In Splinterlands, many battles are decided not by the front tank but by what happens behind it. Backline units like healers and supports often decide who wins the long fight. When those units fall early, the whole team starts to crumble fast. That is why units that can reach the back line are always scary and Captain Fellblade is the scariest of them all.

Lore

They say she is the most infamous pirate to have ever raised the Jolly Roger and sailed the seas. They say she was impervious to the blight that swept across Praetoria. They say she put paid to Queen Mycelia's brood. That she single-handedly liberated Kainek and other towns like it from the shackles of tyranny. That she summoned the Riftwatchers and trained them in the art of runemancy. That even the Undying are no match for her fellblade.

And that, should the citizens of Praetoria rise against their oppressors, she will emerge from the shadows to lead them against the Chaos Empire and bring its Ascendency to their knees.

https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/582/regular/12?tab=lore

Stats

Captain Fellblade is a fast and brutal damage dealer that specializes in breaking the enemy back line with its two different attacks. With both magic and melee attacks plus Sneak, he excels at disrupting the enemy from the back, normally targetting supports and other damage dealers first before they can do their job. He is not a tank or pure support, but an assassin-style unit that works best with multiple units and arhons. Captain Fellblade loves an aggressive lineups that want to end the fight early.

Abilities

Icon	Name	Description
	Sneak	Targets the last Unit on the enemy Team instead of the first Unit.
		is a match because Sneak becomes much more deadly when paired with Inspire because Inspire increases melee damage for all allies. Since Captain Fellblade already has melee attack, the Sneak hit becomes stronger and more effective to fragile backline units. Inspire is effective because it can be used to combo other Sneak units which is mostly melee units as well.
		is a counter because Taunt completely disrupts the purpose of Sneak by redirecting all attacks to a single unit. Instead of hitting weak supports, Captain Fellblade is forced to attack a tanky Taunt unit. This wastes her potential and removes the main reason she was placed in the team. It also makes her speed less impactful, because you will be forced to attack the same wall. The enemy gains full control over where her damage goes and completely counter your strategy in the process.

	Strengthen	All friendly Units have their Health increased by 1.
		is a match because Strengthen adds extra health to every friendly unit making the entire team harder to kill. When paired with Triage, that bonus health becomes more valuable because Triage heals based on total health. This is especially helpful when you have Taunt units in the back line so they can be both affected by Strengthen and Triage. This combo is especially strong in long battles where many units at the back benefits from it. Even one extra point of life can block a killing blow and turn a loss into win.
		is a counter because Weaken directly counters Strengthen by reducing the maximum health of all enemy units. When both are present, the value of Strengthen is removed because Strengthen gives your team 1 extra health and then enemy Weaken removes 1 extra health making you go back to start with no change. In some battles, it would be a battle of who kills the unit first. If you kill the unit with Weaken, your team gets +1 health. If they kill your Captain Fellblade first, your team gets the -1 health instead.

Good Rules to Consider

Icon	Name	Reason
	Explosive Weaponry	All units have Blast (deals an additional 50% damage to units adjacent to the target, rounded up).
		Captain Fellblade becomes extremely dangerous because each of his two attack types can trigger Blast, that she can get from Explosive Weaponry rule, separately. With high speed, she often strikes first and spreads damage across multiple enemies. This rule turns him into a strong area damage unit that could kill multiple units at once.
	Unprotected	Units do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs.
		Since no unit has armor, her melee attack goes straight into health. Many backline units rely on small armor values to survive one more hit and that protection is gone. This allows Captain Fellblade to remove supports in fewer rounds and snowball the fight. Since Captain Fellblade has no armor as well from the beginning, she isn't really affected by this rule which means it doesn't affect Captain Fellblade while it may affect your enemy hard.
	Now You See Me	All units have the Camouflage ability.
		This rule forces all attacks into the front acting like every unit in the front has a permanent and transferable Taunt. Captain Fellblade still can use both magic and melee attacks so she keeps full value. The high speed and mixed damage help break the enemy tank faster than most units. In this rule, she does not lose power like other back line units. Instead, you can keep her safe to maximize the value of her mixed melee and magic attacks.

Bad Rules to Think Twice

Icon	Name	Reason
	Fog of War	Units lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities.
		Removing Sneak removes one of Captain Fellblade's biggest strengths. She can still attack but the melee side loses its value and won't be allowed to attack unless Captain Fellblade is in the front. This makes her feel over valued for the mana you just used and would probably be better to use other units. If you would compare, other back line attackers might outclass her here without the melee attack. Her role as a damage dealer would be in question and you might want to use someone else with better damage.
	Reverse Speed	Units with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks.
		With a speed of 6, she becomes one of the worst performers under this rule. She attacks late and her melee attack misses more often. This removes his early pressure and makes half of her attack unreliable. Instead of being a threat with two attacks, she just have one reliable attack but the other one is a hit and miss. This can be taken advantage of enemies as well by focusing on Sneak units with far less speed than Captain Fellblade.
	Briar Patch	All units have Thorns (returns 2 damage to attacker when hit by a melee attack)
		Because she has melee attacks, she constantly takes thorn damage. Captain Fellblade's own attacks can kill her over time if the battle takes too long. Over time, she loses too much health just by doing his job. Even winning trades feel bad because of the damage that can accrue over time. If you are battling in Briar Patch rule with Captain Fellblade, you need to make sure that either the battle won't take too long or you need to have other units that can support her and other melee units like those with Triage.

Battle

Link to battle

I initially thought that I would lose this battle since the enemy is using the double Sneak strategy while mine is more on a general strategy having heals and repairs. One of the saving grace is that my Captain Fellblade put the enemy Saltwater Mage on a very low health that Conclave Tracker was able to end it making this a more fair battle. Slowly but surely, once the enemy tank, Commander Slade, fell, it opened up their back row and this allowed me to start getting the advantage and the upper hand of this battle. I also had two units more than the enemy so there's a huge advantage in numbers over my enemy.

Images were taken from Splinterlands, made in Canva, drawn in Krita and animated in Photoshop.

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