In this series I will investigate one card each post from the perspective of a bronze player. This means I will only look at the abilities and stats of the card between the novice and bronze level cap. For reference here are the caps in bronze:
| League | Summoner Level |
|---|---|
| Common | 3 |
| Rare | 2 |
| Epic | 2 |
| Legendary | 1 |
(Note: Usually, the level cap for monsters will match the cap for summoners; however, some summoners like Kretch Tallevor will alter the monster level cap.)
| Level | Attack | Speed | Armor | Health | Abilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |
| 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | |
| 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
Crystal Jaguar is a simple vanilla card from levels 1-3 and doesn't appear to offer much for an average game under a standard ruleset. It does, however, have good survival stats for its mana cost.
Under the Back to Basics ruleset this card will have the same stats as a Silvershield Paladin but for 1 less mana. Crystal Jaguar also gets a boost in utility from rulesets which allow melee attacks to attack from backline positions, such as Melee Mayhem, Equal Opportunity and Super Sneak. The one armor can help negate an entire attack which can help survivability greatly. This is why the card gets much worse under the Unprotected ruleset.
Check out a sample battle here.
For this battle I chose to include the Jaguar due to the Super Sneak ruleset. After looking at the opponent's last several games I suspected they would use Zintar Mortalis and thus did not include a Rally effect.
Choosing the Shieldbearer as my tank allowed taunt to negate the effect of Super Sneak for the enemy team for several attacks. Lorna Shine added increased survivability, so I anticipated both the Jaguar and Luminous Eagle to get several hits off.
I would have preferred to have a different, cheaper card to replace the eagle and include a Divine Healer in the lineup. A back line Grenadier with the Divine Healer or Jaguar in second position would have worked well.
Crystal Jaguar is unremarkable under most rulesets and needs additional cards or specific rulesets to make it feel useable. When combined with Rally from a Silvershield Knight and one of the rulesets allowing melee to attack from the back, the card can become a good addition for a low mana cost.
The lack of stats or abilities added in level 2 and 3 means I am not interested in upgrading this card specifically for bronze battles. Overall, I rarely find a good opportunity to make this card work in bronze.
Final Bronze Rating: D
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