Foreward: My Position on SPL is at best "Mixed"

Before you read this, if you are curious as to my overall position on the #play2earn title #Splinterlands consider reading this and the attached articles therein. This will be a guide/review of a newer gameplay mechanic and it's impact on modern. In my personal opinion this "game" has become rather pay to win (even compared to beforehand) and gladiators being hard to obtain but a meta staple exacerbate the optics of this, but that's another post. Please read my background before continuing, especially if this is one of your first times seeing me post about Splinterlands by myself (it's not all peaches and cream, but I keep it real with you guys and gals). There may be things you don't know or confusion as to why I have the position I do: including mismanagement of funds, bot farms, and other hinky stuff. Check the link above to get why I feel the way I feel. Without further or do (most of) the rest of this post will talk about gladiator cards and their impact/strategy. My overall position on SPL is "mixed at best" and I don't expect things to change very much, anways let's do this strategy breakdown. I was a long time player, however rebellion will likely be my retirement from playing the game (unless bots are universally banned and even then idk). I'll also finish out my "body of work" when it comes to strategy and actual gameplay in SPL (up until the end of chaos legion as I am unlikely to buy packs in the next set).

Gladiators are Brutal: Key Rebellion Meta Pieces

If you are still playing Splinterlands as a human you are probably playing in modern, wild has become a transparent botfest to grind soulbound cards en mass (which they will someday be able to dump on everyone btw, it's not as if it is a "valueless" endeavor per say. It just costs them nothing to run at this point so it's all upside) and a lions share of 50 percent of the SPS reward pool. If you are playing in modern, the new soulbound summoners that grants use of a gladiator card are CRUCIAL, not to mention the infamous gladiators themselves that tend to dominate the field (Quora etc.).

Fight Examples: Displays of Might

You will notice a common theme in these fights is adding armor to increase bloodlusts buff (buffs the buffed armor) or the martyr combinations I was talking about in a previous post. Quora is a MUST even at low ranks, or at the very least anticipating her constant use is. Gladiator cards are almost mandatory for the new meta, almost every lineup I encounter past a certain mana limit has them involved (due to their superior strength to most traditional cards due to bloodlust)

Here we use two bloodlust creatures to deadly effect with fire's new anti armor summoner. A perfect paring into light, most of my units ignoring his taunt minion is also a plus.

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Here you can see a typical martyr strategy come to fruition along with Quora's terrifying statline.

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Here you can even see this strategy can beat down the classic llama kron combo.

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Here quora is seen continuing to go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

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Here we are seen defeating a gladiator with no gladiator cards present, however the player can see the strength that gladiator cards. His lineup ALMOST won against an OP untamed summoner like Yodin, gladiator cards are the new meta.

Here we can be seen beating ANOTHER kron llama combo with Quora and martyr revive being combined to deadly effect.

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Here we can be seen doubling down with the bloodlust and augmenting the lineup with serious opportunity damage to punch through his backline while Grum and Chimney shred the frontline. A rather decisive victory.

Where to conscript them? What is coming with rebellion?

The only way to get gladiators is through the packs obtained in the guild shop. You can get these credits through daily chests or brawl participation. Due to their availability in ranked indirectly through rulesets and various cards that allow their play to remain competitive in this game you must have these cards going forwards into rebellion. There were various assertions in the past that these cards wouldn't be available in ranked as they were "deemed too strong" but a lot has changed since then. There were also promises of summoners having "one domain" in the past, and those assertions went out the window aswell. So the future is truly anyone's guess, there may even be gladiators that don't require a summoner with a special ability to use. At this point I don't really trust any assertions made about gameplay in the future, it's all speculation. One thing I am certain of is that rebellion will bring new cards and new gladiators, their meta portent and how it will effect everything remains to be seen. I just know it is very likely that these newer cards will powercreep and break previous "rules" the game has established for themselves as time goes on if the past is any indicator.

In the image above you can see what I acquired from opening one of these packs. A pretty spicy GF pull indeed.

Pick a card any card delegation giveaway

Last post's winner was @sinistry select any card from my collection and it's yours for a whole season. Congratz, just comment or get in touch with me wherever you find me to pick one. To qualify for these giveaways all you have to do is follow me and comment on this post for a chance to win. That's it. Votes optional but always appreciated. Thanks for following, reading, and being generally awesome folks.

See you on the battlefield mages (for now)