The Most (secretly) Overpowered Card in Frontier Mode

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

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Arcane Curator is a card that many players don’t pay much attention to in Frontier Mode but it can be more useful than it looks. At first, it seems weak since it has no attack and low health but these conditions can actually work to your advantage (if you know how to use it).

What makes Arcane Curator stand out is how it changes the way you play. Instead of focusing on strong attacks, it helps by being fast and by taking hits in smart ways. With the right setup and right positioning of your monsters, this card can protect your key monsters and turn the match in your favor. In a mode where there are fewer card choices, even small details like this can decide the winner of a battle.

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Pick a card you feel is underrated or overlooked.

In Frontier Mode, I think Arcane Curator is a really strong card that others does not use a lot. This Drakoshan monster may not have any attacks or has low health but its usefulness comes from its abilities and Speed which is unusual in Frontier Mode.

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Share why you think it’s more powerful (or more useful) than most players realize.

Arcane Curator's ability, Backfire, can deal 2 damage to any opponents that missed their attack. This is useful depending on what combo you are aiming for that I would be mentioning later. Arcane Curator also has high speed, more than most Foundation cards. Foundation card monsters have mostly 1 or 2 speed which means they miss a lot on a 4 speed monster. However, since it's just a chance, a 1 speed monster may still hit a 4 speed monster if the RNG God lets them.

Another reason why it's strong is its health. However, I don't mean that it's strong because it has high health but rather due to its low health. Arcane Curator has 3 health which is equal to Sorrow Harvester's health, which means with proper positioning, you can use him to block potential attacks from opponents if they have Opportunity. Because it has no attack, it can also block potential attacks from units with Snipe ability. These are important mechanics if you want to keep your Sorrow Harvester or any key monsters alive longer.

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Show us a battle replay where this card helped you win.

^{https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_50a710260b1e5934dcd2ee96d4ac69f7}
This battle is the perfect example of how strong Arcane Curator is in Frontier Mode. The opponents have two very dangerous monsters, Vicious Quilliun and Vengeful Monk. Both of these monsters have Opportunity which means their attacks target the lowest health monster in my team. Sorrow Harvester's low health is usually the target so adding Arcane Curator in front of Sorrow Harvester creates a wall to protect her from those two monsters trying to kill her.

Unfortunately, their attacks never missed against Arcane Curator despite the speed difference but by the time Arcane Curator died, the opponent's tanks already died allowing me to kill their whole team.

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Offer tips for how others can use this card effectively.

The reason Arcane Curator was able to block the opponent's attack is that if the monsters on the opposing side has same health, the monsters with Opportunity targets the first one in the lineup. If you have a monster with 3 health on slot 6 and have another monster with 3 health of slot 3, when the monster with Opportunity attack, they will target the one in slot 3 first. So, with that logic, just put Arcane Curator in front of any monsters you want to protect. As long as he has less health than those monsters, he'll take the heat off of those monsters.

Since Frontier Mode has very limited selection of Archon and monsters, there's not a lot of options to enhance this monster's value.

In Modern Ranked Format though, partner Arcane Curator with any monsters with Swiftness and it would make use of that Backfire more.

If you're playing in Wild Ranked Format, Astral Entity is a scary combination. This archon gives Death monsters Dodge ability among others which means your Arcane Curator will have 25% more chance to evade any physical attacks.

However, if you're annoyed from magic spam strategies, Arcane Curator with Sthispa's Phase ability can be your friend. Phase allows your monsters to evade attacks with magic damage and with Backfire, when you evade an attack, they get 2 damage back. Monsters with magic damage have normally low speed which makes this combo powerful.

Arcane Curator is a great card to highlight because its speed and unique role can catch opponents off guard. However, its low health and lack of attack make it very situational so it needs the right monsters to overcome the power difference to truly shine. Overall, it’s an underrated monster that proves even weaknesses can be strenght if you know how to use the monster properly.

• This post is an entry for Splinterlands Social Media Contest.
• Animated Banners and Dividers are edited in Canva Pro.
• Other sources that I do not own are cited under their respective photos.
• Some of the fonts used are from instafonts.io

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