Strategies and Observations for Riftwatchers New Sea Wreck

Yesterday during the Splinterlands Town Hall, the team shared the artwork and these potential stats and abilities for the next Riftwatchers Airdrop card.

Sea Wreck Observations

Here are my initial observations on the Sea Wreck card.

Odd Mana Tank

For modern, specifically CL only, water doesn't traditionally have a strong odd mana tank. This card will make water more viable in the "Odd Ones Out" rule set.

You could make an argument for Lemell Refugee from the Riftwatchers set at 7 mana, but I don't consider that to be strong and it's a common card.

Bloodlust

Bloodlust is always an important skill. It's interesting on this card because you have both return fire and magic reflect that can give bloodlust, paired with amplify.

It's interesting that they gave the card 1 speed, probably as a way to give the card some counterbalance on reverse speed rules. It reminds me of how they gave Arkemis the Bear both the halving abilities and forcefield which work against each other.

Pairings

Naturally, you will want to utilize cleanse and swiftness to keep Sea Wreck healing and improve the speed of attacks. River Nymph will be a natural card to play with Sea Wreck as it gives both swiftness and cleanses. Supply runner will likely be a popular candidate to play with this monster for the double-speed boost.

This could be a popular card to play in second position with Possibilus. Especially in blast rule sets, that may allow you to take more advantage of return fire and magic reflect.

This monster will obviously be strong in thorns and melee only rule sets. With thorns, it now has a counter to every damage type, similar to Almo but much slower. In addition, not many melee cards have dispel or affliction abilities, so it can continue healing and generating bloodlust in those rule sets.

Counters

The obvious counters to this card are cards with affliction, dispel, reflection shield, and speed. As with most monsters that have bloodlust, the key to defeating this monster will be to attack hard and fast, especially with heavy melee damage,

What do you think?

What are your thoughts on the new monster? I'm curious to know what strategies you see working for and against this card.