Hello there.
The Rebellion general sale is live and people have been opening their packs, and those eligible received their promo cards. There have been some updates regarding the airdrop, with Wagon price increasing to 50 vouchers each. The first conflict should start on December 12, and end sometime in January. The Modern ranked cards have also rotated. Untamed can no longer be used in Modern, while Rebellion cards are now available, and the rebellion starter cards replaced the previous untamed ones.
For this post, I will be focusing on the new Rebellion summoner cards. I know that the legendary summoners are not yet available, so I will just be going over the common and rare summoners included as starter cards. I decided to go with the summoners first since the ranked meta hasn't been established yet. Since the cards are new, not a lot of Rebellion cards are being played in Bronze apart from the starter cards. Discussing the summoners can maybe help give beginner/weaker players an idea of team composition.
Since I am waiting for the meta to stabilize, I haven't bought any Rebellion cards yet. I plan on buying single cards once I find the strategies that I am comfortable with. My thoughts on the summoners are my first impressions, and from what I have gathered while playing the new Modern Ranked a few days after the rotation.
The first Summoner is Nomos. It is a Rare Fire summoner with active targeting. The user can choose between giving -2 magic on 2 monsters, or giving 2 Dispel abilities to 2 monsters. I am not a fan of this summoner. I think the -2 magic is too niche, and can be useless at times. Fire has a lot of options. In Bronze, Melee is the usual teams for fire. Range and Magic have gotten some good cards, but it will be risky to bet on the opponent using a lot of Magic. I can see it being used on a Magic only ruleset. The Dispel is even more difficult to use. Dispel works 100 percent of the time; there is no chance to it. So having two can be redundant. Overall, I think this is a very niche summoner. There are a lot of possibilities where its abilities will whiff since it is too defensive oriented.
The next summoner is Brewmaster Abraxas. It is a Common Fire and Earth summoner that enables the use of both elements at the expense of not having any other ability. I think all the dual element summoners are a must have. Not only are they perfect for Silenced Summoner ruleset, since they still enable the use of both elements, they are also the new cheap summoners at 3 mana. I haven't used this much, but there are a lot of possibilities for these dual element summoners. Off the top of my head, Earth can now have a cheap Cleanse monster with Scavo Chemist. Fire can have a cheap Protect with Mycelia. Fire now has access to a Tank Heal monster. Iidri Fyre can attack from the backline with the help of Ava. There are a lot of strategies, and the ones I listed are just from the CL monsters. So overall, I think this is a must have, even at just level 1 early on.
The next summoner is Underboss Fabino. It is a Rare Earth summoner with active targeting. The user can choose between giving +2 Melee attack to 2 monsters, or giving the Poison debuff on 1 monster. I haven't been using this summoner much, because I have an effective Earth team already. But on paper, this feels like a very strong card. Giving Grund +2 melee can push it over the top. In Brawls you can give both Grund and Katrelba the +2 melee and watch as the enemy team melt. The Poison has a few interesting strategies. If the opponent uses an Agor Support team, you can poison one of the backline to weaken the support group. You can also Poison high value targets like Katrelba. The poison ability can seem weak, but it can be good if you can take out the opponent's win condition early. Overall, I think it is good just because of the +2 melee, while the poison has its niche.
The next summoner is Chuul Jujinchi. It is a Common Earth and Life summoner that enables the use of both elements. My initial thought on this was Support overload. Earth and Life have a lot of support monsters. With Truthspeaker rotating out, Life has access to Protect again through Mycelia. Earth has a 4 mana healer with Venari Crystalsmith. Iziar can be an upgrade on Slipspawn with the Void, or double Taunt with Iziar front is an option. Earth can get a cheaper Stun option with Runeslinger. Life can also make use of double Martyr with this summoner. Like I said above, I think these dual element summoners are a must have.
The next summoner is Avina of the Wolf. It is a Rare Life summoner with active targeting. The user can grant +2 Speed to 2 monsters, or give a Heal ability to 1 monster. From the battles I've played since the rotation, this card is the one I have seen the most of. Both abilities are really good. The +2 speed on two monsters is really strong. If you are facing a Sneak team, grant +2 speed to War Pegasus at the back and watch the opponent miss all day. A 6 speed enraged Drybone Barbarian can be difficult to hit. Add to that the Slow of the time mage, and your team has a large speed difference. And that was just discussing what I think is the weaker ability. I think the ability to grant Heal to a monster is the OP ability it has. Imagine Iziar with Heal, or maybe Drybone Barbarian. Add to that the heal of Venari Crystalsmith. In low mana battles, it can be difficult for the enemy to burst down a Drybone Barbarian with Heal. You can also grant heal to monsters during Earthquake or Noxious Fumes ruleset. Iziar with heal is so strong that I think the combo is singlehandedly killing the Franz and Katie lineups. Avina can make teams so flexible that it is difficult to counter it. This early in the meta, I think this is the best Summoner of Rebellion among the starter cards.
That is it for part 1 of my Rebellion Summoners Review post. I plan on making a review of the Rebellion cards for my next few posts. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for improvement.
And as always, these are Not Financial Advice, and Do Your Own Research.
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