PORTAL SPINNER : THE BENDING OF SPACE

1. Its very rare to find ranged cards with armor traits. And the 5 mana cards is the lowest one to find ranged cards with armor (there are none for 6 mana, and will only be available again on 7 mana). So Portal Spinner has its own uniqueness and advantage for having extra layer of protection.	1. In overall, Portal Spinner have a balanced parameter, so this card have no particular strong point.
2. Ability is always the differing factor between cards. Scattershot is one of the scarce ability (by far only 9 cards possessing it) Portal Spinner is the only cards from Life Splinter to possess such ability. Portal Spinner is comparable to Gem Meteor and Blood Maker (both equally costing 5 mana), with Portal Spinner being stronger in endurance in exchange for lower speed.	2. Snare might be a useful ability but since its only effective against Flying cards, and the chances to meet them are quite rare, the usage of this ability is rather limited.
*Reference for Archetype term : Striker --> Superior Damage / Tanker --> Superior Health / Ninja --> Superior Speed / Support --> A Lot Number of Abilities.

The regular foil price of the card has experiencing a sharp rise and fall in the past few months. The current price could be considered at the low end, floating around $0.04 per bcx. In contrary the gold foil price show a very contrasting figure. The gold foil has gained a stronger price floating at $2.23 per bcx. This price is quite higher compared to the past few months.

Calculating the total bcx needed to reached max level, it would require $4.60 to reached max level on regular foil, and $49.06 to reached max level on gold foil. The price gap is quite large, but still its acceptable to have price gap which below 10 times.

Portal Spinner is very much similar to Dhampir Stalker (see my previous posts). This card have a rather balanced growth on all parameter. But due this card have an armor parameter, the growth are split between speed and armor. Progressions are started with rotation between health, armor, and damage. Then there will be a new ability addition, Snare. As mentioned previously, this ability have limited use case. The progression then continue on speed, health, and finally another damage. Damage seemed to be last to get, which signify that damage growth are powerful addition to this card.

Overall the balanced progression steps made levelling up this cards as something rewarding and interesting to pursue.

Here's one of my battle experience with Portal Spinner in my formation. Click BATTLE LINK to see how the battle run.

The battle has 40 mana cap, with Ferocity ruleset, and only Life and Death Splinter faction are available. For my formation, I used:

Position	Card Name	Level	Mana	Health	Armor	Speed	Attack Type	Damage
Summoner	General Sloan	2	4	-	-	-	-	-
1st Row	Chaos Knight	3	6	4	3	3	Melee	3
2nd Row	Corsair Bosun	1	10	6	5	3	Melee	4
3rd Row	Truthspeaker	1	3	1	-	2	None	-
4th Row	Portal Spinner	2	5	4	1	2	Ranged	2
5th Row	Pelacor Arbalest	2	6	3	-	2	Ranged	2
6th Row	Supply Runner	3	6	5	-	4	Ranged	2

My opponent formation:

Position	Card Name	Level	Mana	Health	Armor	Speed	Attack Type	Damage
Summoner	Franz Ruffmane	2	6	-	-	-	-	-
1st Row	Venari Marksrat	2	3	3	-	1	Ranged	1
2nd Row	Marisol Contuma	1	9	8	4	5	Melee	4
3rd Row	Scavo Hireling	1	3	1	-	2	None	-
4th Row	Shieldbearer	1	8	9	4	2	Melee	2
5th Row	Iziar	1	11	12	-	3	Magic	2
6th Row	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

This is more of a one-sided battle. And its all because of Ferocity ruleset and the Taunt ability. It seemed my opponent have made a great blunder by deploying 2 cards with Taunt ability, and while both costing a large sum of mana. My formation are led by General Sloan as summoner, then followed by Chaos Knight. Chaos Knight is not my type of Tanker considering its low health and armor, but its Shield ability are valuable sometimes. Corsair Bosun follow up with its Reach ability. Truthspeaker looks imbalanced compared to other cards with higher mana, but its Protect ability might be useful and create great leverage from the full formation. Portal Spiner, Pelacor Arbalest, and Supply Runner follow in the rear squad as the main damage dealer. They also gain benefit from the ranged damage buff.

My opponent decided to run with Franz Ruffmane to gain privilege on Gladiator card. The formation are led by Venari Marksrat, a canon fodder to boost the parameter of subsequent card. Marisol Contuma was a great contender. It has the complete combination of health, armor, speed, and damage. Scavo Hireling play Support mainly to recover Marisol's armor. The next 2 cards are bit confusing. Shieldbearer and Iziar are both possessing Taunt, which surely caught in then effect of Fury. Shieldbearer will be rendered useless because of his position as melee card. Iziar is a powerful high mana card but only against magic cards due to its Void ability. Oterh than that, it main drawback come from it lack damage power (2 magic damge while costing 11 mana).

The battle are opened with Contuma and Iziar both dealing 2 damage into Chaos Knight health and armor (thanks to the Shield ability!). Corsari Bosun and Chaos Knight come with retaliation against Venari Marksrat and bring it down in one quick strike. But this only caused Marisol Contume to gain boost. Pelacor Arbalest make an excellent performance by dealing 2 times 6 damage against Shieldbearer. Portal Spinner take its turn but only deal armor damage into Scavo Hireling, which are repaired on the following turn.

Another combination attack from Marisol Contuma and Iziar has put Chaos Knight into demise for good. And then again the Fury effect caused great turmoil. Pelacor Arbalest make another deadly 2 times 6 damage which exactly the needed damage to bring down Iziar for good. Portal Spinner also takes it turn to deal damage into Marisol Contuma which again repaired by Scavo Hireling in the following turn.

Turn 3 become an act of valor for Marisol Contuma. After sustaining armor breach from Supply Runner and then followed by single blow from Corsair Bosun, Marisol Contuma outmaneuvered Pelacor Arbalest and Portal Spinner, avoiding all 3 incoming attacks!

The battle now continue to 4th round, but luck seemed to finally ceased, as Marisol Contuma sustain 3 consecutive damage, which ended with Portal Spinner landed the final blow. And then with only Scavo Hireling left alone, it only take Pelacor Arbalest to end the battle for good.

Did your strategy work? What will you try differently next time?

I expect Portal Spinner more as a wild Striker. Its main use should deal with bringing down Support which have enclosed position. In this battle Scavo Hireling is the main target. But due to its Repair ability, Portal Spinner only crush the armor only to be repaired again by Scavo. But still it prove its usefulness, by delaying Scavo Hireling from repairing armor on more important card.

Do you like PORTAL SPINNER? Why or why not?

I find Portal Spinner useful in certain situation but rather difficult to be used. The best way to use Portal Spinner is only if we at least have secured a solid Tanker and proper damage dealer. Portal Spinner more of a backup plan to counter any Support position.

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