Riftwatchers Death Splinter Cards review

Hi fellow Mages!
It is your boy PurpleBat and I bring you a review of all new monsters in the RiftWatchers expansion for Death Splinter! I hope that this will help you with building your Splinterlands decks for the future.

So let's get started!

Night Ghoul - we already saw this card before - it was in the first cards revealed at Town Halls. There was a big change, the Taunt ability was introduced instead of the Enrage ability. We can take this as a nerf but still, Night Ghoul is a very good card.

It seems that Night Ghoul is exactly what Death Splinter needs, the main thank that can deal some damage. While Harklaw and Cursed Windeku are good, there are not the best main tanks. Windeku is good in low to medium mana matches - when facing monsters with 2-4 attack. Harklaw is very good against melee attacks but low health makes him vulnerable to magic attacks even though Thadius Brood takes one damage from the opponent team. Night Ghoul could fix that problem and become the main tank. Taunt could be useful as you will be finally able to protect Life Sapper, Soul Strangler and other glass cannons in the team. Forcefield is a nice addition as it will reduce all damage of 5 and more to 1 damage which will enable Night Ghoul to survive for a few more hits. Overall, not bad for a common card - a must-have I would say!

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Cabalist - probably the best Death Splinter monster in this expansion. It is a bit weird placed monster as it will shine against targets with 10 or more mana cost. It will deal double damage to those targets because of its Giant Killer ability. It should be well protected as it has only 5 health so it is an easy target for those Opportunity and Snipe attackers.

I see this card as viable in combination with Cursed Windeku where it will amplify Thorns damage. Level 6 is a sweet spot as it gets Demoralize ability which will enable your Cursed Windeku to survive for a few more hits. It is an interesting card but we will have to see how it looks in the game. Obviously, it could form well with Owster Rotwell but there are certainly other great combos for this card that I don't see at this moment.

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Arachne Thug - just another mediocre Reach monster that is probably the best in the Silver league and in the Diamond and beyond. It looks fine in the Silver with 3 attack 4 speed and Trample ability. It has the potential to do some damage there and I like it at that level.

In the Gold league, it does not have any more damage increases, and the only things it gets are its armor and health. That is useful for a monster in the second position but I would prefer damage instead, especially because of Trample ability. On the MAX level, it is pretty decent, with 4 attacks, 4 speeds, and decent armor/health with Knock-Out ability. Overall, a mediocre card that could shine at the Silver league or top level. We will see that soon!

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Queen of Crows - I like the art, a lot! I hate everything else about this card. Speed is horrible, though it has Slow ability that could help a bit with that. The damage is really bad, it goes to max 3 damage at MAX level. It seems to me that it is imagined as an off-tank but why would I use this as an off-tank when I have Djinn Muirat with Giant Killer, Magic Reflect, and Forcefield abilities (and others)?

I would say that it makes sense to play this card only against General Sloan as that will nerf ranged attacks and return damage to the attacker. If played with Amplify it could really hurt your opponent. Close range is a good ability as you could play this in the second position without fear that it won't be able to attack though its attack won't make big difference.

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Raa - to be honest - not impressed, because we are talking about a legendary card here. Flying is a good ability as Death Splinter needs some help in those Earthquake matches. It will not help a lot with dodge as Raa has only 2 speed so it won't dodge a lot if attacked. Double strike is nice as it means it deals 6 damage per turn which is nice. Now Scatter is a problem as it may mean that Raa will attack 2 times but every time he will attack a different target. We don't know yet how this will work.

In some cases that may be good. In some cases, it could be bad. More unwanted randomness is added if you ask me. Giant Killer ability is what makes this card viable in the first place. It should be used only in big mana matches when you know that there will be a lot of monsters with 10 or more mana. That means Raa Will deal 16 damage MAX per turn and that is a lot. Rust ability is always nice as it will remove that annoying armor that would block 8 damage attacks instead. Definitely not a card that you would use in every match, it is very situational and that will reflect on the price as well.

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Summary

Final thoughts? I think that Riftwatchers expansion is not very kind to the Death Splinter. Night Ghoul and Cabalist monsters are closest to the "good card" term but not quite there yet. Enrage was taken from Night Goul and Taunt added which takes from damage but adds to support. Don't know what to think about that. It seems that the main tank for Death Splinter is still a problem that should be solved. You can't even count on the damage from Night Goul coz of the low speed. Cabalist is almost there but a reduction of mana cost from 6 to 7 would be nice. Let's just remember that Death summoner has Cripple as an ability which is the worst of all other summoners in the Riftwatchers expansion. Rainy days are coming for Death splinter players and unfortunately, I am one of them :(

It is the perfect time to buy some cards and rebuild your deck. Packs are not selling as fast as expected so prices are stable. I expect them to go down even more once we sell more packs. But there is always a possibility of new players joining and buying tons of cards, so be careful. If you are not playing #splinterlands yet, now is the perfect opportunity to join while you can get all those amazing cards at special prices. Come and join Splinterlands Discord and find out more.

Official Splinterlands Discord: https://discord.gg/A6yNcVqbU6

If you are new here

If you are new here, #splinterlands is the amazing #NFT trading card game with the #play2earn model. That means you can have a lot of fun AND you can earn money (DEC - Dark Energy Crystals) at the same time. If you don't have an account yet consider registering with my link. If you sign up with my referral link, please DM me and I will send you 100 DEC that will help you start with the game(of course if I see you on my referral list).

https://splinterlands.com?ref=purplebat

Have fun and see you on the battlefield.