm playing. Since Bravetofu is usually playing a very, very little higher where everyone plays the card Tofu all the time, the Legionnaire does not make much sense anymore.
Thank you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it at least as much as I enjoyed writing :-D If you have any comments or feedback - please let me know! And don't forget to leave your own posts for me to curate. Thank you very much!
If you don't play the game yet, you can use my referral: Click here for referral :-)