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So, the Hall of Legends sale for the two most recent cards - Riklauniman and Rune Arcanist has been going for 8 days now and there are still 6 to go.

Let's have a look at the two cards and discuss which levels I find most reasonable to level the cards on a budget to.

So, as far the Rune Arcanist goes, I think she need to be leveled to a level which allows her to acquire the new ability she has which is:

Phase Ward can have some pretty interesting interactions with some of the fast but susceptible to Magic damage units. Commander Slade immediately comes to mind:

He could definitely become a Monster from the nightmares with Phase added to his kit. As for the rest of the abilities of the Rune Arcanist - cripple at level 6 or $180 and Scavenge at level 8 - $345. I don't really think they have any necessary synergy with Phase Ward and are straight up redundant.

Now for Rik:

Now, while the new ability and the synergy with Pallus are exciting not just because of these two card but because of all the future possibilities of cards synergizing based on lore - splinters, elements, etc., I really think the elephant in the room is Expose. Rik gets Expose at level 2 so that's 150,000 DEC if bought straight from the shop. I'm actually thinking of getting him at level 3 because of the extra Ranged Attack point he gets. Stun is great at level 4, especially for a Dual-Attack Unit since it has an even higher chance to land it each turn but is it worth another 250,000 DEC on top of the 300,000 DEC paid to get him to level 3. I'm not convinced at all. And while I did say I was not convinced at all about getting Rik at max level, I did a thing, and after initially getting 6 bcx of him, I felt I had to also have the Stun active, so I went ahead and got 5 more.

This is my final haul for this round of promo cards. I bought both of them from the secondary market:

Before the battle, let's also have a look at how the Auction House card is going:

It's been going great so far I must say. And what's even more interesting is that the price has actually been going up after slightly dipping compared to what the first card sold for. A couple of whales have vowed to not allow the floor for any of the cards to drop below $1000. We'll see if they'll manage to keep their promise in the next 94 days.

Let's have a look at one of the Monsters in the set and how he is used in battle. The Monster is, of course, no other than the outRAGEous Rage.

Now before we get into the stats discussion of Rage, let's have a sneak peek into his LORE.

It turns out Rage is the patriarch of the infamous flight of Red Dragons whose matriarch is you know who.. Well, if you actually do not remember Agor Longtails is the matriarch, which means she is his wife. That's the very formidable combo of huge characters for sure.

Alright, we've got some idea of who Rage is, after glancing at his lore. Let us have a look at his stats and abilities at different key levels now.

Rage is a Legendary Monster. At level 1 he has 4 Magic Attack, 4 Speed, 5 Armor and 12 Health and he starts off with Flying (Has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Monsters who do not have the Flying ability) ability and Void (Reduced damage from Magic attacks). It is, of course, really, really useful if you want to put a Melee Monster without Reach in the off-tank spot.
At level 2 he gains his 3rd ability which is actually his signature one - Weapons Training (Adjacent units with no attack gain this unit's attack, up to a maximum of 3).
At level 3 he gains his 4th ability and 2nd in terms of importance - Life Leech (Monster's health increases each time it damages an enemy Monster's health in proportion to the damage dealt). It is a pretty useful ability in the long battles of attrition which the Rebellion meta has brought upon us.
Finally, maxed out at level 4 he has 5 Magic Attack, 4 Speed, 5 Armor and 11 Health. He also gains his final ability - Affliction (When a Monster with Affliction hits a target, it has a chance of applying Affliction on the target causing it to be unable to be healed).

Now that we know what the card does (or doesn't do) at the different levels of play, let us have a look at the battle I have chosen to showcase.

<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>BATTLE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>

The line-up of the Battle and the Ruleset:

The rulesets for this battle are Keep Your Distance (Monsters with Melee attack may not be used in battles), Holy Protection (All Monsters have the Divine Shield (The first time the Monster takes damage it is ignored) ability) and Taking Sides (Neutral Monsters may not be used in battles) ability. The mana budget is 57 which is a fairly good amount so I will be able to splurge on chunkier Monsters. All Elements are available but Death. I'll of course go with the Dragon Element.

