Title: Community Engagement Challenge #4: Sanctus Vicar
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If you want to be great in what you're doing, you really need to limit yourself, so I consider my life as the life of a monk.
by Oleksandr Usyk
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Some amazing Promo cards were just released recently and you can now buy them or rent them in the marketplace. The newest ones can also be tested for free in the Challenge mode if you have another friend that can and will fight against you. But for now, we will focus on the ones that was already released and can be rented in the market place and this would be, Sanctus Vicar.
Lore
Sanctus Vicar Logan Rockford, high priest of the Church of Gryyja, Goddess of Protection, joined the citizens of Feranon when they rose against the Chaos Empire. Without him, the uprising would have failed before it began.
He worked tirelessly to cleanse the rebels of the afflictions cast upon them by the legion’s mages and unholy priests. It is he who kept them fighting, defending his allies while simultaneously slinging great gouts of fire at the surrounding legionnaires.
https://next.splinterlands.com/card-detail/703/regular/2/?tab=lore
Buy and Rental Costs
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Card Stats
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Card Effects
Cleanse Rearguard  |
A really unique ability that allows you to cleanse a unit that is not in the front. It's a good combination for units with Taunt that can be placed at the back like Wave Brood or Iidri Fyre.
Cleanse  |
Same as Cleanse Rearguard but can only cleanse a unit in the front. You can also use this to Wave Brood but you must place him at the front.
Reflection Shield  |
This ability does not protect him from any status effects but rather from any damage that does not target him. Some examples of these abilities are Return Fire, Blast, Thorns and Magic Reflect.
Strengths & Weaknesses
| Sanctus Vicar's strength is his ability to support both the front and back with Cleanse and Cleanse Rearguard. He also has good damage to add in your team if you lack some range damage. |
| The only weakness I see is the lack of health. Low health units are usually the target of Opportunity attacks. Since you will probably use Sanctus Vicar with Water Element team, Deeplurker may be a huge problem for you if your team does not take advantage of Taunt units. |
When To Use
Going the Distance  |
Sanctus Vicar and Wave Brood are both units with Range attacks. They both fit in the Going the Distance rule set and are really good together.
Noxious Fumes  |
Sanctus Vicar has both Cleanse and Cleanse Rearguard with higher levels. He can remove two poison on your team per round. This is why he is good in this rule set.
Tis But Scratches  |
Cripple, just like Poison and Affliction, can be Cleansed. If your enemy has units that attack from different directions like they have Sneak or Snipe or Scattershot, then Sanctus Vicar is a good choice to remove these negative effects on your team.
When Not To Use
Fire & Regret is bad because Sanctus Vicar is a range unit. Each attack he does, a portion gets back to him. With a low health and armor, it would not take a long time before he dies because of his own attacks.
Ferocity  |
Sanctus Vicar is good in combination with Taunt units. He has low health so he needs someone to protect him as he protect them. It also solves one of the major problem of Taunt units which is getting Affliction removing the ability to heal them. Sanctus Vicar's Cleanse and Cleanse Rearguard helps with that.
Back to Basics  |
Sanctus Vicar is not good without abilities. He has low health, armor and only decent attack for a 6 mana unit.
Battle Sample
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_4bc46470f680a3017f84967239c9b6fd
In this battle, I absolutely have the control from start to finish. Unfortunately, I was not able to showcase Sanctus Vicar's Cleanse Rearguard ability since the enemy doesn't have any negative status to inflict on Wave Brood. The idea of this build is to have Wave Brood take the brunt of the damage with his Void and Prophet Rosa's Shield while healing him with Angelic Mandarin's Triage and removing all the negative status through Sanctus Vicar's Cleanse Rearguard. It's a very solid strategy in my opinion. If you have more mana, you can change Elanor Bravefoot and Halfling Refugee for two more Triage units giving you a more perfect control of each game.
Final Thoughts
Sanctus Vicar is a really good addition to the Splinterlands world. The problem with the Cleanse before is that it only affects the unit in the front. Any back line units, when inflicted with a status stays with them forever because there was no way to remove it.
Due to this crucial imbalanced state of the game, applying status effects like Poison to any enemy other than the front assures a huge advantage. This is why Uraeus and Deeplurker is a strong unit. This was now solved with the introduction of Sanctus Vicar and its ability, Cleanse Rearguard.
This new ability is really good as it gives more protection to back line Taunt units like Wave Brood. The only thing that I think they should've added in the game is instead of Reflection Shield, they should've made it Immunity instead. Imagine the idea that Sanctus Vicar is so holy that no status effect can affect him and he shares this holiness to others through Cleanse and Cleanse Rearguard. Reflection Shield is not bad. I just think that Immunity fits the set of abilities he have more.
If you have suggested combos or questions, feel free to comment it down below.
If you are planning to play and is inspired by my post, please consider using my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=kpgamingch
I do not own any of the photos in this post. All credits goes to:
- Splinterlands
- Peakmonsters
- Canva
- Giphy
Thanks for sharing! - @mango-juice
