It's been a few seasons now since Escalation, a Conclave Arcana mini-set, was released, which introduced new cards and new abilities that once again shake the game's meta. The mini-set has consisted of 43 cards in total, with 12 commons, 12 rares, 8 epics, and 11 legendaries, not including the promo cards that can only be acquired by participating in the set presale and the additional Archons that will be airdropped through conflicts soon.
In this post, I want to take a look at all the Life units from Escalation.
The Escalation Life units consisted of cards under different bloodlines, so, depending on what their bloodlines were, it was possible for them to be used by Archons from other elements and benefit from their Bloodline Dominion abilities. But aside from that, they had these new abilities that could affect the result of the battles.
Silver Shield Sentry is a Leonine range unit with a max damage of 5, and although its initial max health was not that great for a 9 mana unit, it has the Bulwark ability that will give it an additional 8 health and armor once it gets into the first position, though it would lose -2 damage. And as a range unit, it has the Close Range ability that will let it attack even at the first position. So, as long as this card is not defeated until it gets to the first position, this can be an ideal secondary tank, even your main tank under certain conditions. It also has the Rebirth ability that will allow it to resurrect once it is defeated.
It currently does not have an archon from which it can benefit from their Bloodline Dominion ability, but I can see this card doing some great damage when used along with Ellias Max Pruitt and getting the Armored Strike and Piercing ability from its tactics, and be able to attack using its armor at the second position, if you put it next with units that have the Flank ability, such as Silverblade Fighter or even by itself in the first position with that 8 additional armor from Bulwark.
Bulwark - When in the first position, -2 power, +8 health, and +8 armor.
On the other hand, Godsnot Sorceress was another range unit with the Bruteborn Bloodline, so once the final Conclave Arcana Archon, Dragonlord Mancer was released, using this card with that archon will automatically give it the Scavenger ability and increase its health every time a unit is defeated. It is quite difficult to use though cause it costs 13 mana to summon, but it is quite justifiable since it has a maximum of 7 damage, which can even be doubled if the target is originally a non-damage unit with Oppress, and it can also reduce the range damage of all opponent units with Headwinds.
Moving on with the rare units, we had Kobold of Burden, which is a 5-mana non-damage unit, so the only way that it can attack was if it was placed next to a card with Weapon's Training ability. But even without attacking, this card can still be a good support since it has the Swiftness ability that increases the speed of all ally units and Resurrect that allows it to resurrect an ally unit that was defeated in battle, a good card to use along with Moribund Arrowbait to trigger the effects of Bloodline Tribute multiple times. Aside from that, it also has the Reprisal ability that will an opponent unit that inflicts 5 or more damage the Taunt ability, as well as the Pinpoint ability that gives sneak attacks 100% hit rate.
Since this was a Sauirian unit, it can also be pulled by Dragonlord Mancer, so it also gains the Scavenger ability. And when you place it next to the Dragon unit Rage, this card will be able to attack with magic.
Reprisal - If an enemy unit deals more than 5 damage in a round, it gains Taunt and, if camouflaged, is Revealed.
Pinpoint - Allied sneak attacks can not miss.
Lieward Channeler, on the other hand, was a Drakoshan magic unit, which means that it gets an additional speed when used along with the Dragon Archon, Kravorn Skarn. But even when not used with a bloodline Archon, this card can be very useful on many occasions since it only costs 2 mana to use, and it was a very beefy unit with a maximum of 8 health and 6 armor. Furthermore, it has both the Void Armor ability, which makes magic attack hit its armor before its health, and Tank Heal, which can restore the health of the unit that is in the first position.
The only downside from using this card was that it has the Weary debilitation, which can make this card Exhausted and unable to attack or use its Tank Heal when you needed it.
For the only Epic Life unit, we have another magic unit with Snippet, which has the Mundane Beast bloodline, making it a card that can be summoned by Elowen Sylphie and gains the Charge ability though that does not matter much, unless maybe on Back to Basics, since it has the Sneak ability that can allow it to attack backline units. Aside from that, it has the Bloodline Tribute ability that will increase the stats of all allied units that share the same bloodline once this card is defeated, and when it was placed on a unit with Kindred Will, its Kindred Spirit will trigger and give that unit the Relentless Strike ability.
By the way, for an epic card, this unit only costs 3 mana to use, so it can be used on low mana and little league battles.
Moving to the legendary units, we have Gorvash the Pallid, which is a range unit with the Orc Bloodline, so it gains the Enrage ability from the bloodline skill when used with the Water Archon Gorgug the Endless. It does not have much health and damage, but it still deserves to be a legendary unit, since it does not cost any mana to use, and can attack non-melee units that are not in the first position with its Snipe ability. Aside from that, it has the Bloodline Pact ability, which is kind of similar to Bloodlust, but will trigger if any of the cards that share bloodline with this card defeat an opponent, which will increase the damage of all the cards with the same bloodline.
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 take 2 damage and lose all power gained from this ability.
And finally, we have the Elemental unit Vitassent, with both melee and magic attack, for 9 mana. It has the Charge ability that allows it to use melee attack in any position, while also having the ability to attack using its armor with Armored Strike. Aside from that, when placed next to a unit with Kindred Spirit, its Kindred Will will be triggered and will give that unit the Rebirth ability.
Being an Elemental unit, it can be summoned by the Water Archon Loving the Moo and gain the Poison ability. And given that it has two attack types, the chance of giving its target Poison is almost a hundred percent.
And that was it for my early assessment of the Escalation Life units. Among these units, the one that I think was the best was Kobold of Burden, with its ability to provide support, and that Reprisal can be a real pain when you are using cards that inflict serious damage. Furthermore, it can benefit from Dragonlord Mancer, which can be a very broken Archon.
Thank you, and see you on the next post!
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![[ES/EN] Splinterlands - Escalation – Life](/assets/noimage.svg)