The Insight On 10 Mana Cards

The 10 mana collection is where we will find the big boys. There will be lesser and lesser cards available than the previous mana collection; and most of the cards will also have higher rarity than the previous mana collection. In fact their limited access simply because they are seldom to be used. This is somehow true since most battle will have low and medium mana cap, where deploying 10 mana cards will quickly deplete the remaining mana. But in contrary, once we've entered the higher league, there's higher chances for battle with high-mana cap, and 10 mana card will have more important use. Having 10 mana cards will bring so much advantage, not only for their powerful parameter, but also any spares mana had a chances to be utilized fully. In addition, where Even Ones Out ruleset are in effect, this is the optimum collection to have cards with high mana and even value. And one thing to remember, 10 mana cards possessed more number of abilities which as important as their status parameter.

In total there are 13 cards with 10 mana which available for modern format. The collection are greatly reduced to almost half of the 9 mana collection. It also means there are only around 2 cards for each Splinter, either melee and range, ranged and magic, etc. As mentioned previously, Non-Attack type are no longer here. Magic and melee cards make the major parts of this collection, while ranged followed with only 3 cards. In term of rarity, the bar on rarity is raised even higher. Almost 70% of the cards are Legendary type. This is clearly become a very expensive collection to get.

All of the magic cards are of Legendary types, but their aspect are varied one another. This group are divided between card with high health and low health. There aren't much growth as there is limited progression steps. Health have some room for growth but not much. Both armor and speed didn't gain any growth. While some cards have no armor at all, Diamond Dragon started with a huge armor. Speed also looks decent between 1 to 3 speed, while Phantom Of The Abyss started with exceptional speed. The average starting magic damage are a little bit higher compared to 9 mana collection, since there are more cards with 3 magic damage. All of the cards gained a single damage growth uniformly. As I have mentioned previously, abilities have more importance, where each cards are granted with 2 new abilities.

My verdict for this group:

• There are more growth gained under this group as there are more number of dual-growth (although Phantom Of The Abyss and High Priest Darius gained none of it). All of the growth are focused only on health, magic damage, and abilities. The health growth are gained as part of the dual-growth, which means if we strip the health growth, all of the cards gained exactly a single magic damage and two new abilities.
• There's a bit of inequality on the combined parameter of each cards. High Priest Darius have the lowest combined parameter value. This low parameter could be attributed to the Resurrect ability which is valued quite high compared to other abilities. In fact, Resurrect is possessed only by Legendary type magic card (other than Summoner). Compared to other cards with Resurrect ability, High Priest Darius, have far higher parameter which seemed fair for this card to be valued at 10 mana. On the other side, Diamond Dragon have the highest combined parameter value, but considering that armor are inferior than health, it seemed the high armor provide balance toward the remaining parameter aspect (just take a comparison between Diamond Dragon to Phantom Of The Abyss).
• Last Stand, Heal, and Resurrect seemingly became a typical abilities for high-mana cards. All of those abilities are powerful because they gained leverage from their high parameter. Buff/debuff become less important as their value diminished with the increasing mana cost.

Melee cards is the most affordable cards among the 10 mana collection cards. Mainly because it have the least Legendary type. Starting health are divided in large gap between cards with low health but fortified with armor (Corsair Bosun and Coastal Sentry), and card with high health but no armor (the rest of the melee cards). Corsair Bosun and Grund gained a large 3 health growth overall. Coastal Sentry is the most unique card which gained armor and speed growth, while the rest of the cards gained none of them. Damage growth started variously between 2 to 4 damage, but mostly gained 2 growth to propel into 4 to 6 damage. Most of the cards gained quite number of abilities, but Magor and Dark Ha'On, where both are Legendary type, gained a remarkable 3 new abilities.

My verdict for this group:

• There's also a lot of growth potential as there's a lot of dual-growth and triple-growth. Each cards seemed to get equal number of growth because cards like Magnor gained dual-growth and triple-growth, meanwhile other Normal and Rare type cards gained a single-growth. Most of the cards gained a total between 6 to 7 growth.
• Magnor have the highest total combined parameter, followed with Corsair Bosun. The rest follow them with not much difference in value. Abilities might come into factor, especially for Coastal Sentry and Grund, both have the least combined parameter, but having Double Strike would double their damage output. Dark Ha'On have an powerful aspect in overall, not only it has the most number of abilities, but also its main parameter doesn't seemed to fall behind compared to other.
• There are no exceptional abilities. But having 2 cards with Double Strike seemed to give this group a very powerful damage output. In addition, for Coastal Sentry, the Double Strike is accompanied with Piercing and 5 speed; this is a deadly combination to wreck any high armor and health cards. Dark Ha'On could be an alternative for anti-magic Tanker card with its Void and Magic Reflect combined; and with the addition Taunt would trap any magic cards into their own grave.

Ranged group have the fewest number of cards which is only 3 card. There's a variety on their starting health. Berix Snakeye has a lower health than the others, but is balanced with its high armor. Berix also reinforced with Void Armor, which will render any magic cards to be less effective against this card. Speed gained almost no growth, and ranged damage grow less if compared with the 9 mana collection counterpart (the 9 mana ranged cards able to reach 5 damage). It seemed as if these ranged cards predisposed toward balance between Tanker and Striker roles. This is justified not only by the higher health, but also from the fact that they have a larger number of abilities which some mainly of Tanker and Support. For example again Berlix Snakeye choose to start with Weapon Training and Void Armor as the starting abilities rather than start with Oppress and True Strike. And there also Cornealus which gained a full Tanker abilities.

My verdict of this group:

• The Legendary type gained much better growth with dual-growth and even triple-growth. Meanwhile Tinderlock, the only Rare type ranged card, gained 7 single single growth which equal to Berix Snakeye. The growth mainly focused on health and abilities.
• Based on combined parameter, all 3 cards seemed to be in equal footing, although each seemed to branch to their own specific roles. Berix Snakeye more of an anti-magic and Support roles (although back-row are rarely targeted by magic cards); Tinderlock more of a hybrid between Striker and Tanker roles; and Cornealus more of a Tanker cards for the last-row.
• There are no remarkable abilities for ranged card. Its uncommon to have Last Stand on ranged cards, since ranged cards is unable to attack independently from the front-row. But cleverly Tinderlock possessed both Last Stand and Close Range, and accompanied with Deathblow will make Tinderlock a victory guarantee on the late round.

There's very little difference between this collection with either the previous 9 mana collection and the further 11 mana collection. Rather than as a more powerful version than the 9 mana collection, the 10 mana collection more as a complementary cards. For example the 10 mana magic cards have a more powerful damage output, but they have less health than the 9 mana magic cards. And so on, where 9 mana ranged cards have more powerful damage output, the 10 mana ranged cards have higher health and supported with some Tanker abilities. As we will continue on further post, we will see later that 11 mana collection might also bring additional color to the high mana cards.