Analysis of the New Cards from Splinterlands' 8th Anniversary - Everything About Tenrai

Best regards Splinterlovers 💚

Splinterlands’ 8th anniversary has arrived, and honestly, no one could have imagined how far our game has come since it began in 2018 as “SteemMonsters” on the Steem blockchain, only to later transform and rebrand—even changing its name—in an epic transition that, to this day, continues to be the talk of the town and is competing to be the best “Web3” game ever created. Today it’s called Splinterlands and has eight years of development behind it—which may not seem like much, but we’ve been through a lot, and it’s worth writing this post today to say that we’re here and we’ll continue to be here.

Personally, birthdays really excite me—they’re some of my favorite days—and even though I haven’t quite reached 8 years here in the ecosystem (I’m at 6), those 6 years mean a lot to me, since that was right when Splinterlands was moving to the “Hive” network and the network itself was just getting started. But putting that aside, for this 8th anniversary, Splinterlands has released two incredible new cards to celebrate that complement each other—their names are “Tenrai” and “Suiko.” They’re simply amazing, and I’m not just saying that; the truth is, they’re impressive. Although, I’ll confess something here: their design is among the best I’ve seen in years.

But don't worry—I'm going to start by explaining in detail how these cards work on the battlefield. However, in this post, I'll focus first on "Tenrai," and in the next post, I'll cover "Suiko." I'm doing this so the post doesn't get too long and boring, but don't worry—I'll combine them so you can see their potential together on the battlefield.

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Detailed Analysis of Tenrai

To start off, at first glance—if you’ve seen the official Splinterlands announcement—these cards aren’t just simple magical attackers, since their mechanics are intertwined, which means that, on their own, they’re very powerful, but if we manage to pair them up on the battlefield, they can be simply unstoppable. However, we need to understand how positioning works in the game, and to do that, we must master the cards’ abilities and their effects—something I’ve consistently emphasized throughout my posts on this topic.

But to understand this better, let’s first analyze “Tenrai,” as I mentioned earlier in this post:

Tenrai Analysis

The way I see and understand it, this card is an offensive weapon that’s not only powerful on its own, but can also make my counterpart, “Suiko,” even stronger and more dangerous. However, that’s not all—one of its abilities allows me to deal damage simply because enemies use damage-reduction abilities, which can be very useful not only as a defensive mechanism but also as passive damage we can inflict just because opponents try to defend themselves with those abilities.

But let's take a look at his stats and skills to better understand why I'm saying this:

• Statistics: Although this isn't part of its stats, it's important to know that it's an "Epic" rarity card. Most interesting of all is that it belongs to the "Splinter Neutral" faction, so it can be combined with virtually any element—not to mention cards from its own lineage, called "Dragonkin."

  It also costs 8 mana to summon it to the field, which isn't bad—it's a medium-to-high cost, so we need to prioritize choosing high-mana scenarios carefully to make it work. On the other hand, at its maximum level, it has +3 magic attack, 3 shield, 8 health, and an incredible 5 speed, making it extremely fast.

Abilities

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• Opportunity: One of the most dangerous offensive abilities, mainly because it targets the opponents with the lowest health on the field, and since these cards have magic attack points, they'll vanish in the blink of an eye.

• Kindred Spirit (Giant Killer): This ability is linked to “Suiko,” as it grants the “Giant Killer” ability to units around her that have the “Kindred Will” ability. This turns those units into giant killers—in short, “Tanks.”

• Bulwark: If, for example, our lineup is in trouble and “Tenrai” falls to the front line, she loses -2 attack points while there, but in exchange gains +8 health points and a Shield, which gives whoever remains standing—including herself—much more time to finish the battle.

• Relentless Strike: If one of our attack targets has abilities such as “Void” or “Shield” that generally reduce damage by -1 point, this ability causes that damage to still affect the corresponding attack targets, so they would not be able to avoid taking at least that one point of damage.

How Can I Get Them, and How Much Do They Cost?

To celebrate Splinterlands’ 8th anniversary, there will be a special sale lasting 30 days, starting on August 8. This is a direct sale, so to obtain “Tenrai,” please keep the following in mind:

• You have an Epic Letter: $0.88 per copy
• Accepted currencies: Credits, DECs, and USDC

On the other hand, when the regular sale ends after these 30 days, for each copy of a card you’ve obtained, you’ll have the chance to enter a drawing for a foil version of that card in the following sets, in what’s called the “Foil Fortune Draws”:

• Gold Foil
• Black Foil
• Arcane Foil

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Conclusion

With this, I’ve finished my analysis of the new “Tenrai” card, one of the units commemorating Splinterlands’ 8th anniversary—and in what a way! It’s not just any card, and to be completely honest, it will be one of the most expensive cards in the game due to its low print run. Keep in mind that these are promotional cards, which means their market value will be much higher than their “Pre-sale” price.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment, and stay tuned for the next post—the next review will be for “Suiko.”