Now we have come to the 2nd Traits Mapping for the melee card collection which will focus to Water Splinter. Again don't forget to read my latest update for guidance to read the Traits Mapping (the post is here).
Based on my experience, Water Splinter have some of the strongest and fastest high-mana melee cards (take for example Deeplurker, Flying Squid, Serpent of Eld, and Diemonshark). The high speed traits is empowered even more with the arrival of Keyla Frendul as the starter summoner for Chaos Legion. Keyla Frendul which bring speed buff, could rally your formation and caught your opponent in an unexpected blitz attack. More to it the high evasion rate would frustate your opponent.
The only drawbacks come from the limited number of Tanker cards costing low to mid mana. It felt very much with the difficulty to deploy the right Tanker cards for for any mid-mana battle. So let's dive deeper into the ocean of Water Splinter melee cards!
| Rarity | 1 Mana | 2 Mana | 3 Mana | 4 Mana | 5 Mana | 6 Mana | 7 Mana | 8 Mana | 9 Mana | 10 Mana |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | ||||||||||
| Rare | ||||||||||
| Epic | ||||||||||
| Legendary |
With only a total of 17 cards which available for Modern battle format, Water Splinter have less cards selection compared to Fire Splinter. The cards distribution are quite even with cards available across all mana level (from the lowest 1 mana up to the highest 10 mana). Concentration of cards could be found on the higher mana range, between 6 to 9 mana. Some of these cards are the new addition coming from Riftwatchers and Soulbound rewards (most of them cost 7 mana or more).
Based on rarity, the distribution looks very stark between the Normal type and the rest. A total 12 cards are Normal type, whilst only 2 cards from each Rare and Epic type. This is great for two reason, not only the cards are more affordable in price, but also with more progression there are more potential for growth. One of the most conspicuous card would be Coastal Sentry (No.17) which have the highest mana value but come to be a Normal type rather than Legendary type.
In conclusion, Water Splinter have fair number of melee cards with very good distribution. But eventhough there are some high mana card, there are no high-end cards with mana beyond 10 mana. Therefor its very limited when using Water Splinter to deploy an all-out melee cards on battle with mana cap beyond 50 mana or even 99 mana.
The Level 1 Chart shows a very unique aspect of the collection. First, most of the cards are converging towards the SOUTH-WEST quadrant in the range between 0.25 to 0.50 damage/mana ratio, and between 0.5 to 1.0 health/mana ratio. And they are consist of mix between low and high mana cards. We can find Pelacor Bandit (No.5) which cost 3 mana; and then there also Wave Runner (No.8) which cost 5 mana and Lemell Refugee (No.13) which cost 7 mana. Their positions which are very close to each other - rather than spread apart - would mean there's less diminishing effect between the lower and the higher mana cards.
Second, we can clearly find a total of 10 cards possessing armor traits. Not only this collection have more armored cards than other collection or faction; but some of them start with a rather huge armor, and then grow even stronger at later level. Take for example Cruel Sethropod (No.3).
Health looks very promising, considering at least a third of the collection started with health/mana ratio beyond 1.0 tick. Armor traits also distributed very well not only among low, mid, and high mana cards, but also among cards with low and high health/mana ratio.
Speed looks like in a good footing, as half of the collection are already are a yellow nodes. Damage might looks decent, as the cards with the highest damage/mana ratio reached a point of 0.5 tick. Other than that, number of abilities looks varied with 3 cards having no abilities, 2 cards having 2 abilities, and the rest have single abilities.
Although this collection are decorated mostly with Normal type card, rather than find significant growth to take place; we instead find the Max Level Chart as a figure which not much different to the Fire Splinter melee collection. Most of the cards gathered in the upper side of the SOUTH quadrant. This clearly show a great growth in term of damage/mana ratio and health/mana ratio. But the diminishing effect started to looks more stark, as we can see the low mana cards take a stronger position than the high mana cards. Take for example Coastal Sentry (No.17) which left behind in the far left most, and so does with Kulu Mastermind (No.15).
Speed grow pretty much with 4 cards becoming blue nodes, although there are still 4 cards left as a red nodes. In contrary to speed growth, Abilities seemed to jumping up in quite number. There are 8 cards having 3 abilities and 1 cards with 4.
The abilities profile looks very similar to Fire Splinter. Striker and Tanker dominate the abilities count, while Support left with only a fingers count. Reach still stood out as the favorite abilities from Striker group. In addition to Reach, surprisingly we could find a total of 3 cards possessing Opportunity.
The Tanker abilities groups are similar to Fire Splinter. It still dominated by Defensive sub-group which is Shield, Void, and Shield Void. Those abilities are distributed very well among mana levels. Other than that, each abilities only appear once, except Enrage which possessed by 3 cards from the highest mana levels. Its very fascinating since Enrage scale up with the Speed and Damage level of the cards, so this ability could become overpower if used by high mana cards.
There is not much to talk about Support abilities since there are only 5 of them in total. Most of the Support abilities are owned by mid mana cards, which make them quite efficient to be used in term of mana cost. The new abilities, Weapon Training, also available on Kulu Mastermind (No.15), which cost 9 mana. It seemed the new abilities is designed for high mana cards, since similar thing also happened on Fire Splinter.
This final section, I give my personal thought for several card mentioned below.
'1. Cruel Sethropod
 | |
| Cruel Sethropod could be the best raw cards (card with no abilities) you could find among the Splinter. Not only it possess 7 health for 3 mana cost, but also possessed 6 armor (which equal to a Level 1 Diemonshark). And coupled with 3 damage, there's enough power for this card to batter the front row. Speed might be its only weakness, but still the huge armor and health is its priority. |
'2. Pelacor Bandit
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Pelacor Bandit have very good combination as a Ninja type card. At earlier level the card might seemed weak with only 1 melee damage, but become more powerful at later level where it gain potential to reached 4 melee damage. The high speed, high damage, combined with Flying and Sneak ability make this card very versatile to make shock attack at the start of the round while hiding in the mid row. And even when the formation got breached, the high evasion rate could support the card for survival. |
'3. Demented Shark
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| Demented Shark have a single important aspect which is the Inspire ability owned at only Level 1. Having Inspire ability on melee cards, not only assure damage addition to the possessor, but also save yourself from spending mana on ranged or magic cards with Inspire ability which you don't particularly needed. In addition Demented Shark have 4 speed and 9 health which certainly provide enough survivability to run the Inspire ability long enough. |
'4. Kulu Mastermind
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Kulu Mastermind seemed to be the most suitable card for secondary Tanker. Having Weapon Training as melee card means Kulu must stood exactly on second row for the ability to take effect to the front row card (the row behind won't benefit from this ability if not supported by Sneak or Opportunity ability). And with Opportunity, Kulu can strike down opponent while the main Tanker still stood. I imagine combining Baakjira as main Tanker supported with Kulu behind it. |
