In football (the American kind), an "audible" is a change in the offensive play at the line of scrimmage. This means that they have decided on what they are going to do in the huddle, then once lined up, decide to do something else. Often, this is in response to the position of the defense. And then, the defense, who is already lined up, will try to adjust also, with the linebackers and cornerbacks often shifting positions, trying to counter the counter before the ball snaps and the the play goes live.

This is what is coming to Splinterlands.

But before that, there was a new Rift Watcher airdrop card.

IMMOLATION

---

---

Perhaps that is a good name for the latest card, as lot of RW packs had to burn themselves in order to get to this drop. There is still another airdrop card to come, which is 500K burned packs away. And, the majority of them will be burned, because people aren't likely to buy them now that next week, a new set of 96 (!) cards will be released. Firstly, lets have a look at this depressed fellow who has lit himself on fire.

Legendary, high mana so will be prone to getting giant killed with a scattershot killer, but has shield protection from melee and ranged, scavengers off the dead, inspires melee monsters and eventually at max, has blast. What is kind of interesting is that at all levels, all the stats are the same, except for the abilities. I haven't used it yet, but I was "lucky" enough to get 12 (no gold as normal), so mine is maxed.

I am not sure about this card yet.

And, one of the challenges with the new set being released is there is power creep, where each set has to introduce new powers and abilities that make the older ones redundant, or at least, far less useful. They become bit players and in the case of the split tier system of Wild and Modern, there is relegation of "old" cards. Because of the bots/ battle helpers in wild, I only play Modern format now (brawl in Wild), but the majority of my cards are going to be useless, as I have Dice and Rift Watchers only, plus a few key Untamed Cards, like Llama and Kitty. All will soon only be playable in Wild, where I can't compete. Brilliant!

And I only have a few plots of Land and it is shit land, so staking doesn't help.

Supposedly I might be able to squat on other people's Land somehow, which is nice, because I haven't even moved into mine and it looks to have had plenty of squatters already - and they had been eating bad seafood.

So, if I want to keep playing, I effectively have to buy a new set to max, which is fucking expensive considering that I don't own assets that are generating income (other than playing a bit) other than SPS, which doesn't return much, and the ass has fallen out of the price of it. I bought a fuckload of DEC today though, so for all those people who are able to dump their cheaply bought or obtained DEC,

you are welcome.

I haven't seen the new cards yet, but it doesn't really matter, does it? I have to get them.

But, they come with some new elements and abilities, especially for the summoners, which is why this post entered with explaining Audibles. Firstly, there is the dual element Summoners, which we have seen in a monster with Zyriel, playing Death/Life - and in a Neutral Summoner, Lux Vega, that can play all splinters. So, this isn't new, but will be more common, making these cards a bit more playable.

However, it is the Summoner "tactics" that will make a big difference, because these can be applied (in ranked play for now) after the other team has revealed their lineup. This means that an audible can be called and the lineup adjusted with buffs and debuffs, as defined by the particular summoner. This means that there is a timed second round of choices, that while cards can't be changed, some individual or team abilities can.

This makes the game far, far more complex.

I don't think I am going to do well at this.

There are a couple other things that changes the ecosystem with this set too. With another 10 million packs (CL nor RW sold out), to "soak up" some cards for a time at least, the idea is that in order to qualify for the airdrops for the set, it will require staking packs or cards into a lock. That means that it could be that not as many of the Rebellion cards are going to hit the rental market, as people will be hoping to get additional reward cards instead. This is going to be interesting to see how it works, as it sets up a tension between rental income and card value. If rental income seems better, there might be less reward cards printed, pushing up card value, and vice versa.

When it comes to the future values, I have no idea of any of this, but hopefully (from what I hear) is this will burn a lot of DEC in the sales. Then maybe, all this bloody fucking SPS I was convinced to buy will be worth something again, otherwise I might have to call an "audible" and self-immolate also.

I wonder if my life insurance pays out in that case?

It still won't be enough to cover what has been sunk into Splinterlands.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]