Hello Splinterlands summoners and welcome back to my blog! For those wanting to try the new Escalation set cards, a link has been shared on Splinterlands discord so that we can test the cards in ghost card challenges and tournaments hosted by the team. The set has forty three cards composed of twelve common, twelve rare, eight epic and eleven legendary cards. In today's post, I'll share my thoughts on the common cards.

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The Twelve Common Cards

There are twelve common cards in the Escalation mini set. Immediately we can see that most of these cards have high mana and high attacking power at level one. Let's check them out one by one by order of the highest mana.

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Doomshield Warden

The Doomshield Warden has the most mana of fourteen. He will have a lot of utility being a neutral tank. He has a high attack of seven and has nine armor and eleven health to be a beefy tank. Not just to tank physical attacks, he has Void Armor ability to defend against magic damage. His offensive abilities are also great having both Relentless Strike and True Strike. His Flank ability means that we can use any melee unit in second position and it can attack from there since it will have the Reach ability.

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Forlorn Geomant

The Forlorn Geomant is a thirteen mana, Earth splinter card. He deals five magic damage and has three speed. It has five armor and ten health that makes him an alternative tank in some battles. He has Impede ability that will slow down his target. He will be a nightmare for enemy flying units since he can deal up to ten magic damage with his Wingbreak ability.

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Blue Wyrm Travesty

The Blue Wyrm Travesty is a Water splinter card with thirteen mana. It deals nine melee damage and is insanely fast with five speed. It can play tank with its five armor and twelve health. On abilities, it slows down the enemy and has a new one, Invigorate that counters exhaustion. Being an undead, it can be summoned by the legendary Conflicts card, HANV. With its nine melee attack and five speed coupled with HANV's Double Strike ability, the Blue Wyrm Travesty can decimate the enemy units.

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Magnificent Mollusk

Another thirteen mana card, the Magnificent Mollusk is part of the Death splinter. She deals seven range damage and has four speed. It has four armor and nine health. Since it's a range unit, she is ideally placed in last position where she can tank against sneak attackers. She debuffs enemy melee units with Demoralize ability and she has the new ability, Apex Strike. Her seven range attack will target the enemy's higher attacker first.

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Godsnot Sorceress

This is one of cards with disgusting design featuring a monster covered with snot 😀. Funnily named Godsnot Sorceress has thirteen mana and part of the Life splinter. She deals seven range damage and has four speed. She has six armor and nine health. On abilities, she debuffs the enemy range attackers with Headwinds and she deals double damage against no attack units. Similar to Magnificent Mollusk, she is ideally placed in the rear to catch sneak attackers.

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Ballista Deadshot

Ballista Deadshot is a thirteen mana Fire card. He deals a five magic damage and has five speed. He has five armor and nine health that enables him to play as tank or placed in the rear against sneak attackers. He has three abilities including Pinpoint that makes him a good combo with Grove Doomblade.

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Living Berm

Living Berm is an Earth card with ten mana. It deals five range damage, has four speed, six armor and seven health. It has a version of Taunt that only attracts units with Snipe, Apex Strike and Opportunity abilities. Coupled with its Thorns ability, it's a good counter against melee units with those Opportunity or Apex Strike. It also has Poison Burst that will apply poison to its attacker when it gets defeated.

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Phlegmost

A nine mana Water card, Phlegmost deals three magic damage, has two speed, two armor and eight health. On abilities, it deals double damage to units with Taunt. It has Weaken ability that decrease the enemy's health by one and can heal itself.

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Silver Shield Sentry

The Silver Shield Sentry is a tank with range damage. He deals five range damage with three speed, has five armor and health. His Close Range ability enables him to hit with range from first position enabling him to play tank. His Bulwark ability gives him additional defense of plus eight health and armor stats at the cost of two attacks if he is in first position. Coupled with his Rebirth ability, he will be a sturdy tank. Imagine regaining his eight armor and health once he resurrects.

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Steelshield Arbalest

Steelshield Arbalest is a nine mana, neutral card. He deals three range damage, has nine armor, eight health and five speed. His utility is to attract magic attackers with his Decoy ability. Coupled with his Phase and Void Armor abilities, he will be a good unit to counter against magic units with Snipe, Opportunity and Apex Strike.

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Emberscale Invoker

The Emberscale Invoker is another fire card with magic attack. He deals three magic damage, has four speed, four armor and six health. He will be good at taking out low health enemy units in the middle with his Snipe and Ambush abilities. Being a Drakoshan, he can be summoned by Kavor Skarn who will give him an additional speed stat.

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Shire Knacker

The Shire Knacker is a Death splinter card with three range attack, has three speed, five armor and health. She is the most normal card of the bunch with only five mana. Her abilities include Snipe, Rust and Invigorate.

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Final Thoughts

The new common cards have high stats and mana. The are damage dealers as well as defenders that will bring new strategies to the game. You can test them now but only through ghost card challenges. I tried testing them in Modern battles but was unable to do so. Soon there will be a tournament hosted by the team and we can try the cards in battles.

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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, we will both get 500 Credits which can be used top purchase cards once you buy a spellbook.