Hello there.

Welcome to part 5 of my Rebellion Starter Monsters review. I have gone over the starter cards for Fire, Water, Earth, and Life monsters, so this time I will now go through the Death starter monsters. I will be looking at the cards on whether they have good value at Bronze levels to help newer players get started. I will try to look at their use individually, what summoners they can be good with, and what common teams they fit in. I'll also give an overall review at the end.

With these posts, I like to include my thoughts on the current game news. A big update coming is the Ranked system rework. It will be deployed on Feb 29, and it bring a lot of changes. Players will no longer be able to decline moving up a league, there will be no card level caps [max level cards in bronze?], Leaderboards will just be in Champ, flat +-20 ratings, matchmaking will be ranking based, and SPS pools will be shared by all leagues.

I can see pros and cons with these changes. With the auto promotion of league, no more league leaderboards, and no level cap, good players will eventually move up. This will leave Bronze to the newer and beginner players. With rating matchmaking instead of league matchmaking, players should be matched up to opponents closer to their skill level. The shared SPS pools can mean that lower league players might get significantly less. I can see bot farms getting a lot of SPS rewards in Wild because they can buy cheap energy in lower leagues, and play continuously while eating up the higher tier SPS that are now available to them. In modern, I can see multiple accounts being consolidated to get higher SPS rewards.

Common

The first monster is Chaos Animator. It has Amplify, and gets +1 Speed and Void at level 3. This is a very strong card. The Amplify works really well with Cursed Windeku, and the Void is a strong counter to Earth and Death teams. This gets partnered a lot with Zyriel, and is very powerful in Little League rulesets. Overall, I think it is a nice to have card at level 1-2, and a must have card at level 3.

The next monster is Ahna-Chei Botanist. It has the Return Fire ability, and it gets +1 HP and Speed at level 3. For a 2 cost monster, it has a good amount of HP and Speed. This card is also used frequently with Zyriel. I have seen it both as a Snipe tank, and a Sneak tank. This can also be used in no melee rulesets. Overall, I think this is just a nice to have card.

The next monster is New Sskah Drudge. It has the True Strike ability, and it gets +1 Speed and HP at level 3. This monster gives Death 2 True strike monsters available to them. It has good stats, and it can easily slot in with different teams. Overall, I think this card is just nice to have, and that is because of the True Strike. I would have wanted it to have higher attack instead of higher speed.

The next monster is Fenmoor Haunt. It has the Sneak ability, and it gets +1 Speed and HP at level 3. This card having two attack at level 1 is insane. It is like the Stitch Leech but faster. Its synergy with Thaddius lowering the enemy team's HP is really powerful. Together with Uraeus and Sha-vi, Death has a viable Sneak team. I think this is a must have card even at level 1.

Rare

The first Rare monster is Daigendark Hunter. It has the Sneak ability, and gets +1 Speed at level 2. Death has a lot more options with their team compositions now. In a Range only ruleset, Daigendark can take the opponent by surprise and hit the backline. The 3 attack is really high, although it has low HP. It can be added to the other Sneak monsters, although I think it might be overkill. Unfortunately, I think this card is only nice to have because it is ranged. It has its niche, but it is difficult to use it outside of that because of its high mana cost.

The next monster is Wailing Wraith. It has the Armored Strike and Reach ability, and it gets +1 Speed at level 2. I think this card can be underestimated by some, but the Reach ability makes it very powerful. Death has a cheap Protect monster in Ravenhood, that can increase the Wailing Wraith's armor to 3. At 4 mana, it can deal 4 damage and be relatively safe in the second position. It gets even stronger during Armored Up ruleset. Sadly, I think it is still a nice to have card. Death has a lot of Magic monsters in low mana. For this to truly shine, it needs a lot of cards with it. If it is behind the Chaos Animator, it can survive for a while.

The next monster is the Helheim Demon. It has the Flying and Taunt ability, and gets +1 HP at level 2. I value Taunt abilities highly because it can split the opponent's damage. Having a magic attack is really good, although it isn't as effective when facing Thaddius. The Flying is a really nice bonus, since Death is already strong in Earthquake rulesets. The Taunt makes this card very versatile. In Blast rulesets, Reklah can be used. This can also work well with Lily because of the triage. Overall, I think this card is a must have. The 9HP at level 2 can be helpful when using Triage.

The last card is Chaos Jailer. It has Opportunity and Ambush abilities, and gets the Poison ability on level 2. As if Death doesn't have enough backline access, they get this monster of a card card. It is the only Bronze card with Poison in all sets. Not just in modern, but in all sets. For me, this card is the reason why Daigendark is not included in the backline team of Death. Poison has so much possibilities. A powerful counter to Sneak and Opportunity teams is the Thanalorian Scion, and Clockwork Aide to a lesser degree. If Chaos Jailer can poison them, then they immediately die at the end of the round. Just because of how rare Poison is in Bronze [outside of Waka], I think this card is a must have at level 2, especially if you are using the backline teams of Death.

That is it for my Rebellion starter monsters review - Death. There aren't any starter cards for Dragon, so I'll discuss the Neutral cards next. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for improvement.

And as always, these are Not Financial Advice, and Do Your Own Research.

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