The 1st spot is for Baakjira. This is a usual spot for this behemoth of a card. Other than the 3 Magic attack it will gain it also has a great package of abilities - Void (Reduced damage from Magic attacks), Slow (Reduces the Speed of all enemy Monsters), Strengthen (All friendly Monsters have increased Health) and Heal (Restores a portion of the Monster's health each round). Since the ruleset is Noxious Fumes, Bakjeera is more than adequately equipped to tackle it despite not having Immunity as an ability.

The 2nd spot is for the protagonist of this battle - Rage. I've got him here to provide Magic Attack to his two neighbors on both sides.

The 3rd spot is reserved for the Merdaali Guardian. It's a great support Monster in various rulesets with its frankly Meta abilities - Tank Heal (restores a portion of the Monster in the first position's health each round), Repair (restores some armor to the friendly Monster whose armor has taken the most damage) and Strengthen (all friendly Monsters have increased Health). It can be very useful for sure but is often taken out early by enemy Monsters with Overpower so that's one of the drawbacks it has for sure. Thankfully she is in no danger of getting hit by Overpower thanks to the Summoner I am planning to run this battle.

The 4th place in the line-up goes to the Chaos Dragon. I have in this spot since it is a Flying Monster (a true dragon) with a decent health pool and armor so it can evade a few hits or take a few hits if it has to. It also has the Blind (All enemy Melee & Ranged attacks have an increased chance of missing their target) ability in its arsenal. We know that every miss is important. It also has Blast (Does additional damage to Monsters adjacent to the target Monster). But actually its most importantly ability right now is Scattershot (This Monsters attacks hit a random enemy target) due to the current meta almost everybody is taking advantage of.

The 5th spot goes to the River Nymph. It is another Magic Attack Monster with great support abilities - Cleanse (removes all negative effects on the Monster in the first position on the friendly team), Amplify (increases Magic Reflect, Return Fire, and Thorns damage to all enemy units by 1) and Swiftness (all friendly Monsters have increased Speed). My goal with including the River Nymph in the line-up is to potentially remove Affliction/Poison cast on Bakjeera and also boost its Speed.

Last but not least is Oshuur Constantia. I've got her here to support my front line Monster through her Tank Heal (Restores a portion of the unit in the first position's health each round) ability as long as possible. She can also take a hit or two if it gets to that, while healing herself in the meantime. What's important is that she has the Reflection Shield (This Monster doesn't take damage from Blast, Magic Reflect, Thorns, or Return Fire) ability so she does not suffer any damage when her Magic Attacks are reflected back to her. She also has Resurrect (When a friendly unit dies it is brought back to life with 1 Health. This ability can only trigger once per battle) which is definitely one of the other top tier abilities.

It is time for a quick round by round analysis:

The Summoner I am going with for the battle is, as you have probably already guessed - Lily. That's the go-to Summoner for the current state of the Rebellion meta and if you don't go with Lily when available you usually have to go with Jacek if you want to try to play the somewhat hard-counter option. Of course Jacek sometimes basically counters himself through extremely poor RNG so that's not really an option which always has the best outcome. However, my opponent has decided to go with Obsidian in an somewhat peculiar line-up. Let's see how this goes.

After 1 round of exchanging blows I there are no casualties on either side.

Round 3 begins and my Monsters are still working on the enemy Slipspawn while their Monsters are busy attacking my Bakjeera.

Round 4 - I have finally managed to take down one of the enemy monsters and it actually was not the Slipspawn but the enemy front-line Monster - Ava.

Round 5 - the Slipspawn is finally down while my Bakjeera is still standing strong. I have a serious advantage at this point of the battle.

Round 6 - all that's left to do for my team is to kill off the last remaining enemy Monsters.

Rage is a ginormous member of the Dragon Element. He is currently being traded at $25 per bcx which makes him one of the most expensive Legendary non-summoner cards of this set which is also obtainable in packs.

Over and Out,

Referral