Hello Everyone! Hope you all are doing amazing and welcome to another #Splinterlands post.
Alright, time for another #Splinterlands card spotlight!
Today I wanted to take a look at a card that honestly doesn't look super crazy when you first see it.
The card is, Grimbardun Fighter.
This is a Common Neutral unit, and at max level it has 3 abilities:
Shield
Corrosive Ward
Deflect
And after looking at these abilities properly, I started thinking, this card is actually pretty annoying to fight against.
It doesn't have some crazy flashy ability that immediately catches your attention.
Instead, it basically specializes in making your opponent regret attacking it.
And honestly, I kinda like cards like that.
So let's start with the basic stats.
At max level, Grimbardun Fighter has:
9 Mana
4 Melee Attack
9 Health
3 Armor
3 Speed
The first thing I noticed is that 9 mana is quite expensive.
This isn't one of those cheap cards you can throw into basically any lineup.
You need to have enough mana available for it.
But then you look at the defensive stats.
9 health + 3 armor is already pretty decent.
And then you remember, this thing has Shield.
That's where things get interesting.
Shield: 50% less damage from physical attacks or 0 damage from physical attacks of 1 power.
The first ability is Shield.
Shield means the unit takes 50% less damage from physical attacks, and physical attacks with only 1 power deal 0 damage.
This is a really useful defensive ability.
Especially against melee and ranged attackers.
Basically, if your opponent is relying heavily on physical damage, Grimbardun Fighter can become a massive headache.
Instead of taking the full hit, it takes half.
And when you already have armor on top of that?
That's not exactly a fun target to attack.
I think this is probably the ability that makes Grimbardun Fighter feel like a proper tank.
It's not just about having a lot of health.
It's about making every physical attack against it less effective.
Corrosive Ward: -2 to attacker's maximum armor when hit by a melee attack.
Now this is where the card gets even more interesting.
Grimbardun Fighter has Corrosive Ward.
When the card gets hit by a melee attack, the attacker loses 2 maximum armor.
So basically, your opponent attacks this card, and their own armor gets damaged permanently.
I really like abilities like this because they punish your opponent simply for attacking you.
Imagine an enemy melee tank with a lot of armor.
They charge forward thinking they're going to destroy your frontline.
They hit Grimbardun Fighter, and suddenly their maximum armor starts dropping.
Over multiple attacks, this can become a serious problem.
And that's especially useful against teams that depend heavily on armor for survival.
Deflect: 0 damage from Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Thorns, Return Fire and Blast splash damage.
And then we have Deflect.
This one is really interesting because it protects Grimbardun Fighter from a bunch of secondary damage effects.
Deflect means it takes 0 damage from Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Thorns, Return Fire and Blast splash damage.
So basically, some of those annoying little damage effects that can slowly chip away at your units?
They don't work against this guy.
And that can be very useful.
Especially in battles where the opponent is using things like Thorns, Return Fire or Magic Reflect.
You don't have to worry about your own attack getting punished by those effects.
And Blast splash damage doesn't bother it either.
That's a lot of annoying mechanics that this one ability can basically ignore.
This is probably my favorite thing about Grimbardun Fighter.
Each ability does something different, but they all work toward the same idea:
Make this unit difficult to deal with.
Shield reduces physical damage.
Corrosive Ward punishes melee attackers.
Deflect protects against a bunch of reflected and splash damage effects.
So if your opponent attacks it with melee, they have to deal with Shield.
And then Corrosive Ward starts damaging their armor.
If they're using ranged attacks?
Shield still helps.
If they're relying on Thorns, Return Fire, Magic Reflect or Blast?
Deflect helps.
So you can see the pattern here.
This card basically says:
"Okay, attack me if you want, but you're probably not going to enjoy it."
Personally, I think Grimbardun Fighter works best when you expect the opponent to use a lot of physical damage.
If I see a lineup that looks heavily focused on melee attacks, this card becomes much more interesting.
It can sit in the frontline and absorb those attacks while slowly making the enemy's armor weaker.
I also think it could work really well in battles where there are a lot of damage reflection mechanics.
Because Deflect basically gives you some protection from all those annoying effects.
And because it's a Neutral unit, you have more freedom when building your team.
You don't have to worry about being locked into one specific element just to use it.
There are quite a few things I like about this card.
Shield makes it a strong physical tank.
9 health gives it decent staying power.
3 armor gives it another layer of protection.
Corrosive Ward punishes melee attackers.
Deflect protects against several annoying damage effects.
It's a Neutral unit, so you can use it with different teams.
4 melee attack means it isn't completely passive.
That last part is important.
It's not just sitting there doing nothing.
With 4 melee attack, it can actually contribute damage while tanking.
Of course, there are some downsides.
The biggest one for me is the 9 mana cost.
That's a lot.
You can't always fit this card into your lineup, especially in low or medium mana battles.
And while 3 speed isn't terrible, it's also nothing special.
You may find it getting hit before it gets a chance to attack.
Also, Shield is much more useful against physical attacks than magic.
So if your opponent has a very strong magic-based lineup, Grimbardun Fighter might not feel nearly as impressive.
That's something you definitely need to keep in mind.
After looking at Grimbardun Fighter properly, I think this is one of those cards that can be easy to overlook.
It's a Common card.
It doesn't have some crazy legendary-looking stats.
And the 9 mana cost might make you think twice before using it.
But the abilities are actually pretty solid.
Shield + Corrosive Ward + Deflect is a really interesting defensive combination.
The card basically specializes in making physical attackers work harder for their damage.
And I really like that.
It also has enough attack to contribute to the battle instead of just standing there and absorbing hits.
The biggest thing is knowing when to use it.
If you throw it into a battle against a heavy magic lineup, you might wonder why you bothered.
But against the right opponent?
I can definitely see Grimbardun Fighter becoming a huge pain.
Especially when your opponent keeps attacking it and realizes, "Wait, why is my armor disappearing?"
Anyway thats it for today’s #Splinterlands grind. Please do give your reviews in the comments section below. I would really appreciate it :)
I'll be back with another one soon. So do follow me if you want to stay updated. Till then, Stay Happy and Stay Hydrated.
THUMBNAIL IS EDITED IN CANVA
IMAGE SOURCE IS GIVEN BELOW
