Hello Splinterfam, last Town Hall the creative team released an eye candy for everyone when AMA is about to end and based on the photo that they have released it has garnered a lot of attention, and speculations on what ability the summoner would have, I see people say it might Phase, I bet majority thought about it and it seems logical.
However, I would lay out my speculation or assumption about the summoner, I considered three abilities that this summoner might have, namely PHASE, DISPEL, and IMMUNITY.
I will tackle further why I have these ideas, and please note that these are just assumptions and my ideas, please feel free to discuss your ideas if you have something whole lot different from mine.
First, and I think the most popular speculation is Phase, I think it would be great to have this ability to all your cards and it will drive Magic Lineup more to the ground, and I think it is a very strong ability, Phase makes Magic attack miss (using the same hit/miss calculation as for Melee and Ranged attacks).
We know that Magic Lineup is really strong, especially in the lower league but it is starting to change with all the magic defense monsters in each splinter has right now, magic has been declining in popularity but don't get it wrong it is still I believe one of the best lineups in the game currently, but you cannot spam it like before (Water Magic Era) where you can make a magic lineup in all your matches and get a good win rate.
I also think life is the only splinter that has no direct counter against magic, especially in Modern aside from you Magic Reflect which we know doesn't really negate the magic attacks instead just return it back to the attacker, what I am talking about is Void and Void Armor, I mean yes there is one or two cards, but they don't really impact the game much if you compared it to other splinters like Earth; Unicorn Mustang, Fire; Grum or Tusk the Wide, Death; Bone Golem, or Mimosa herself, Water; Djinn Oshannus, Baakjira, Torhilo the Frozen and Wave Brood, I am pretty sure you get the idea at this point.
I can imagine how strong my life deck would be with all monsters having the phase ability it will have a decent defense ability against magic. This choice is also the most logical, but I am still considering other abilities, which we would tackle further.
Second, is probably the most underrated and most unpopular ability in Splinterlands, the Dispel ability, clears all positive status effects if you hit the enemy, I can see the modern meta full of Speed Buff; Swiftness, Melee Buff; Inspire, HP Buff; Strengthen, and Increased Return Damage; Amplify, I am not sure if it works with Amplify and I want to know if you have experience if it works, but maybe mostly would be Speed Buff and Melee Buff. I don't see a lot of people assuming this ability well maybe because of its unpopularity in nature.
One of the best examples is the Water Melee lineup, with Demented Shark and Level 2 River Hellondale, and using a +1 Melee Damage Daria Dragonscale the melee output damage could be very lethal, but you can easily counter that with Dispel and just by hitting the monster you will have to worry about Darias' plus +1 melee damage instead of +3, but the downside is you will need to spread your damage a little bit and to make sure that you hit dispel on those opportunity or sneak monsters, although I think this might work, it will be harder to execute than what I have imagined, and we know that traditionally spreading your damage is bad overall for your line up and could easily cost you the game.
I am pretty sure that you get the idea that dispel could be a strong ability in Modern Format with all these buffs being effective on modern monsters, I could see modern meta focus on speed and evasion and rely more on Melee and Range buffs than the usual Magic lineups, so imagine having the dispel ability in all your monster, while you also have the same buff and debuff lineup with your Life splinter, that would definitely work well in your favor.
Last but definitely not the least I think it will be the Immunity, with Poison getting more popular and the recent release of Waka Spiritblade who gives Poison ability to all monsters, I think it is also logical that a summoner that gives Immunity to all monsters is possible, and I think this is the summoner that can do that, and not only it will negate poison it will also negate other negative effects like Demoralize, Headwinds, Silence, Rust, Slow and the list just goes on.
Your deck would be invulnerable to anything negative and I think that is so useful in a Life deck, to negate all the debuffs that might come your way, to make sure that you keep your buffs which I love to have when running my Life deck because they rely too much on buffs and debuff, at least my deck is, and I am not sure how you run your life deck.
Also, this is the ability that I am really looking forward to, I want them to give this summoner and make its status as Legendary reasonable! I think Immunity is OP and imagine having it in all your cards, that will be CRAZY!
Although I know it is far from possible since it will be a hard counter to Waka Spiritblade which is an expensive Promo Card, although who knows if one of the designers from the top 6 in Presale really pushes a summoner that gives immunity to all monsters, that would be super awesome!
Please note, this is just my ideas and nothing is certain so don't make your investments based on what you read here, it is still not certain what ability will the first legendary summoner have and these are all just assumptions and speculations.
Let me know what you think of the new summoner on the comments!
You can also DM me in discord if you have questions: ivarbjorn#9345
