The Immortal Siren, Runemancer Kye

Riftwatchers was just released a few weeks ago and among them, there's, I think, an undervalued card we're ignoring. Stat-wise, she doesn't look strong. She has high mana cost, no protection to be a tank and doesn't really stand out among the others......

As a siren, Azura Kye loves spending her days in the sky and her nights deep beneath the waves. She is a third-generation Riftwatcher who grew up listening to her grandparent’s stories of the Chaos Legion’s invasion of their homeworld, Lemell.

Azura learned to fight at a young age and grew to become a renowned sorceress. She also has an incredible aptitude for runemancy and has developed a variety of mana-infused weapons and gadgets for her allies to employ in their fight against the Chaos Legion. On the battlefield, she has proven herself repeatedly, facing off against the Legion’s scouts on various realms and harassing their forces with clandestine, insurgent tactics. Once, she even single-handedly brought down a kraken.

Subsequently, she rose quickly through the ranks of the Riftwatchers. Time passed, and so too did the old guard. Azura was an obvious choice to replace them. Honored to follow in the footsteps of her predecessors, she now wears the mantle of Runemancer. She is a natural leader and a champion of the people, dedicating her life to stopping the Chaos Legion threat.
On yet another world ravaged by the Chaos Legion, Azura Kae swam toward the harbor of a ruined city, guiding a merchant ship through the flotsam and jetsam. A thunderous explosion of water sounded behind her. She turned. Massive tentacles rose from the sea all around the vessel. One slammed upon its deck, crushing the crew beneath it. Another wrapped itself around a sailor, hoisted him into the air, and yanked him beneath the waves. The ship rocked from side to side, sending more sailors overboard. The sea churned and frothed around the vessel. It was perilously close to capsizing.

A kraken. Azura had heard tales of these leviathans, which inhabited the depths of many realms, including her homeworld of Lemell. She dove beneath the waves and swam toward it, her runic staff at her side. The shard of crystalized mana at its head glowed a vibrant violet.

Through the murk ahead, the beast’ s massive shape emerged until it filled her vision. Tentacles writhed around it, yanking sailors from the ship and the water’ s surface, dragging them down into the brine and crushing them until they burst in a cloud of crimson. < BR / > < BR / > The muffled thunder of cannons echoed from the ship.Harpoons flew and jabbed into the tentacles like tiny thorns. It only enraged the kraken more. It wrapped its tentacles around the vessel, intent on dragging it beneath the waves. < BR / > < BR / > Azura’ s tail whipped through the water, and her wings propelled her even faster. She wove through the thrashing tentacles, toward the kraken’ s head, and thrust her staff into its eye. It pierced the cornea and sank into the vitreous meat. Then the shard of mana at the staff’ s head exploded with violet light. The eye bulged, then it, too, exploded. < BR / > < BR / > The leviathan’ s roar reverberated through the depths. Its tentacles flailed wildly. One of the ship’ s masts fell into the water, its sail furled around it as it sank into the darkness. Half - blind, mad with pain, the kraken rose toward the surface, intent on ramming into the vessel’ s hull.

Holding fast to the beast’ s head with one hand, she used the other to drive her staff deeper into the ruined remains of its eye.Gritting her teeth, she drove it deeper still, until her entire arm —up to the shoulder— was inside the grisly socket. < BR / > < BR / > Deep within the kraken’ s skull, the staff exploded with magic again. The beast’ s tentacles jerked. Its body twitched. It fell still, dead at last, and drifted upward. It breached the surface alongside the ship and bumped harmless against it. < BR / > < BR / >A cheer went up from the surviving crew.

Note: I didn't add the < BR / > part. I'm not sure if it's intentional or just a coding mistake.

