Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge: WOOD NYMPH

Welcome to the 2nd card of the new year, Ladies and Gentlemen: Wood Nymph! I'd be completely insincere if I didn't straight up go ahead and confess that this is one of my all-time favorite cards. There are indeed several reasons for this. The first of which is just the thematic of a wood elf, in the Earth splinter, is just so remimiscent of high-fantasy stories, games, collections, art and media. Wood elves are the epitome of the Forests, and they are represented in hundreds of different forms of fantasy media. Wood elves make an appearance in the Warhammer universe. They are featured heavily in Dungeons and Dragons, in the Elder Scrolls universe. They're also knows as bosmer (bos coming from the latin for forest or wooded area, and mer being used to denominate elves. Similarly, dark elves in this case would be called dunmer). You can find them, as well, represented in the Witcher franchines and Netflix series.

My second reason for absolutely loving this card is its actual utility in the Earth splinter,since it has the absolutely amazing tank that is the Sacred Unicorn. This card takes little damage, due to its Void ability, and being able to recharge that, before the Goblin Psychic (the new healer from CL) came long, for only 4 mana, was amazing utility in its own right. Now, now, before I continue gushing and writing a sonnet about this card, let me just finally say that the third thing I love about it is the card art.

Shall we have a look?

Such a beautiful card!

My opinion on the card design: OK let's be real. The nicest thing about this art is clearly the eyes. I don't know who made the art for this, but I am EXTREMELY impressed by these eyes. If you look at it in the small format from a distance, you'd be forgiven for seeing a glazed-over look because of the reflection on the outside of the eye. However, once you see it in its full glory, you can really appreciate the affection and sincerity of effort that was put into the design of these eyes. It's like looking into a deep ocean, mystical and powerful. This is, of course, perfectly in line with the character of the wood nymph: a healer. Wise, focused, well-meaning. I always love the healers if I can, in every game, and this one's no exception here. If I had to have any criticism it would be the fact that Wood Nymph's eyebrows are visible THROUGH her hair! Ahh but it's such a minor detail that it does not detract in any way from the card's amazing art. It is well represented. The outfit is great, the hair is great, the ears are perfectly fitting and the golden leaves in the gold card art go well together with the overall color and aesthetic for the wonderful Earth Splinter. 10/10.

My History with this card: This card, since it is a reward card, was not available to me in the starter deck when I began playing, even though Beta edition cards were available. The fact of the matter is that, as soon as I saw somebody else use it, I immediately tried to figure out how to get it. IT wasn't difficult, of course, and since then it became one of the first cards that I purchased, after the staples of Sand Worm and Creeping Ooze. Wood Nymph was next on my list. I even had some success buying several copies one time and selling them at a later time.

Official Lore: "A peculiar new bud appeared at the tips of the highest branches of the Elder Tree. The animals living in the tree watched as the strange buds grew, and in a matter of days, burst open. From each bud zoomed forth a tiny sprite. These Wood Nymphs quickly scattered around Anumün in a frenzy of mischief." -Splinterlands.com

Unofficial Lore: "Nymphs are often depicted in classic works across art, literature, mythology, and fiction. They are often associated with the medieval romances or Renaissance literature of the elusive fairies or elves. A nymph is also known as a tree nymph or tree spirit. In Greek mythology, it’s known as a “dryad,” and they’re specific to oak trees. There are other types of nymphs for other trees, such as Meliae in the ash trees, Naiads in freshwater trees, and Nereids of the sea."

Stats from Splinterlands:

Looking at these stats...

Let's look at the level-ups and note any important milestones:

Base level Stats as seen on the card
An increase of 1 speed.
An increase of 1 health.
An increase of 1 speed.
An increase of 1 health.
The addition of STRENGTHEN skill ~ Important milestone here. Strengthen is one of the rarest abilities that you can find, and it is primarily featured in the Life and Earth splinters. It simply grants every single card on your team 1 additional health, for as long as the granting card is alive. Epona is famous for this skill!
An increase of 1 speed.
An increase of 1 magic attack. ~ the additional 1 magic attack is very important to put pressure on the opposing enemy's frontline and/or backrow units(depending on ruleset). More is always better when it comes to damage, though keep in mind this can literally backfire against Reflect ability.
An increase of 1 speed.
An increase of 1 health.

Recommended level:

Taking these milestones into account, a minimum of level 3 of this card is STRONGLY recommended, since the extra health means it won't get sniped as easily. Keep in mind that you healer is only useful if alive. Level 6 is, of course, ideal, due to the addition of Strengthen. Since you'd already be in Gold League when getting that, I'd strongly recommend to go even further to level eight for the extra damage.

The battle! Click here for the BATTLE!

Setting: Ranked match in Silver 3, month of January, 2022
Opponent: HOANGANHVN627, in what seems to be a mirror match. These are always interesting!
Ruleset was the following....

Total Mana Cost Allowed: 26
Splinters Allowed: Life, Earth
Special Conditions: Explosive Weaponry, Melee Mayhem

Melee Mayhem means that all melee monsters may attack from any position, regardless of their skills or abilities. Explosive Weaponry means that all monsters have the Blast ability: Additional damage is equivalent to main damage divided by 2, rounded up.

