Its always interesting to see ranged card from Life Splinter. When Chaos Legion was released, we're served with General Sloan as default summoner. General Sloan as summoner retain a +1 ranged damage buff. Since damage buff ability are only available for melee (Inspire ability); thus ranged and magic buff are very rare for they could only be gained from Summoner. The +1 ranged damage buff give a power boost to overall Life Splinter ranged card. Several card like Pelacor Arbalest, Venari Crystalsmith, or Prismologist become a powerful artillery cards. Now let's delve deeper into the Life Splinter ranged card collection.
| Rarity | 1 Mana | 2 Mana | 3 Mana | 4 Mana | 5 Mana | 6 Mana | 7 Mana | 8 Mana | 9 Mana |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | |||||||||
| Rare | |||||||||
| Epic | |||||||||
| Legendary |
The collection have limited number of cards, only 13 cards total from all editions (except Alpha, Beta, and Gladius). Most of the cards come from Rare and Epic type. Cards are spread evenly with minimum 1 card for each mana value starting from 1 mana up to 9 mana. The collection are concentrated at 5 mana and 6 mana. This distribution give us a lot of alternatives for ranged cards to select for mid-cap to high-cap mana battle, but more limited for low-cap mana battle. Especially as some of the cards have archetypes as Support type rather than Striker type.
At Level 1, Life Splinter ranged card appears to have below average status compared with ranged card from other Splinter. The average damage-mana ratio are below 0.5 tick (ignore No.9 since its Lensmaster which cost only 1 mana). Health also are below average since only few card reached health-mana ratio above 1.0 tick. Average speed couldn't be better with only 4 yellow nodes at best. The only good thing is almost every cards started with single abilities. And then there's 3 cards having armor aspect. It seemed a very difficult start for Life Splinter ranged card. Only progression to higher level might change their fortune.
The max level really show a lot of change. With most cards now gathered on SOUTH quadrant with damage-mana ratio above 0.5 tick. Speed is shifting mostly to yellow nodes, although there isn't any cards past the blue nodes. Ability also adding up quite significantly although again no specific cards able to reach a total of 4 abilities.
Some cards with the most notable growth are Silvershield Archers (No.1) which health grew so much from 1 to 4. Venari Crystalsmith (No.3) and Runeslinger (No.13) are two cards which gained major damage growth, starting at 1 and grow into 3. Card like Pelacor Arbales (No.10) although doesn't show significant damage growth, but having Double Strike ability make this card have damage output equal to double of its damage value.
The abilities mapping are similar to other ranged card mapping. Striker abilities are the largest by count followed by Support abilities, and Tanker abilities as the least. But actually the total number abilities are not much if compared with other Splinter. Status effect abilities (for example Shatter, Affliction, Stun, and Cripple) are the most one which is typical abilities possessed by ranged card with focus on Striker roles. There are 3 Snipe ability available, which neatly distributed from the lowest, mid, and highest mana. Life Splinter appeared to be the only collection having the most cards with Double Strike ability (a total of 3 cards possessing it, with Silvershield Assassin being the other one). This is a rare ability which could break a powerful damage output, especially if empowered by damage buff ability.
Card No.2 to No.6 (Silvershield Sheriff, Venari Crystalsmith, Evangelist, Lone Boatman, and Herbalist) are the only one to have rich variation of Support Abilities. And supported with their high damage-mana ratio, these cards can fill important back row in formation with full fledge .
This final section, I give my personal thought for several card mentioned below.
'1. Silvershiled Sheriff
| Silvershield Sheriff is one of the toughest ranged card available. The 5 damage combined with 4 speed allow this card to hit on every shot. The 9 health also make this card very suitable as last row Tanker. The Protect ability is a good addition for this card, allowing it to substitute Truthspeaker where there's spare mana and limited row available. Pierce is intermittently used since there's still low chances opponent deployed armored card. |
'2. Evangelist
| Evangelist is a very cost effective card for mid mana battle. The card cost only 6 mana while bringing a sold 4 damage and high 7 health. Inspire and Rust ability are very important to boost the remaining card in the formation, especially considering 6 mana is a quite fair cost to get them. |
'3. Lensmaster
| A legendary card with 1 mana value is always made for certain valuable reason. Lensmaster doesn't seemed to have the champion status, except for its ability. Possessing Blind ability at only level 1 are very cost effective, and while the ability will effect all cards without exception. |
'4. Prismologist
| Prismologist have a very low status as a whole, and looks unequal to the 8 mana to deploy it. The only strong aspect of Prismologist is its Blast ability, which if utilized appropriately could caused heavy peripheral blast damage. So this card will lost its value when used in battle with Explosive Weaponry ruleset. Silence ability although might a bit useful, but also seemed unworthy with 8 mana cost to use it. |