Lore can be found on Splinterlands Card Lore Page.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

Runemancer Kye is one of the expensive ones among the Riftwatcher's cards. Not only it is new but also because it's strong especially if you're fond of the old Water Magic builds. For a little lower than $20, you can get yours and it would give you a lot of wins as long as you have Alric Stormbringer in the pack.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

If you don't trust me, you can try it for 3.78 DEC per day. It's surprisingly strong and honestly, maybe one of my new favorite cards in the game.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

Runemancer Kye's damage is actually low for an 11 mana cost card. However, since the Life Leech is quite strong, I think it's justified. The health and armor is also a bonus which allows her to be a tank or secondary tank if needed.

At level 1, Flying Ability is unlocked. Flying ability increases the monster's evasion chance by 15% against monsters without Flying ability. It's good for avoiding some of the attacks while Runemancer Kye gains more health from Life Leech.

At the same level, at level 1, Life Leech is unlocked. Life leech gains half the damage the unit does, rounded up. At 2 damage, Life Leech steals 1 max health. At 3 damage, it steals 2 max health. That's why Alric Stormbringer is required in this set up.

At level 3, Fury is unlocked. Monster with Fury does double damage to monsters with Taunt ability.

Abilities described above are from Splinterland using my account.

Click the link below to see the full battle:

https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_78031e5498d2c11cd98f306258595fc0

These are the other battles also I did:
Other Generic Battle

Runemancer Kye w/ Poison Fumes Rules of Combat

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

24 Mana Cap. Total mana cost of all monsters must not exceed 24.

Standard Rules of Combat. No changes in the mechanics or rules for this battle.

All Elements Unlocked. Summoners and Monsters from all elements can be used during this battle.

Abilities used in this battle are from Splinterland using my account.

Those in BLACK font are mine.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

1. Ice Pixie's attack killed
   Antoid Platoon.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

1. Runemancer Kye's attack killed
   Chaos Agent.
2. Tenyii Striker
   's Sneak attack Scavo Hireling.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

1. Runemancer Kye's attack killed
   Lava Spider.
2. Serpentine Spy
   's Opportunity attack killed Ice Pixie.
3. Venari Wavesmith's attack killed
   Radiant Scorcher.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

1. Runemancer Kye's attack killed
   Serpentine Spy.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

1. Venari Wavesmith's attack killed
   Tenyii Striker.

Yes. I was actually expecting this to be a bad experience but it was actually amazing. The rental price is kind of steep for a Bronze player but it was satisfying doing a combo of Runemancer Kye and Alric Stormbringer.

It's also not foolproof. I still lost a few game but man, the won games, for some reason, are so satisfying.

Summoner: Alric Stormbringer: Kind of required for this lineup. The extra damage from Alric Stormbringer gives Runemancer Kye level 1 the ability to get 2 health instead of 1 due to Life Leech ability.

1. Runemancer Kye: The main star of the group. The Life Leech and magic damage allows her to gain consistent health per attack.

2. Venari Wavesmith: She has Protect ability that increases all of your monster's armor by 2. It's good for protecting those low health monsters without too much resource.

3. Ice Pixie: A semi filler unit. It's 2 cost and has magic damage which makes her compatible with Alric Stormbringer.

4. Scavo Hireling: Has Repair ability that restores a monster's armor per round.

Yes. My strategy was actually Runemancer Kye doing a pseudo-heal with Life Leech. However, my opponent's "attack the back" strategy actually worked for me. Since my opponent is targeting my back row, Runemancer Kye was free sucking all the life she wants eventually having almost twice the health she initially started.

I don't have Djinn Oshannus right now, but a Djinn Oshannus front row, then Runemancer Kye at the back sounds solid to me. They both have magic damage as well so they both get benefits from Alric Stormbringer. That, I think is the best lineup.

You can even increase the potential to adding Venari Wavesmith and a bunch of level 1s and 0s to the front of Djinn Oshannus if you have a few more mana cost extra. I doubt Runemancer Kye will die from any Sneak Attacks due to her insane health and armor, in addition to her Life Leech.

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• Other sources that I do not own are cited under their respective photos. Photos and drawings without cited sources are mine and made for this post.
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Good luck and keep grinding!