Hello Splinterlands summoners and welcome to my blog! We got an update on the Escalation mini set to be released on February 10. The two promo cards details have been revealed. Similar to Conclave Arcana, there is one rare and one legendary promo card to be released. In addition, eight new abilities are announced to shake the meta. I'll share my thoughts on these in my today's blog. For further details on Escalation, please refer to this post.

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Promo Cards

Doldrus (Rare)

Doldrus is an Earth and Death splinter card. He's a rare monster with no attack but boasts of a host of support abilities. Like the previous promo cards, he has the Shapeshift ability making him available to all Conclave Arcana and Escalation archons. His support abilities are top notch. He has Cleanse and Corrupted Healing that makes him a great unit in Noxious Fumes and Global Warming rulesets. He also has Deflection Shroud, granting the Deflect ability to adjacent units, great in Briar Patch, Counterspell and Fire & Regret ruleset. Further, he has the new ability, Flame Red. It enables him to gain additional health every round when he has the burning status. He's the perfect unit in attrition rulesets like Global Warming, Briar Patch and Collateral Damage.

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Portia Nyr (Legendary)

Portia Nyr is deeply entrenched in Splinterlands lore having engineered the invasion of the Chaos Legion and her aim to find the secret of Praetoria. She is a neutral card with Shapeshift ability like the previous legendary promo card, Gramel the Hunger. She has the Immunity ability, making her a good unit to use in Briar Patch and Global Warming rulesets. She also has Painforge that make her a perfect combo to units with Incendiary and Electrified debilitations. Her twin abilities of Apex Strike and Relentless Strike make her a nightmare for the enemy's unit with the highest power. She's a great unit when you want to take down the enemy team's nuker quickly.

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New Abilities to Shake the Meta

The Escalation set comes with eight new abilities that will introduce new strategies and shake the meta.

Apex Strike

Apex Strike targets the enemy unit with the most Power. The enemy's nuker is not safe from units that possess this ability. This ensures that you will eliminate the enemy's highest damage dealer first and thus enabling your units to survive longer.

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Bloodline Pact

For players like me who like to fill their team with one bloodline, this is a great ability to have. Bloodline Pact enables allied units that share this unit’s bloodline to gain attack stat when any of them defeats an enemy. However there is a drawback as they also take one true damage when any of them is defeated. Also, if the unit that has the ability is defeated, allied units that share its bloodline take two damage and lose all attack stats gained from this ability.

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Bulwark

This is a great ability to have in attrition rulesets like Noxious Fumes, Earthquake and Global Warming. It grants additional defense of eight armor and health to tank units in exchange for a decrease in attack by two. It makes the unit who possess the ability to be extremely tanky when placed in the first position.

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Decoy

If you want to protect your damage dealers, Decoy is a great ability to have. It's like a Taunt ability but it only attracts enemy units with Snipe, Apex Strike and Opportunity abilities.

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Determined

Determined is an ability that enables a unit to make a second attack to the same target if its first attack miss. I can't say I like this ability that much though as it doesn't guarantee a hit. There's still a chance that the second attack will miss.

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Flame Red

Flame Red is one of the best abilities in this set. A unit gains health stats each round when it's burning. Great for Global Warming ruleset or place the unit with this ability to units with Incendiary ability.

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Reprisal

A variation of Apex Strike. This ability also makes enemy high attack units gain Taunt ability and is not even safe if it has Camouflage.

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Shadow Focus

Shadow Focus is a support ability that exchanges attacking chances.
When a unit that has this ability is in the last position, it gains Camouflage and all allied units gain an attack stat and Determined ability. In return, it gives up the chance to attack every round. It's a great support ability that has utility in battles.

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Final Thoughts

Here's another update that will shake the meta in a huge way. With new abilities that will introduce new strategies and team composition as well as new cards and two powerful promo cards to add more interest to the set. Splinterlands continue to make the game fresh and exciting for collectors and gamers.

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Come Play Splinterlands!

Start your Splinterlands adventure today with my referral. You can play the game for free in the Frontier Mode or take your game to the next level by purchasing a spellbook. Buying a spellbook allows you to earn SPS tokens and use the market to sell in game assets. Also, once you buy a spellbook, we will both get 500 Credits which can be used to purchase cards.