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Card Highlights #09: Thanalorian Archer

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" A good archer is known not by his arrows but by his aim. "
- Ron Laclair
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This was probably the first time I used a unit with a Lookout ability. while I find the ability srong, I really cannot find a reason to add it.

I felt like the Lookout is only strong when combined with a Taunt unit. So, being able to use it in a battle without a Taunt unit is a breath of fresh air and I am happy it went the way I want it to.

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Lore

The archers of the Kingdom of Thanaloria are expert marksfey as well as formidable sorcerers. They wield masterwork bows with grips hewn from Blackmoor Basin’s ancient yew trees and limbs and string conjured from the elemental magic of life. Their arrows, too, are conjured from life magic; these they fire with deadly precision.

Thanalorian archers serve a vital role as the kingdom’s scouts, hunters, and defenders—especially now, with the dragons of Mount Redwyrm threatening Thanaloria’s very existence.

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^{For full lore of this card, visit this website:
https://next.splinterlands.com/card-detail/602/regular/12?tab=lore}

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Buy and Rental Costs

Since Thanalorian Archer and Rebellion units are new, they are priced a bit higher for now. I think it would be lower in a few weeks but for now, you can get one for $0.34 on the Splinterlands market.

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The rental price is a bit higher as well, starting from 0.21 DEC per day for a level 1. Then, you can rent a level 2 for 3.0 DEC per day or a level 4 for 14.9 DEC per day in case you are in Silver.

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Card Stats

Thanalorian Archer's stats are really on the low side. He has mediocre stats for a 5 mana cost unit. He becomes a bit decent at level 5 with an additional magic damage and another ability at level 7.

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Card Effects

Snipe

Targets enemy Units with Ranged, Magic, or no attack that are not in the first position

Snipe is a good ability for any unit with magic damage. It's not the best ability due to his low damage but a welcomed ability, still.

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Lookout

A unit with this ability results in adjacent allies taking one less damage from attackers with Sneak, Snipe, and Opportunity

This ability is jam packed with nothing but goodness. First, as the ability state, it takes one less damage from the abilities involved. This works whether the damage was melee, range or magic as long as it has Snipe, Sneak or Opportunity.<br><br> The second part is it reduces Ambush damage by 1. If the damage is 1, it negates it just like what happened in my battle example at the end of this blog.

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Return Fire

When hit with a Ranged attack, Unit with Return Fire will return reduced damage back to their attacker

Return Fire is a good backup ability when the unit in front that is target of Snipe goes down. It's just a backup ability since if you placed this unit properly, your opponent's range damage would never reach it.

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Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths
Thanalorian Archer's Lookout is the strongest part of this card. The ability does a lot especially if placed properly. Even though Thanalorian Archer herself isn't that strong, the Lookout ability gives a lot of protection for one ability. It can deal with opponent's Sneak,Snipe, Opportunity. Just like in this battle, it also dealth with the opponent's Ambush giving me enough to deal with it.

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Weaknesses
Thanalorian Archer's weakness is its low damage. He works primarily as a support and his damage does not give that much power to be use in the team.

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When To Use

Equal Opportunity

All Units have the Opportunity ability.

The Opportunity that is given by Equal Opportunity can be reduced by Lookout. As long as you can redirect attacks by baiting the enemy attackers, you can use that to reduce their damage to your team.

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Target Practice

All Ranged and Magic attack Units have the Snipe ability.

Target Practice is kind of the same with Equal Opportunity. This rule set can be redirected by simply positioning a unit with range or magic damage at the front of Thanalorian Archer. Since they have Snipe, their damage is reduced by 1 by Lookout.

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Super Sneak

All Melee attack Units have the Sneak ability.

This rule set has the same idea as the other two. By placing Thanalorian Archer towards the back, it can support your unit defending the rear and reduce all Sneak damage by 1 by Lookout.

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When Not To Use

Counterspell

All Units have the Magic Reflect ability.

Since Thanalorian Archer attacks with magic, he would take damage from Magic Reflect. This is bad unless you have another unit with Triage that can heal that damage back.

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Equalizer

The initial Health of all Units is equal to that of the Unit on either team with the highest base Health.

This one is fairly simple. Since Thanalorian Archer has low damage, it's more of a demerit to have this unit. Yes, you can reduce the opponent's damage still, but you would also be lacking damage as well.

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Earthquake

Non-flying Units take 2 Melee damage at the end of each round

Same as the Magic Reflect. It is bad since Thanalorian Archer would take damage and has no way to heal himself.

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Battle Sample

^{https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_1fe4f687937c641465451dd2145dab03}

In this battle, you can see how Lookout is used to its fullest potential. Not only it negated the opponent's Ambush, but it can also protect both of War Pegasus and Meriput Magician from Sneak and Snipe. Lookout is the definite highlight of this battle.

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Final Thoughts

Thanalorian Archer is in the middle of good and bad as a unit. He's good when played properly like in some specific rule sets but if you weren't able to maximize his potential, he's actually bad.

The Lookout is super strong though and I hope there's some units that is a bit stronger that would be fit with my builds. I still haven't tried the combination of Shield or Void with Lookout so that's something to look forward to in the future.

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If you have suggested combos or questions, feel free to comment it down below.

If you are planning to play and is inspired by my post, please consider using my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=kpgamingch

I do not own any of the photos in this post. All credits goes to:

• Splinterlands
• Peakmonsters
• Canva