Welcome back to another juicy and fresh Splinterlands post guys, and I hope all of you are doing pretty well in your lives and spending a calm and pleasant day with your family and friends. Now, for those of you who are actively playing this amazing web3 card game on a regular basis and trying to improve your card, land and other asset collection, I think all of you are once again keeping yourselves busy fighting battles in the ranked season arena and trying to push your trophy count higher in this fresh season until you reach your goal. If we take a quick peek at the ongoing ranked season timer, there are still around 11 days and 20 hours left before the reset happens, so there is still plenty of time left in hand for completing missions, collecting rewards, and pushing toward your desired league tier and even try for the leaderboard if feeling confident enough.
Now talking about my own progress in the foundation mode of this game, I am currently playing in the highest Gold I league tier with a trophy count of around 3,320. My goal for this season remains the same as usual, first reaching the 4,200 trophy mark and then trying for the leaderboard if everything goes smoothly. On the other hand, if we take a look at the weekly Frontier raffle, I currently hold only 6 entries and there are still around 5 days and 19 hours left before the raffle draw happens. This time I will once again try to grind my way toward around 57 entries and see if luck finally decides to favour me like in the last time.
Apart from that, today I also received a jackpot reward card from one of my daily mission claims. The card was Aimee Whisperwind, which is a Common type card. Along with that, I also opened a total of 8 Foundation packs that I had earned from the last 3 days of missions. The results were honestly pretty decent, I think, because I managed to pull 1 Legendary card, 10 Rare cards, including a massive 7 Archons, 2 Gold Foil Common cards, and the rest Common cards.
Now moving forward, let us come to the main topic of this post, as today I will be discussing another interesting monster from the newest Escalation mini card set. As you have already seen in the title and thumbnail above, today I will be talking about the Tilly Gearspring. So if you are interested in learning more about this monster card, let us take a deep dive without any further delay.
The Tilly Gearspring is a monster type card that was introduced in the game with the newest Escalation mini card set edition. This monster belongs to the Earth element and comes from the Gnome bloodline. By rarity, this card is a Legendary monster, so you will require a total of 11 CC cards in order to upgrade it to its maximum level. Now, the most interesting part about this monster is definitely its mana cost because this card costs absolutely 0 mana to use in battles. There are only a handful of cards in the entire game with zero mana cost, which already makes this monster very unique and valuable. The attack type of this monster is Melee, and despite costing no mana at all, this card still comes with decent stats and useful abilities. At its maximum level, this monster gains a total of two abilities that can become very effective in battles when used properly. Let us now take a closer look at its league-wise stats and abilities below.
At level 1, this monster starts with 1 melee attack power at 1 speed with 1 health. Apart from these basic stats, it already gains one of the most useful melee abilities in the game called Sneak. This ability allows the monster to directly attack enemy backline monsters instead of wasting attacks on the frontline.
SNEAK – Targets the enemy unit in the last position.
When you upgrade this monster further to level 2, its health increases and it now carries 1 melee attack power at 1 speed with 2 health. At this level, it also unlocks another unique ability called Bloodline Pact. This ability is powerful but also risky, because it can strengthen your team while also punishing mistakes.
BLOODLINE PACT – Allied units that share this unit's bloodline gain +1 power when any of them defeats an enemy and take 1 true damage when any of them is defeated. If this unit is defeated, allied units that share its bloodline receive 2 damage and lose all the power gained from this ability.
As this monster gets upgraded further and reaches level 3, its stats improve again and it now possesses 1 melee attack power at 3 speed with 3 health. The increased speed and survivability definitely make it much more effective during battles.
Finally, when you upgrade this monster to its maximum level of 4, its stats improve further and it now carries 2 melee attack power at 3 speed with 4 health. For a monster that costs absolutely 0 mana, these stats honestly feel very impressive.
Last but not least, I think the biggest advantage of this monster is definitely its mana cost. There are only a few monsters in the entire game that cost 0 mana, and these cards become extremely useful whenever you spend all your mana on stronger monsters but still have one or two empty slots left in your lineup. They are also very useful in low mana limit matches where every mana point matters. Another major advantage is the Sneak ability, which is personally one of my favorite melee abilities in the game. It directly targets the enemy backline monsters unless distracted by Taunt units, allowing you to eliminate weak support monsters quickly. The Bloodline Pact ability is also very interesting, but definitely a bit tricky to use. It can continuously boost the power of allied units that share the same bloodline whenever they defeat enemies. However, it also introduces risk because your team takes damage whenever ally units are defeated, and if this monster itself dies, your allied bloodline units receive even more punishment and lose all the bonus power gained earlier. Overall, I think Tilly Gearspring is an extremely useful zero mana monster with decent attack potential, a great Sneak ability, and a risky but powerful Bloodline Pact mechanic. For such a tiny cost free monster, it honestly brings a lot of value to battles. What do you think?
