Ability Spotlight 1 - Reprisal

Introduction

As I play through Splinterlands, I find that there are so many abilities and little tips and tricks that I have built a bank of knowledge for that I wish to share with newer players if they are beginning their journey. So this is the start of my Ability Spotlight Series, starting with Reprisal. In each of the battles I present for the ability, I will showcase my decision making and why I have used it. I will also go into the cards which can be rented or purchased and the level of investment required to acheive it. Having played Splinterlands for a while on and off now the Reprisal ability caught my eye as I find that I rarely encounter my opponent using it but when I have used it I have found it to be effective. *

Breakdown the ability

Identify cards use this ability

Compare the costs

Share example battles

Summarise final thoughts

What is Reprisal?

If an enemy deals more than 5 damage in a round, it gains Taunt and, if Camouflaged, is Revealed. - Splinterlands.com

By Revealing an enemy, we take away the advantage of them being Camouflaged. **_Camouflage_** gives the enemy the element of surprise and it prevents it from being targeted by our combatants. In addition, adding Taunt to that opponent, In this case, we use **_Taunt_** to our advantage as we make them the next target of attacks, which helps to eradicate them more efficiently. We can synergise this with another ability which makes **_Taunt_** incredibly effective and that is **_Fury._**

Fury

Deals double damage if the opponent has Taunt - Splinterlands.com

Synergising the Taunt and the Fury together makes them a deadly combination as the destruction of a Taunted create is much faster and especially when combined with Reprisal, we are targeting them directly removing the highest damage opponents as fast as possible.

Counters to Reprisal

The biggest issue with Reprisal generally stems from having high damage monsters of your own or abilities which boost your own monster stats. One such example of this is **_Painforge_**.

Painforge

+1 damage when damaged by Poisoned or Burning or hit by an ally. - Splinterlands.com

In some cases, you can make your own cards targets for the opponent to use this ability which can be disastrous if the opponent has built around Reprisal so as with any ability, it is important to assess the battle conditions and look to tilt the battle in your favour.

Cards with Reprisal

I own a Gold Foil version of Phlemost which gains Reprisal at third level.

Regular Foil Phlegmost

Ability Unlock Level	BCX Required	Current Market Price per CC	Ability DEC Cost	Ability USD Cost	Rental Cost Per Day
3	14	0.15$ or 64 DEC	897 DEC	0.21$	1.2 DEC

Gold Foil Phlegmost

Ability Unlock Level	BCX Required	Current Market Price per CC	Ability DEC Cost	Ability USD Cost	Rental Cost Per Day
3	1	0.26$ or 1,098 DEC	1,098 DEC	0.26$	1.19 DEC

Ability Unlock Level

BCX Required

Current Market Price per CC

Ability DEC Cost

Ability USD Cost

Rental Cost Per Day

0.26$ or 1,098 DEC

1,098 DEC

0.26$

1.19 DEC

What I find interesting here is it is cheaper to currently rent a Phlegmost in Gold Foil to test it our compared to Regular Foil. At a price difference of only 0.05$ I do think it is worth the Gold Foil purchase over the regular foil, which is something I have done myself. As we know Gold Foil bonuses do stack so 10% more SPS is alway nice to have and for only 0.05$ it will pay off quite quickly.

This is a dream combination of Fury and Reprisal which makes this purchase a must buy for me!

At third Level Saltwrait Corsair is only three mana with Reprisal.

Regular Foil Saltwraith Corsair

Ability Unlock Level	BCX Required	Current Market Price per CC	Ability DEC Cost	Ability USD Cost	Rental Cost Per Day
3	10	0.243$ or 1,038 DEC	10,453 DEC	2.44$	14.95 DEC

Gold Foil Saltwraith Corsair

Ability Unlock Level	BCX Required	Current Market Price per CC	Ability DEC Cost	Ability USD Cost	Rental Cost Per Day
3	2	6.186$ or 26,458 DEC	52,917 DEC	12.37$	Unavailable

What is interesting is the cost jump from Phlegmost to Saltwraith Corsair in terms of cost. While it comes in with 3 mana making it highly versatile, it does make it quite costly for a relatively niche card. Playable in Little League is always nice however. For rental at Regular Foil it may make sense to see if this card fits your budget moving forward but I'll personally give this one a skip.

Kobold of Burden

With no attack this card could be paired with a Weapons Training for extra damage but this sets up other cards as a support option.

Regular Foil Kobold of Burden

Ability Unlock Level	BCX Required	Current Market Price per CC	Ability DEC Cost	Ability USD Cost	Rental Cost Per Day
2	5	0.96$ or 410 DEC	2,053 DEC	0.48$	17.95 DEC (3rd level)

Gold Foil Kobold of Burden

Ability Unlock Level	BCX Required	Current Market Price per CC	Ability DEC Cost	Ability USD Cost	Rental Cost Per Day
2	1	2.285$ or 9,773 DEC	9,773 DEC	2.285$	21.2 DEC (3rd Level)

What is interesting is the massive jump in price between the Gold Foil and the Regular foil version. I do think at Regular Foil this card is worth picking up if you have the appropriate cards to take advatange of Reprisal.

Lets Battle

Battle Link

Eggceleration is the modifer here which will boost stats, so the longer this fight goes on the more Reprisal shall work in our favour.

Eggceleration is one my favourite rulesets to use Reprisal in. The added benefit of Camouflage for all means my Phlegmost will stay hidden throughout the battle so I should get the most from it.

Already the opponent has one card set to become a target for Reprisal.

In this battle, my opponent is using one Magnificent Mollusk which is set to do 7 damage, making itself a target. As the battle plays out.

By the end of the first round, Phlegmost has Taunted the opponent and dealt double damage to the Mollusk and then again in the third round, ten damage was dealt to the Shock Trooper who was cutting away at my monsters health.

Right off the bat this was a problem that needed dealing with. This nasty monster was needing to be dealt with.

The battle was a long one and the longer it went on the stronger the impact of the Phlegmost was. The best thing here was that while Phlegmost dealt significant blows, its support ability did the work targeting the monsters that needed it most. Those bonuses were stacking up nicely. The Gold Foil Phlegmost was a big contributor here.

Those bonuses were stacking up nicely. The Gold Foil Phlegmost was a big contributor here.

Final Thoughts ============== * Given that Reprisal was my strategy here I think it is clear the impact it had on the battle. It is a tool to keep up the sleeve certainly! * I think Kobold of Burden is my next target for Reprisal but it is still relatively niche as far as cards go. Overall, I am very happy that this strategy does work. See you on the battlefield.

All prices were correct as of writing. All prices and images were taken directly from Splinterlands. The headers used in this post were created by freeztag. AI was used to create the thumbnail image only.