Enter Runi
The Splinterlands crypto game has announced a new promo card, so we're here to talk about it. We'll discuss its base stats, abilities and how meta-changing or ovepowered it is. Let's get this ball rolling.
Just so you guys know, I'm going to ignore the aesthetics part completely. It's creative and cool, but what I really care about as player is the actual gameplay involved.
Here are the Monster stats in this card:
- 6 Mana
- 4 Melee Damage
- 1 Speed
- 1 Armor
- 5 Health
- Opportunity ability
- Rebirth ability
- True Strike ability
- Reflection Shield ability
- Legendary rarity
- Even Mana cost
- Neutral Splinter
The first thing that comes to mind that can potentially make this card extremely valuable is that it's from the Neutral Splinter. This means you can use it in almost every battle. As long as the card is powerful, you'll find plenty of opportunities to abuse it.
There are 5 match rules that'll stop you from using this card: Rise of the Commons, Lost Legendaries, Taking Sides, Keep your Distance and Odd Ones Out. Everything else is good to go.
Current Modern meta revolves around the Opportunity ability, and Runi follows it to the core. Thanks to its 1 point of armor, it can easily survive incoming Blast damage during the first round of a match, no matter how feral your opposing team's aggression becomes.
Despite being a slow poke, Runi is still strong in matches without the Heavy Hitters rule (slower monsters strike first). You can set up another opportunity attack to ensure Runi's 4-damage strike devastates its target. However, in Heavy Hitters, it'll probably clash against armor, so using a summoner like Qid Yuff might be really useful.
Deflection Shield means Thorns isn't backfiring against it, even though the Backfire ability could still do that. Maybe Deflection Shield can get an update to change this in the near future, since Backfire should be treated as a Deflect, after all.
Finally, the big bright newly shining star: Rebirth. The ability that makes or breaks this card. If it proves itself worthy, then it's going to be a high-value pick for years to come. But how can we dissect this ability? We should begin by analyzing what would happen if we use it on each battle position.
Position 1: The tank. I can think of two very important scenarios. In the Snipe rule, it can beat enemy tanks that don't have the Shield ability, which is usually the case under that rule. In 13 Mana matches, summoner Llama boosts it so up high, it'll beat the staple Llama+Xenith Monk combo, specially because it won't ever miss its attacks.
Can another combination ever beat Llama+Runi? Maybe so, but it'll still have to take yet another attack from Runi after it resurrects itself. In low Mana battles, Llama+Runi is unstoppable in Heavy Hitters.
Position 2: The off-tank. When the enemy tank is still alive, an attack from Runi probably finishes them off. Even if it does, it's still going to resurrect itself, tanking for a little bit longer. Runi at position 2 isn't a terrible choice. Besides, if your tank doesn't die, Runi keeps killing off their backline.
Position 3 through 5: As a damage dealer, the only problem with Runi is that it's slow. These positions are usually meant for support Monsters and quick damage dealers in most matches, but many scenarios allow Runi in this area of your team as a strong pick, like Fog of War.
Position 6: In my opinion, this is the best position for Runi. The only Splinter in Modern that can Sneak attack using magic damage is Water in the form of Coral Wraith, so Runi would get a lot of value in a battle as an anti-Sneak defender. Even a Sand Worm would need to strike Runi four times before finally defeating it.
Runi is clearly a very strong monster that can easily fit in a multitude of combo strategies. If you can afford to buy this incredibly promo card, you certainly should!
image source: @splinterlands/introducing-the-runicore