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Card Highlights #53: Sea Dog of Eight

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Losing your life is not the worst thing that can happen, the worst thing is to lose your reason for living.
by Shanks, One Piece
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The Sea Dog of Eight is a Rare card in Splinterlands that no one uses. I recently discovered it while looking for other possible units with Heal and was surprised at its stats. This makes it a solid option for both aggressive and defensive strategies.

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Lore

To earn their stripes, a pirate of the Pieces of Eight—the notorious fleet led by Captain Corin Drace—must demonstrate mastery of their maritime craft, including navigation, watchkeeping, blockades, raiding and boarding merchant vessels, impenitence in murder and mayhem, and other virtues of an accomplished pirate.
Once they've proven themselves, they receive the title of seadog and all the privileges that go along with it—namely respect and first dibs at plunder and revelry while those junior are relegated to the crow's nest or guard duty.

^{For full lore of this card, visit this website:
https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/579/regular/12/?tab=lore}

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Buy and Rental Costs

Sea Dog of Eight has a buy price of $38.50 at max level, which makes it expensive compared to other Rare cards. Its cost can be justified by its strong abilities and high tanking stats making it a useful addition for serious players. It might also be due to the fact that it's a recent unit from the Rebellion pack and low usage from players which is why it's more expensive than it should be.

The rent price for Sea Dog of Eight is 4.17 DEC per day at max level placing it in the affordable range. This is a good option for players who need a new strong tank without spending too much DEC. Renting it can be a practical choice for certain battles or tournaments where its abilities shine. As Chaos Legion gets pushed out soon. It would be advantageous for players to start getting used to other options for their plays.

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Card Stats

Sea Dog of Eight is strong for its defensive stats and abilities specifically, the high health and Heal is a good combination. The healing makes it a valuable tank under any circumstances as long as the rule set or the enemies don't go against it.

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Card Effects

^{Corossive Ward}

When hit with a Melee attack, a unit with this ability does 2 damage to the attacker's armor AND reduces the max armor of the attacker by 2

This is a powerful ability for weakening heavily armored opponents. It helps Sea Dog of Eight dominate battles with tanks reliant on armor. The advantage of this ability is that the armor affected by this ability is permanent for the rest of the battle. This means that if your enemy has Repair, it will not bring back the armor affected by Corossive Ward.

^Heal

Restores a portion of the Unit's health each round

This is one of the best ability in the game due to its many uses. Heal allows Sea Dog of Eight to restore health every turn. It greatly improves the turns Sea Dog of Eight exist in that battle to tank for your team.

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Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths
Sea Dog of Eight is strong because of its high health and the Heal ability that complements that high health. The Corrosive Ward ability gives it an edge against armor heavy lineups which is a plus but the Heal and high health is the one that stands out in my opinion.

Weaknesses
Its main weakness its lack of abilities that reduce high damage like Forcefield, Shield or Void. Additionally, the card’s high cost might make it less accessible for casual players especially since they also need to rent out other summoners and units besides Sea Dog of Eight.

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When To Use

^{Armored Up}

All Units have 2 Armor in addition to their normal Armor stat.

This rule set works well with Sea Dog of Eight because Corrosive Ward can remove the extra armor of enemy units. This allows it to counter heavily armored lineups effectively like those with multiple units that have Protect and Repair.

^{Up Close and Personal}

Only Units with Melee attack may be used in battles.

This is a great match for Sea Dog of Eight as it focuses on melee combat. Corrosive Ward is particularly effective since all units are melee attackers in this rule set and Corossive Ward only affects melee units.

^{Fog of War}

Units lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities.

Sea Dog of Eight performs well in this rule set due to its high health and self healing. It can tank effectively without worrying about Sneak or Snipe attacks.

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When Not To Use

^{Blood and Sunder}

All units have Corrosive Ward.

This rule set makes Corrosive Ward less special as all units have the ability. This reduces Sea Dog of Eight’s unique advantage being one of his only two abilities given to everyone.

^{Healed Out}

All healing abilities are removed from Units and Summoners.

This is bad for Sea Dog of Eight because it disables the Heal ability removing a key part of its strength. Without healing it would die easier being the main frontline.

^Equalizer

The initial Health of all Units is equal to that of the Units on either team with the highest base Health.

Sea Dog of Eight loses some of its advantage in this rule set because its high health is no longer a unique strength. Equalized health levels the playing field reducing its impact. While it may be good as it increases the health of your own units, it may also be bad as it increases the health of your enemy's units.

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Battle Sample

^{https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_5607815421e074bbbc26850abf89c115}

This battle is a quick one where I used Possibilus the Wise's Reach for Sea Dog of Eight to do damage on a safer location at the start. The extra health from Possibilus the Wise also help Sea Dog of Eight increase the quality of heals by increasing his health. The extra amount helped in countering the damage given by Earthquake rule set. Even though Sea Dog of Eight gets hit by the Earthquake every round, he only gets 2 damage while receiving 4 heals every start of the round.

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Final Thoughts

Sea Dog of Eight is a Rare card with impressive stats and abilities that make it a strong tank for players looking for new units to play. Once the Chaos Legion is out, I strongly believe that this will be one of the new cards that will stand out among the rest. If I were to compare his strength, I would say his closest to Cursed Windeku but with Water Element's strong Tank Healers.

In terms of offense, he is also good with a high 4 melee attack. Sea Dog of Eight also has 4 speed which allows his attack to hit most of the time. While Sea Dog of Eight doesn't have other abilities that would help his attacks become stronger, I think the sheer raw power is enough to make him a good contender as one of the good tanks in the near future.

Overall, Sea Dog of Eight is a good addition for those building a newer stronger Water Element lineup. Its unique combination of offense, defense and sustain makes it stand out in melee dominated battles. If you are reading this blog, I suggest that you make use of this knowledge and be aware of his existence so you would be prepared when changes happened in Splinterlands.

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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
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