The Splinterlands team just announced a whole new set of new reward cards as the remaining beta-rewards are going out-of-print. Just like last time I need to decide in which of these to invest. Those which I think useful will be added to my deck. The others I will collect but set up for rent on the Peakmonsters rental market.

I have a strategy for each of the Splinters, which resembles their original strength. This way I can make sure to invest in the right cards by applying a focus instead of just randomly gathering cards with abilities not enhancing each other.

With this in mind, let's look at some of the new cards.

Water Splinter

My strategy for water is focusing on ranged and magic attackers. I own maxed versions of Ruler of the Seas, Mermaid Healer, Pirate Archer and Naga Windmaster. Despite not owning a maxed water summoner except for Xia Seachan, I often use these strong cards with my maxed Delwyn Dragonscale or Selenia Sky.

The Axemaster fits perfectly in my set of water cards. With the new Close Range ability it is a great addition when using water with Selenia Sky. Now I can use her buff on the tank!

Death Splinter

My death team focuses greatly on debuffs, thorns and poison. The strategy is to weaken the enemy and make them hurt themselves. With a maxed out Zintar Mortalis as a summoner and maxed monsters like Fallen Spectre, Phantom Soldier, Boogeyman and Spineback Wolf I already have a mighty team. Even though not maxed out the Skeleton Assassin and the Haunted Spider are also doing a good job, poisoning my enemies.

Despite the Cripple ability, which seems OK, but not too powerful, the Dark Ferryman brings a new ability to the game which is called Dispel. Dispel removes all positive status effects from enemy monsters. How this plays out, we yet have to learn. It sounds very promising, though, as positive status effects may weaken my death team's debuffs. Definitely worth a try!

Life Splinter

My Life Splinter is unimaginative but a useful and effective strong defense team. I play a maxed out Peakrider in combination with Magic Reflect monsters as well as Protect, Heal, Repair and Resurrect in the back rows to make my enemies dispair at the stronghold and slowly die during their siege.

The Chain Spinner looks useful for this strategy as it is a high armor monster with armor effective against magic attacks. However, I prefer sticking to my Silvershield Knight to reflect those attacks rather than just block them. I think before investing in the Chain Spinner I should level up the Knight which I currently own on level 6 only. So, no new Life cards for me.

Fire Splinter

With a maxed out Malric Inferno and a maxed out Plado Emberstorm my Fire Splinter is focusing on fast spead and high damage melee attackers. I usually play this with a strong Reach monster like Giant Roc and sneakers like Kobold Miner, Serpentine Spy and Elven Cutthroat. These I buff with Inspire from Beetle Queen or Enchanted Pixie.

The Charlock Minotaur looks useful for a tank in this scenario, but it is slow and I already have maxed out Molten Ogre which has similar use-cases. I'll give the Minotaur a maybe.

Earth Splinter

Earth is among my weaker splinters, mainly because I did not max out any of the cards important for my Earth strategy. My usual intention when using Earth is to use a lot of Healing. The Flesh Golem is a nice tank with the Healing ability which can get support from Wood Nymph, Khmer Princess and Spirit of the Forest.

Only one new Earth card has been announced and it is a tank, which does not fit into my Earth strategy at all. Therefore, no new Earth cards for me.

Dragon Splinter

Dragon does not get any new monsters with the soon-to-come reward addition. I guess that is appropriate as there were many new Dragons added lately and what was once meant a as a support splinter is already one of the mightiest even without adding the others.

Neutral Monsters

This leaves us with the new Legendary:

Almo Cambio is yet another Lord Arianthus clone following in file with Onyx Sentinel. Out of the three it is the only one which does not deal Thorns damage.

I decided against collecting the Sentinel as I already own a maxed Lord Arianthus. But the Almo interests me as with Magic Reflect and Return Fire it seems like the ideal tank for the Keep Your Distance ruleset. It's immunity to negative status effects and that magic attacks have a chance of missing it, are additional bonuses.

Join the fight!

The new cards introduced in this post can be gained (as a matter of fact they can ONLY be gained) as rewards for playing and cannot be gotten from buying booster packs. Join the Splinterlands game now and after the one-time purchase of a "Summoner's Spellbook" for 10 USD you can earn these cards for free by just playing the game!

Disclaimer: No financial advice included in this article. Do your own research!

Some links in the post are referral links. Feel free to use other sign-up methods, but you really should sign up to Splinterlands with a referrer as that earns (both you and them) a free trading card once you decide to purchase the spellbook.