Rebellion⚔: The Corrosive Ward.
Hello there, mage!
It's been weeks now since the first Rebellion cards took the battle field and now things are starting to feel quite normal in the Splinterlands universe. We have all adapted quite well to the new system and tamed the rebels. In spite of all this, there is still a lot to talk about with regards to rebellion. One big thing for me is the new abilities that have brought new tactics to the battle field. There are five of these new abilities and today I want to talk about one which is the "Corrosive Ward" ability. Let's get right into it.
CORROSIVE WARD
Armor has always been an important part of the splinterlands game. You can have 1 armor that defends a 5x attack and changes the outcome of a match. A single armor stat can be the difference between a win and a loss. No wonder there have been genius methods devised to maximize the use of armor. We have abilities like repair, resurrect, void armor and even the new armored strike that make the armor so much more valuable and desirable. So yes, Armor is great but it isn't indestructible and surely does not make a unit invincible.
Firstly, armor is useless against magic attacks unless it is the void type. So, in most cases, only melee and ranged attacks are defended against with armor.
Seondly, there are abilities that were made for the purpose of weakening or even destroying an opponent's armor. These include Rust, Piercing and Shatter. The Corrosive Ward is simply the latest addition to this "attack against the armor".
The Corrosive Ward works like a combination of thorns and cripple but for armor. When a unit with armor performs a melee attack on a unit with the corrosive ward, they lose 2 armor and their max armor is reduced by 2. As it is described in the game, the armor is "melted in acidic goo" and it cannot be repaired to a certain level. So unlike rust, even after the unit with Corrosive ward is killed, the effect remains. Sounds pretty much like cripple to me but for armor.
Counter To The Corrosive Ward
So, how can you counter this ability? Well, you can play with ranged and magic attacks but that isn't always enough. Since this ability is something like cripple, I'd assume that it can't be cleansed. So three ways I can think of to counter this ability are with Protect, Resurrect, Reflection Shield and Bloodlust.
Protect just buys some time before the armor is down to just 1 stat. It is worth it because, like I said earlier, 1 armor can make a lot of difference.
Resurrect brings back a unit with its full armor stat as it was at the beginning of the game (i.e. with buffs).
Reflection Shield works because the corrosive ward works kind of like thorns and so can't affect monsters with reflective shield.
Bloodlust makes it possible to regain an armor stat after a kill just like it enables a unit to gain health even after it had been crippled.
REBELLION UNITS WITH CORROSIVE WARD
There are currently five monsters in the Rebellion set with the corrosive ward ability. There are 2 from the water splinter, 1 form earth, 1 from death and the last one being a neutral. I don't really have a favorite right now but I've used some and not others. I mention them below;
SEA DOG OF EIGHT
I haven't used this card yet and honestly, just by the looks, it looks pretty average to me. I guess this unit can be used in a melee mayhem or "up close and personal" rulesets with armor buffs and repair for more effectiveness. One thing that impresses me is the self heal that he gets at level 4. It should preserve him for some time to do some armor damage. Still, I'm not sure if it's good enough for 7 mana.
THANALORIAN SCION
Now the second water unit with corrosive ward is this one right here. This is an epic water monster and I like the stats. For just 5 mana you get 10x void armor at level one together with the corrosive ward ability. This is a monster that I would like to work with. At least, if there are no melee monster for her to use her corrosive ward on, she can still be a good tank against ranged and magic attacks.
HELHEIM DEMON
Now a much more impressive unit is the Helheim demon with a great name if I may add. Now, I don't really like the death element but I will admit that this unit looks pretty impressive. Flying and taunt is always a great combo but with this corrosive ward ability, the combo is even better.
Basically, the Helheim Demon forces the opponent's units to attack him and take some armor damage. It's the type of unit that can be really annoying to the opponent but very helpful to the player even after it is taken out. Also, taunt monster are easier to form strategies around.
LURKING PUFFER
Going down the mana cost slide we have the Lurking Puffer with its weird and creepy look. This was one of the first rebellion cards I used and I liked it from day 1. I should be using this card at level 5 when he gains the silence ability but because the rental cost for rebellion cards is currently high, I use it at level 3 and it still does pretty well.
In most cases I just play this card in front where it absorbs some of the initial damage. For a 2 mana monster, it does its job quite well. Here's an example;
GRIMBARDUN FIGHTER
Last but definitely not the least is the neutral Grimbardun Fighter. This unit is the one I use the most when it comes to this new ability. Of course, you can see why from her stats.
Just like the Lurking Puffer, I use this unit in level 3 but thankfully that is when she gains the corrosive ward ability. The combination of this ability with shield is probably the best in my opinion because we're more likely to play this unit when there are no or less magic attacks. So, if the monsters have melee attacks then they're screwed but if they have ranged attacks then they can't do their maximum damage.
I've use this card a couple of times and it is very effective. One way that I have used it is under the super sneak ruleset. Here are some matches I played;
In this battle, I paired the Grimbardun fighter with Disintegrator because of the demoralize debuff. Demoralize made it so that my backline could not be damaged because of the shield rather the enemy was doing damage to himself all thanks to corrosive ward. I wasn't sure about this match initially but I won in the end - slowly but surely. Let's look at another battle;
This battle was a little bit easier despite the fact that I did not use a unit with demoralize. The enemy actually did well to put the skull at the back because my units had a hard time hitting it. However, he kept damaging himself thanks to the corrosive ward. In the end, my units got through and it was basically a settled game from there.
CONCLUSION
There are just 5 units with the corrosive ward ability but there will definitely be more as time goes on. There are still 5 splinters that don't have the ability. Maybe, there would be a monster with the ability in the airdrops or it may come as a summoner buff. Who knows?
One thing is for sure though. There is a lot restrategizing that's happening because of this ability. It wouldn't be very long until we get a ruleset based on this ability. I'm actually looking forward to it. Are you?
That's All For Today, Warrior!
- Unless otherwise stated, all images used in this post are from the Splinterlands game.
- All dividers were made by me with Canva.
One more thing.
I'm glad you made it this far in the post. If you enjoyed my post please drop a comment or just say hi so we can be friends. Also, don't be left behind. Join Splinterlands by clicking this link and claim your piece of this amazing blockchain game. I'll see you on the other side, mage!
Thanks for sharing! - @alokkumar121
