Hello, the day that we can open the Rift Watcher packs is almost there!
Soon we can play with the cards! How exciting!
I was able to access to the QA server of the game and play with the new cards, so I wanted to share how I was able to use Usut, the new death airdrop monster successfully.
Usut Stats
- 8 mana
- 5 magic damage
- 2 speed
- 2 health
It is a high mana, high damage monster but very low health. It has blast, so it can possibly do 8 damage with blast. It has reflection shield, so it doesn't get any damage from magic reflect or blast damage.
It has redemption, so it does 1 damage to enemy monsters when it dies.
Today, I'd like to share 4 battles with Usut!
Battle 1
22 mana, keep your distance, aim true
https://qa.splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_25bfe1b5935128366f76c50d07582f04
- You often see almo cambio in keep your distance ruleset because it has return fire and magic reflect.
- Usut doesn't get affected by magic reflect because of reflection shield
- Magic blast can die so easily with 2 magic damage but Usut doesn't die from reflection. This is a big advantage for a high magic mosnter with blast.
Battle 2
32 mana, weak magic, broken arrows
https://qa.splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_22f813b00bfb35fed03620ad08447234
- Having a taunt monster with Usut is very good to protect Usut.
- Usut couldn't land a hit against Coeurl Lurker because of slow speed
- Usut did great damage against hydra and flame imp;
Battle 3
13 mana, fog of war, keep your distance
https://qa.splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=6a2ef5b1bddec683b292ecedfec2e44d6492f7ec
- Usut can keep hitting Almo cambio without getting hurt
- It takes time to hit almo cambio because of the speed difference
- If Usut can take time, it is useful.
Battle 4
32 mana, Armored Up
https://qa.splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=7255c6779840ddc9c5f869d460a51a39a3d16fae
- Magic is strong in armored up ruleset because magic ignores armor.
- I put Usut beside dark ha'on because it can block blast damage, which worked very well.
- I expected magic, so I chose Owster to reflect magic.
- Lord of darkness's weakest point is magic, so Usut's 5 damage did a great job giving damage to LoD.
Strong points of Usut
- High magic damage with blast. It can do 8 damage per turn including blast damage
- It doesn't get damaged from magic reflect. This is a huge plus. We should take advantage of that
- Before Rift watchers, only small mana monsters had reflection shield. Usut is one of the first high mana card with reflection shield.
Weak points of Usut
- Low hp. Most likely will become a target of opportunity monsters. => Use taunt of armors to protect it
- Slow speed. It can miss phase monster very easily.
Thoughts on Usut
High attack monster with reflection shield can become over powered easily because it'll be hard kill that monster. I think that's why only small mana mosnters had the ability until now. I assume that the team was watching the win rate of reflection shield monsters.
Now, the team is comfortable introducing higher mana, higher attack monsters with reflection shield. The team is being conservative (making sure the card is not too OP) so they decided to make Usut low hp, low speed.
At first, I was a little underwhelmed by the low health, low speed as the first airdrop monster. However, after playing with the card some, I think it's a good addition to the game.
Special thanks
synist3r & goblinguide
Thank you for playing challenge mode with me in the QA server!
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Thank you for reading!!
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Thanks for sharing! - @alokkumar121