Battle Plan

This was a tough choice, since I'm a fan of both the Life and Earth splinters in this new Chaos Legion. Both of these factions are heavily oriented around damage, and both of the new Chaos Legion summoners, General Sloan and Obsidian, grant an additional damage to their damage type for every monster on the team. This means that, every 2 damage up, is one additional damage being done as "splash" damage as part of the Blast ability. Personally, when possible, I try to use magic when Explosive Weaponry is the Ruleset. This is for the simple reason that magic can go
"under" armor, thereby improving the Blast ability. That being so, I found this to be the perfect setting to use Wood Nymph, at level 5, which I rented, in tandem with a magic damage team and the excellent summoner Obsidian.

View of the Battlefield

Battle Lineup

Summoner: Obsidian: This is one of the two best choices here, I would say. The other would be Lyanna. Here I went for full damage, and the extra damage made it so that the level 5 Goblin Sorcerer got one additional damage in Sneak, thus making the Blast damage two instead of one.

Position 1: Unicorn Mustang. This is the quintessential tank for the Earth splinter. It is difficult to find a better tank here, unless you've got Kron or an extremely high level Flesh Golem. I expected magic from my opponent, and the massive health pool in conjunction with the resistance offered by the void skill, made this the perfect card to continually heal.

Position 2: Failed Summoner: One of the single best cards that can be used in this ruleset. The idea is that it will not take the full force of the initial magic attack, but even taking the Blast damage, allows it to reflect it back. At level 4, like I rented, this card has a massive health pool and can really do some work with Reflect. Don't forget the Reflect is doubled due to Queen Mycelia.

Position 3: Queen Mycelia: One of the best cards in the game. Granting two armor is a great buffer against the most common tank for Earth, the Unicorn Mustang, and giving Amplify to the Reflect ability of Failed Summoner is perfect here.

Position 4: Wood Nymph: Of course, our star! Here to bring wisdom and healing, and to maintain the tanky frontline.

Position 5: Epona: A luxury rental and one of the single best cards in the game. It is greatly overlooked because it is rare that somebody will want to pay hundreds of dollars for a 1 mana card, but having 3 health and giving one extra health to every card on the team is a big deal and it only takes 1 mana to do this.

Position 6: Goblin Sorcerer: This is a very strong card for this game mode, since you can assault the very back and do some crazy damage. This is especially the case since this leveled up version begins with 2 magic attack, which is increase to 3 thanks to the summoner. That means it will do 3 magic attack and 2 more with splash.

Did it Work?

Definitely. And it's honestly no surprise. My opponent's set up did not take into account any kind of counter-strategies, and just played straight damage. This can be a good approach against purely physical set-ups such as the standard Fire or Water Splinter set-ups that rely on Shield and Armor. However, being as there was certainly a 50% chance that I would use Earth (and, I would argue, higher than 50% due to the ruleset), my opponent should perhaps have added some additional precautions. Nevertheless, it's nice to see the power of healing offered by the Wood Nymph and also the absolutely stellar health boost provided by Epona here. I don't think I would make any changes.

What did our Weekly Unit do?

I would say a key element in holding the frontline and therefore allowing the other cards to do their magic (hue hue). The fact that my leveled up Unicorn Mustang had extra health, coupled with the further added one health provided by Epona, meant that healing was extra effective here. Honestly, this kind of a set up is way beyond my budget, so I think I had a clear advantage here just by virtue of the fact that so many of my cards that I rented were leveled up. Good game!

Based on this information, let's have a quick look at the current market value of this card in our COST ANALYSIS for a Level 1 Wood Nymph:

Beta Version:

Current Low price (1card): $1.426
Current Best price (per BCX): $1.426
Current High Bid: $3.811
Current Market Value: $4.245

Recommended Usage

Summoner(s): 1. Lyanna Natura. A unit with healing ability benefits from additional health for two reasons. The first of which is that, healing scales with maximum health. Therefore, if a card has higher health, it will receive more healing. Secondly, it also means that a card is more likely to survive one extra hit and therefore be allowed another chance to heal. 2. Obsidian: This is a clear choice because Wood Nymph uses magic attack. Boosting magic attack for her and the remaining team is a clearly good option that increases pressure on the opponent's frontline and backline, depending on ruleset.
Rulesets: No sneak and Snipe. This way only the frontline tank takes damage, making healing more effective.
League: I would recommend this card more for Silver league, and even more so for Gold league do to its ability to get Strengthen.

Not Recommended when...

There are indeed some scenarios that do not favor this card, however, due to its low mana cost, these are not many. In the scenario where all cards get Opportunity, or all magic and ranged get Snipe, its healing is completely diminished and therefore it is much less useful here.

Conclusions

This remains one of my favorite cards and this specific match really shone a light on why I think so.

Personal Opinion

I love the design of this card, both its card art as well as its thematic place in the Earth Splinter. I will continue to use it for the rest of my days!!

Be sure to join Splinterlands if you enjoy a TCG that allows for a myriad of battle tactics. If you're interested, I invite you to utilize my referral link:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=letsjam