Hello again, my coffee loving friends. This blog will be a bit more special as this would serve as a guide as well for the new players on how Summoner Tactics work.
As usual, I would provide my thought process on what lineup I used and why I picked and placed those units in their respective positions. Copying and learning strategies is a good way to learn if you're just starting the game.
At the very end, on the battle section and final thoughts, I will give more examples of other important stuffs related to Rebellion Summoners and the Summoner Tactics so give that a read as well. I'll try to make it short but precise to give everyone a general idea of these mechanics that you can apply in your games.
RULE SETS
 | Active:  Water,  Earth,  Life,  Death,  DragonInactive:  Fire, |
|---|---|
 | Keep Your Distance: Units with Melee attack may not be used in battles. |
Click here to see the lists of all the rule sets
STRATEGY
The main strategy for this battle is to have Rage give magic attack to Merdaali Guardian and Baakjira through Weapons Training. Since Baakjira will have magic attack now, I can also give him Nidhoggr's Summoner Tactics, Blast and Deathblow, along with Rage.
Alternative Strategy: I could use Nidhoggr's +2 Speed and Execute as well but I don't think I need it. I usually just use it if I need to kill an opponent really quick just like in this battle to quickly kill Lira the Dark. (https://next.splinterlands.com/battle/sl_395bc1980b8806bf5b47624fd71319fa)
CARD POSITIONING
In this battle, I used the summoner, Nidhoggr and units, Chaos Agent, Baakjira, Rage, Merdaali Guardian, Djinn Oshannus .
Quick Stats
 |
Level 4: Legendary Summoner. Allows level 10 common, level 8 rare, level 6 epic and level 4 legendary.  -1 Armor: Decrease all enemy Unit's armor by 1. -1 Health: Decrease all enemy Unit's health by 1. Force Reduction: Reduces maximum team size by 1. |
Choose either 3 Units to apply Blast and Deathblow OR 3 Units to apply +2 Speed and Execute.
 Blast |
 Deathblow |
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
OR
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 +2 Speed |
 Execute |
 |
 |
 |
   Dodge - Phase - Backfire |
    Void - Slow - Strengthen - Heal |
    Flying - Void - Weapons Training - Life Leech - Affliction |
| 1. Level 10: Chaos Agent is a really good filler unit at high levels due to his efficiency to evade all types of attacks. He can dodge magic attacks as well because of Phase and his high speed and Dodge increases his chance to avoid the attacks. | 2. Level 4: Baakjira is my main tank. Not only he has high health, he also has Void and Heal to keep him alive. Slow and Strengthen works as buff for my team and debuff for them. He doesn't have any attacks which is bad in a normal game but since I have him beside Rage, this gives him extra magic attack through Weapons Training. | 3. Level 4: Second tank and main damage of the team. The high magic attack complements not only his Life Leech but also Nidhoggr's Blast. The higher the attack of the unit, the stronger these abilities will be. |
 |
 |
|
  Tank Heal - Repair - Strengthen |
Tank Heal - Repair - Strengthen |
|
| 4. Level 8: Another unit without any attack for Weapons Training. Her Tank Heal keeps my front line healthy while Repair will be good to recover some armor for Rage if it gets damaged. Strengthen stacks giving me another health on top of Baakjira's Strengthen. | 5. Level 4: I actually placed Djinn Oshannus at the back to protect my team against Sneak. Djinn Oshannus's high speed is a good counter against melee Sneak. After the game, I realized that there's Keep Your Distance ruleset. I just wasted time thinking of something that cannot exist in this battle. I also gave Djinn Oshannus the Blast and Deathblow from Nidhoggr as he's the third hardest to kill units in this battle. |
BATTLE REPLAY
https://next.splinterlands.com/battle/sl_bd4927002f5309138d751cbb5095afb0
In this battle, to maximize the effect of Niddhoggr's abilities, I gave the Blast and Deathblow to units with most attacks. Both of these abilities benefit from units having high attacks. That's why Rage, Baakjira and Djinn Oshannus has them.
The longer they survive, the longer I can use these abilities. Having high survivability also minimizes the threat of these abilities being useless on a dead unit. These 3 units have that factor as well making them the perfect targets for these abilities from Nidhoggr.
Final Thoughts
Using Tactics Summoners in the Tactics Stage.
Using a Tactics Summoner or a summoner that has additional section below their main abilities like this...
...gives you an extra page at the start of the game. This is called the Tactics Stage where you can add more abilities to your units.
To make it easier to understand, let me break it like this. Each Tactics Summoner has two types of abilities. Let's call it the Team Buff and Unit Buff.
Team buff is the usual ones like what you can find in any other summoner before Rebellion. This is applied to either all of your enemies, all of your units or a mix of both. The Unit Buff, on the other hand, can be applied to any units in this battle. It may be your units, enemy units or a mix of both.
The downside is that this can only be applied to a limited number of units unlike the Team Buff. The maximum number of units you can apply these abilities are represented by the white human shadow beside a number below the abilities.
For Nidhoggr, this means you can a apply Blast and Deathblow to a maximum of 3 units or +2 Speed and Execute to a maximum of 3 units. Both abilities will be applied to the units whether you choose your units or enemy's.
Ambush Rounds
Ambush Rounds are just like Tactics Stage. This is a separate screen triggered at the start of the round after Tactics Stage but before Round 1. This stage is triggered if you or your enemies have any units with Ambush.
To make full use of this, it would be best if your unit has abilities that can be applied to an opposing unit when they attack. Dallan's Cripple is an example to reduce any potential heal at the start of the game. If you can apply Poison at an Ambush Round, that would take immediate effect on Round 1 damaging your enemy units giving you an advantage at the start. These are just examples that you can do with this.
You don't usually see an Ambush Round because the units with Ambush are not really that strong.
Ambush is also a one time thing making it one of the weakest ability in the game since other abilities can be applied almost every round.
List of units with Ambush ability as of December 08, 2024.
Counters
Counters come in three forms, countering a strategy, countering a rule set or countering a specific ability.
To give you some general idea, countering strategies involve using units and abilities that can control the game. Using units with Taunt, or better, a Tactics Summoner like Risqruel Drath that can give your team Taunt anytime you need it, counters any abilities or attacks that may target a different unit. Your enemy's Sneak, Snipe and Opportunity will target a unit with Taunt regardless of the effect written on its ability.
Countering a ruleset means you use abilities, units or summoners to offset the disadvantages given by the rulesets. If you have ruleset like Earthquake, using units with Flying will allow those units to not be damaged by the said ruleset.
"Non-flying Monsters take 2 Melee damage at the end of each round." meaning Flying Monsters/units will not take damage each round.
Having a Tactics summoner that can be beneficial at certain rulesets can be a good habit to keep your wins up. Eternal Tofu's Triage and Scavenger, while not directly counters Noxious Fumes, can still be a good summoner since the abilities he gives can let your backline units survive longer.
Lastly, countering abilities is just like the Taunt-Sneak example but more detailed. Some abilities directly counter another. For example, Lookout halves all damage from any enemy attacks from the Ambush Stage.
Lookout - Adjacent Units receive 1 less damage from attackers with Sneak, Snipe, and Opportunity. Additionally, all Units take half damage from ambushes as long as a Lookout Unit is on your team.
Cleanse and Cleanse Rearguard removes any negative effects on your team such as Poison or Affliction. Dispel, on the other hand, counters some abilities that increases stats such as Inspire, Bloodlust or Protect. Having a Tactics summoner such as Elias Max Pruitt can be beneficial as he can give you Cleanse whenever you need it and if not, can give you Armored Strike and Piercing for additional firepower.
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
