Hello! I have been playing some Splinterlands games today and I have had some games in which I tried to use Recharge monsters. This prompted me to write this post, as it reminded me just how difficult that ability is to use. Some joke that Recharge is best used in the Back to Basics ruleset - and often they are, sadly, right. In this post, I want to go over some of the issues that Recharge has, the few use cases that the ability has, as well as which cards I personally believe could be dairly decent.

I will not go over all of the Recharge cards in here. Instead, I will first describe why - in my opinion - the ability just does not work the way it was meant to. Then I will move onto some cards that try to circumvent those weaknesses and are able to find fringe use cases - you will see which ones they are as you read through my post!

Recharge Issues

That Recharge has a lot of issues is easy to see - just go to Peakmonsters, filter by each rarity and Chaos Legion and check which ability all the cheapest cards have. Too lazy? Let me help with that.

• Epics: Temporal Master, followed by Insidious Warlock. Both at least 20% cheaper than any other card.
• Legendaries: Zyvax Vuul, followed by Ifrit Rising. Both around or more than 20% cheaper than any other card.

Sure, you can say that some cards can remain undervalued for a while (and I kind of agree in one case), but that's 4 Recharge cards out of 5, all at the very bottom of the market.

Having to skip round 1

The first big issue Recharge has is that it only starts dealing damage in the second round. Sure, if it was a DPS race on a huge target dummy, they might do more damage than other monsters, but Splinterlands battles do not work like that. This is actually, in my opinion, the largest issue of this ability and could be fixed by making it so that it starts by attacking and THEN recharging. That said, it could potentially be broken at that point.

Skipping round 1 is huge for multiple reasons. First of all, it gives all monsters a chance to attack before you, and those with higher speed will do so twice. Your unit might simply get killed before it even has a chance to get ready to attack. Secondly, it makes missing absolutely ridiculous. Every single time your Recharge monster misses, it means it hasn't done any damage for 3 turns. THREE TURNS.

Lastly, the fact it only attacks by turn two means that many of the monsters will be weakened and on the verge of being destroyed. Recharge will usually get to deal 6, 9 or even more damage in one go.. But by round 2, your target will more often than not just sit at a small amount of health and would be killed by a non-charged attack anyway.

Overvaluing Recharge in Internal Sheets

I obviously do not even know if a sheet like this exists, but it is a fairly common practice to sort of have a total power you're aiming for per card. The threshold may vary per rarity, but in general, every ability is worth a certain amount of points - so you'd take away those points elsewhere; like the card stats: by increasing mana cost, or reducing speed, attack or health.

Now, whether that exists or not will remain a mystery, but it seems like when the cards were designed, Recharge was considered a little too strong and monsters suffer in other stats. They are heavily understatted in most cases, while also having few other powerful abilities.

If you look at Temporal Master, it's only got base stats of 1 magic attack, 2 speed, 2 health. Even at max level, it only gets two attack (so 6 with Recharge) and Stun. STUN. 50% chance to stun, every other turn. Not the craziest. Ifrit Rising only gets Forcefield which is also considered rather weak, Zyvax Vuul becomes a 1v1 monster, but his problem is that he can't get through a single point of Armor. Uriel and Insidious Warlock are, in my opinion, the two cards that have a bit more uses - as they have good additional abilities and a little better stats.

Most Viable Cards

There are two cards that I believe have more potential than they are given credit for - even if I still don't think they are powerful at all. They definitely have some uses and can situationally win you games.

Insidious Warlock

The first reason for which I like this card is that it can be great already in Silver. With 2 magic attack, it is capable of dishing out 6 damage every other turn and it costs just 5 mana. In no way is it insane, but I've used it before to alright success.

What I like about it past that is that it also has a decent amount of health. Despite the low speed, it should be able to survive most collateral damage like Blast or Scattershot. Guaranteeing it gets off its 6 damage hit can lead to a great win.

In higher leagues, it also gets Blind, which is such a great ability to have, giving everyone on the enemy team a 15% chance to miss attacks - that is really big, as it means that even really high speed cards can end up whiffing completely.

Uriel, the Purifier

The only monster that isn't at the complete market floor. There are many reasons for it and I don't think it is just pure power, but it is true that he can find multiple use cases. At 11 mana, he can only really be played in mid- and high mana battles. His role is clearly that to be a tank that can also significantly help in taking out the frontline.

This is, I believe, the biggest deal with Uriel. He's alright, because attacking is not his raison d'etre. He is meant to be a damage sponge. He has Flying to dodge some attacks, he has Heal to fix himself a little after being hit. If his huge 9 or 12 damage goes through - bravo, he probably won you the game. But if it doesn't - no big deal, he is still doing his tanking job.

Of course, he is not the craziest tank, as Shieldbearer can be a worthy replacement, but there is a lot of Value to playing Uriel, due to his heal and the potential to dish out insane amounts of damage every other turn.

Closing Words

All in all, the keyword seems like it has been heavily overestimated in design - or maybe found too powerful in early playtesting. As far as I remember, Zyvax Vuul used to have piercing - which would be quite the gamechanger! That said, even now you can find some uses for some of the Recharge monsters. Hopefully, we will get some more of them, but this time ones that are able to influence the meta heavier!

All the images are screenshots from Splinterlands, as is the thumbnail.