Conclave Arcana, the newest installment in the Splinterlands franchise is now available for pre-sale. Like Rebellion, it seems like this one will also completely change the game with the introduction of "Bloodline."

What are you most excited about with the release of Conclave Arcana?

The thing I am most excited about is the introduction of bloodlines as Splinterlands are now slowly turning into Yugioh, which is a good thing. There's a reason why Yugioh has been popular for more than 25 years. If Splinterlands aim for a more competitive play, an international tournament and not just another NFT game, I believe we should be aim to be ones that are played on the grand stage like Yugioh and Magic the Gathering. With this change, I would say this is the right direction.

With the new introduction of Bloodlines, Splinterlands now have Elements and Types on each card which creates "archetypes." This is a really good idea as in the future, Splinterlands can now release mini-structure decks based on these bloodlines and even if it's a bit pricier than regular packs, can be sure that you can use it anytime as long as your Archon aligns with it... Oh wait, it's a mini-structure deck, so it has an Archon that you can use. Problem solved.

Any card art, lore teasers, or abilities you're hoping to see?

I'm going to be biased here but I want to see the slime family on stage. We have Septic Slime, Cursed Slimeball and Gelatinous Cube. So, a slime bloodline isn't that far off. Slimes also can change form so one that has Shapeshift ability is also a good idea.

For abilities, I'd like to see Summoner Tactics (would it be Archon Tactics now?) that can be applied to the enemies other than Underground Fabino's Poisoned. I'd say they can use the debilitations to apply to enemies as well. Imagine attaching Incendiary to the enemy back line. That would be strong but at the same time, as a summoner, you should be prepared for these situations.

I also want cards that can be played mid-game like spell cards or items. The only thing is I don't know how it would affect the auto battle mechanics. Regardless, it would be really nice to see new ways summoners (as the players) can affect the battle.

How do you think this set will impact your personal strategy?

Based on the leaks now, I don't think there's going to be a huge change in my strategy as of now. The bloodlines lack abilities that affects other bloodlines so using them or not is optional for now.

I made a post, Felis Catsaber, a month ago that has the same idea. In this post, I added the "felis ability" which has an effect, "For each adjacent unit with "Felis" ability, this unit gains +1 Speed and +1 attack. This bonus cannot be dispelled as long as there is a "Felis" unit beside it."

So, if Felis would become a bloodline in this example, if you have three units with Felis bloodline, the middle would have +2 speed and +2 attack while the other two has +1. This makes sense to use more Felis bloodline in your team creating an archetype. This lacks the current state of bloodlines so there's no reason to focus on getting bloodlines or using them right now. That is my take and my strategy will just proceed as normal.

The one thing that would change though is the use of Taunt + Void + Shield. I saw this "Relentless Attack" ability with a ***"true damage"**** in the description. It's true damage and not true strike so I assume that abilities like Shield and Void cannot reduce the damage from units with this ability. If more units will have this ability, I may need to completely change my tactics from now on.

Bloodline and why I think it's a huge improvement

If you play other TCG, this is equivalent to types or archetypes like "Reptile" or "Warrior" in Yugioh. Yes, the future cards will all have types now by the name of bloodlines.

This is a very good change because it expands your unit options. One abilities that would be on Archons now is "Bloodline Dominion: You can summon any unit of the same bloodline as this archon, regardless of element." So, your Archon now can summon Fire units even if they are Water aligned as long as they have the same bloodline. This would really expand your options and even allow you to use just one bloodline for your battles regardless of elements.

Summoner rename to Archon

This, I think, isn't as important as bloodline but it might confuse older players. It's just a name change, nothing more. So, now, players are called "Summoners." You are not a player but the summoner in Splinterlands and the former summoners are now called "Archons." There's no change in gameplay for now, just name changes.

Hi, y'all. Slimey here, your jolly and gullible little blue slime. I got reincarnated to this world to better my art and join community challenges to get more practice and improve my skill.

Know more about me by checking out my introduction post

See funny vtuber clips and animations by checking out my youtube channel.

Support me by joining Splinterlands using my referral code.

---

Images are taken from Splinterlands, Drawn in Krita, Animated in Photoshop and Edited in Canva.