The first thing that come to mind when picking River Nypmh is the Cleanse ability. It's quite a rare ability, possessed by up to 2 - 3 card on each Splinter faction. In general, River Nymph is a very tactical card with much consideration when deployed. This vecause this card only have fair status but still costing 4 mana to deploy. And so we have to value this card based on its supporting abilities. There's not much to discuss about this card, but let's continue on!
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| 1. Cleanse ability are quite a rare ability, and very useful in battle with a lot of debuff and status ailments effect. | 1. Rive Nymph have a fair health, damage, and speed; which make this card an average card not suitable to fill roles other than supporting roles using its abilities. |
| 2. Amplify ability is also a very rare ability. Amplify which work similar to damage buff (but applied indirectly through other abilities), have the advantage of being applicable to all attack type (melee, ranged, and magic); in contrary where damage buff abilities only apply to certain attack type. | 2. Cleanse ability only affect the card in the first row, meanwhile status debuff (Demoralize, Headwinds, Weaken, etc.) will affect on the entire formation. This is why Cleanse are only beneficial if used to neutralize effect other than status debuff, such as Affliction, Poison, Blind, Cripple, and Stun. This kind of abilities usually attach based on the attack which would affect only one card at a time. |
| *Reference for Archetype term : Striker --> Superior Damage / Tanker --> Superior Health / Ninja --> Superior Speed. |
At the time of this post was made, ther regular foil cost $0.11, while the gold foil cost $2.06. The price is standard for Rare type card. Regular foil have been stable for at least in the past 6 months, but gold foil is in downtrend. But recently in the past 5 days there's been a price jump, from $1.4 to around $2.0. The gold foil become too expensive, with regular-gold price ratio at almost 1:17 tp 1:18. In my opinion currently it's too much to purchase gold foil, considering River Nymph are very situational and would rarely be used in general battle conditions.
River Nymph started the progression by o1 speed growth at Level 2. After that River Nymph will have several hindrance on its health growth. Starting from Level 3 up to Level 7, health grow and retract alternately, until finally ended at 4 health. The retraction happened to compensate the major growth from attaining Amplify ability and 1 damage, which are seemed too much. One damage growth is quite decent and could easily be found in other card without any retraction needed; plus this growth happened in Level 6 which duly bring more value. Amplify ability also very situational to be used as mentioned before. The potent of the ability only appear if there's a lot of damage return abilities present; and there's additional difficulty to predict the abilities will be compatible with the type of incoming attack.
Swiftness as the last ability gained a little late at final Level which somewhat too excessive. This ability are easily attained from other card and some of them available at only Level 1.
| Ruleset | Strategy |
|---|---|
 | River Nymph will depend so much on its abilities. In Back To Basics ruleset, this card will totally be undermined by other card with better status. |
 | It only take 2 round for the Earthquake damage to destroy River Nymph, and its a big loss if those abilities are not around anymore. So better avoid using this card in this ruleset. |
 | Noxious Fumes only applied once at the start of the battle. So River Nymph on the first round had the opportunity to nullify the poison effect for the front row card. This is the only benefit of using River Nymph, since the card will have the same fate as in the Earthquake ruleset. |
Here's one of my battle experience with River Nymph in my formation. Click Here for the battle link.
The battle have 26 mana cap, with Standard ruleset.
For my formation, I used:
| Position | Card Name | Level | Mana | Health | Armor | Speed | Damage Type | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summoner | Kelya Frendul | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1st Row | Cruel Sethropod | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | Melee | 1 |
| 2nd Row | Hardy Stonefist | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Melee | 1 |
| 3rd Row | Deeplurker | 1 | 6 | 6 | - | 2 | Melee | 3 |
| 4th Row | Feasting Seaweed | 1 | 4 | 2 | - | 1 | Melee | 2 |
| 5th Row | River Nymph | 1 | 4 | 3 | - | 2 | Magic | 1 |
| 6th Row | Kulu Swimhunter | 1 | 4 | 4 | - | 2 | Ranged | 2 |
My opponent formation:
| Position | Card Name | Level | Mana | Health | Armor | Speed | Damage Type | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summoner | Wizard of Eastwood | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1st Row | Goblin Psychic | 1 | 6 | 3 | - | 1 | Magic | 2 |
| 2nd Row | Khmer Princess | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | 1 | Magic | 1 |
| 3rd Row | Unicorn Mustang | 1 | 8 | 10 | - | 4 | Melee | 3 |
| 4th Row | Child of The Forest | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | 5 | Ranged | 1 |
| 5th Row | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 6th Row | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
This battle doesn't show much potential of the River Nymph, but still an entertaining battle to enjoy. Both formation are in Level 1, with my formation utilize full mana cap, while my opponent utilized only 23 mana. Wizard of Eastwood was a good choice as it counter Kelya Frendul armor buff. But still I able to benefit from the speed buff. I truthfully criticize the position of my opponent formation. It seemed a very big mistake having a powerful tanker, Unicorn Tanker, on the 3rd row; meanwhile Goblin Psychic which have better role to heal tanker was placed in the front row. This was the blunder which put me to my victory.
With the 1st round started. My formation with better initiative takes precedence. Child of The Forest shoot into River Nymph which still stood with 2 health left. Luckily, all my card have the exact damage against opponent card. Deeplurker strike down Khmer, then followed by Kula and Nymph eliminating Goblin, and finally Seaweed take opportunity to strike down Child of The Forest. By the end of the first round, my opponent only left with single card.
At Round 2, the formation launched full barraged against Unicorn Mustang, which left him with the last blood. Unicorn counter attack against Cruel Sethropod only to destroy its armor.
By the start of Round 3, the fate is already sealed, as its a matter of who will make the last hit against Unicorn Mustang.
No particular strategy in this battle. I really wished to use River Nymph combined with other card which have various damage return abilities.
I haven't found the unique formation and strategy to utilize River Nymph so its really premature to judge this card. It might be interesting if only River Nymph could be paired with Summoner which provide return damage abilities to all cards (for example Mylor Crowling with Thorn, Owster Rotwell with Magic Reflect, or Ilthan with Return Fire).
