I've been traveling for the past few weeks, and so I haven't been able to spend as much time as I usually do looking at everything that's going on in Splinterlands. And there has been LOTS going on.
Among other things, the team released the new FRONTIER mode which is completely free to play and introduces a whole new set of Foundation cards to the game. These are the only cards that can be played in Frontier, making it a friendly zone for new players. As someone who plays heavily in Modern, I wanted to see if there are any cards in the Foundation set that I'd be interested in, in their current forms, for Modern.
Now of course, these cards are fundamentally weaker than all other core sets, and are capped at silver league, so in most situations these cards won't be your first pick if you have other sets available and are playing in Modern or Wild. However, there are so many different spots in Splinterlands that even cards that seem underpowered can have their day.
Without further ado, here are 7 cards I could see myself occasionally playing in Modern.
#1. Marlai Singariel
Marlai Singariel, in addition to being a terrific nod in both name & artwork to Marla Singer from Fight Club, is the most interesting Archon from the Foundation set in my opinion. Giving +1 magic makes her reminiscent of the old days where Alric ruled the stage with magic spam. Of course, that simply won't be possible with the other cards available in today's meta, BUT I can see Marlai possibly playing a role in water-only / magic-only rulesets. Add back to basics and that might be Marlai's spot.
The biggest issue for Marlai (and other Foundation Archons) is that she's limited to Silver league, which means she won't be able to summon units higher than Silver level. That'll be a major drawback in higher leagues.
#2. Saltwater Mage
The Saltwater Mage not only pairs well with Marlai as a Magic unit, but it has the awesome Sneak+Magic combo which only 5 other cards in the game have (Goblin Sorcerer, Shin-Lo, Coral Wraith, Tasoshi, and Captain Fellblade). With 2 others in Modern (Fellblade and Tasoshi), you could theoretically pair this card to stack magic sneak, which under the right circumstances could work in your favor. Besides that, her stats are rough (2 damage for 8 mana) so as with all cards in this list, she'll be very situational outside of Frontier.
#3. Dread Tafarian
The Dread Tafarian makes this list due to the self-heal alone, which regularly finds some use... Sure, there's Croire on the Earth team in Modern, but think of this ruleset: Earth only, Poison, Rise of the Commons (i.e. can't play Croire as it's Epic), and melee-only... You could stick Tafarian in the back under Tofu with Scavenger and go for a win by attrition.
#4. Mystic Scaleweaver
The Scaleweaver has a whole 3 magic damage, which is huge among Foundation cards. The addition of Slow makes it useful as a support unit if you're stacking speed buffs/debuffs, and it also can pair with Marlai. Not bad.
#5. Time Bandit
I stuck this one in here largely because it's a Magic Dwarf that can pair with Fithe, the Dwarf Archon from CA. Here's the ruleset for this one: Fire & Earth, Reverse Speed, Magic only, and Rise of the Commons. Maybe swap one of those for Poison to make use of his Cleanse. Stick this guy in there with Fithe and he gets the Void and may be a decent choice. I said decent, not great...
#6. Little Sister
Anything with Life Leech will get a nod from me. The Little Sister, in addition to having a really fun art/name combination, adds another LL magic unit to Death which pairs well with Lorkus's +1 Magic. She's not as good as lots of other options out there such as the Sheikh or Faust, buuuut maybe you can stack LL units to increase the likelihood of survival in certain conditions.
#7. New Beluroc Aegis
Ok this one will definitely get some use, just because of the Taunt. The New Beluroc Aegis and his badass shield is a COMMON Taunt unit with decent shield/health, and that means it's relatively versatile as a meat shield you want to draw attention to. Sure, it's expensive at 8 mana and will rarely be your best option, but suppose you want to stack Taunt units, particularly in Rise of the Commons, to keep attention away from a glass canon - this guy will help with that cause.
A couple more thoughts on the viability of Foundation cards outside of Frontier:
