The Gladius Guide - Part 6 | Dragon & Neutral

Not only since the introduction of the SPS Rewards, the Brawls are a highlight for many Splinterland players. There are many factors that make the Brawls a special experience.
Celebrating successes together and also going through defeats together to become better inspires and builds team spirit.
I still remember how confused I was at the first Brawls when the veteran opponents came to the field with cards that seemed to be completely overpowered!
From my point of view, the Gladius cards are one of the main reasons why the Brawls are so much fun.
Not only because they are very strong, but also because they are rare and it takes a long time to build up a good deck of them.

I'll be going over all the Gladius cards in a small series of articles and we'll look together at how and where they can be used. To keep it all organized I will go through splinter by splinter.
Here are the links to the other parts of this series:

Part 1 | Fire
Part 2 | Water
Part 3 | Earth
Part 4 | Life
Part 5 | Death

In this final post in my series on the Gladius cards, I'll cover the Neutral and Dragon cards. With that my series is complete and I hope it was something for everyone, let's go!

Crème de la crème

There is only one neutral and and only one Dragon Galdius card. Both cards are Legendary. Accordingly, they are rare and strong.
The unique feature of both cards is that they can be combined with so many other cards. Both Splinters take a special position, so there is only one card for them. More neutral Gladius cards would certainly be interesting, but probably they would be hard to balance today. The same is true for the Dragon cards. But let's take a closer look at the two...

Tatiana Blayde

Tatiana Blayde is always playable as a neutral card, except for some special rulesets. Of course, with a cost of 8 mana, it's not really cheap, but due to its power, that's probably justified. She deals both melee and ranged damage, which remains the same across all levels: 3 melee and 2 ranged. Already on level 1 she has a high attack speed. Her hit points, on the other hand, are not very high, and that is her only weakness.
Besides Bloodlust, she has the Close Range ability. So her ranged attack will also work from the tank position. From level 2 she gets Dodge, then Inspire and at the maximum level True Strike... she really is a beast!

As mentioned, she has rather few hit points, that she can partly compensate with Dodge. But she remains vulnerable to magic damage. There are two ways to use Tatiana, depending on the rules.

1. as a tank, but she needs a summoner, which strengthens her defense, or a ruleset without magic cards and
2. as an offensive card in the backline. Rulesets like Super Sneak, Equal Opportunity are helpful or necessary for this.
   She particularly benefits from Meele Mayhem.

Summoners that strengthen their defense would be e.g. Sthispa, Immortalis, Mimosa, Grandmaster Rathe, Lorna or Lir Deepswimmer.
For use case 2, i.e. as a backline carry, the following summoners would be worth considering: Paldo Emberstorm, Yodin, Prince Rennyin, Archmage Arius.

It can of course be played with numerous other summoners, but it benefits from these in particular. Overall, the card is very strong and it often makes a big difference whether you can play it or not.

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Larissa Kerato

The only Dragon Gladius card is a Magic card. Larissa Kerato does not look strong at first glance. This is due to the high mana cost in relation to the values. For 7 mana you get 2 magic damage, with 2 attack speed and 3 hit points. The stats remain the same across all levels.
In fact, this is not outstanding, were it not for the abilities... Besides Bloodlust, Larissa has Double Strike. Void follows at level 2, Dispel at 3 and Blast at 4.
So it's 4 magic damage and not only 2. That changes a lot. Still, the card remains vulnerable. The 3 hit points usually means the end at the first hit. So the card must be well hidden or protected.

Besides protection, it is important to strengthen its offensive, so that it becomes unstoppable as soon as possible with Bloodlust.

Protecting the map in this context means, first of all, making sure that it does not fall victim to an opportunity attack and that it is not the target of Snipe. What is also helpful is some Armor. Of course, this can be done with an appropriate Summoner, but then the strengthening of the offensive qualities is neglected. The full potential of this card can only unfold if it gets good support cards on the side and a Summoner that strengthens its attack!

Examples for the Summoner are: Alric, Delwyn, Archmage Arius, Lux Vega, Obsidian and of course Valnamor! With Valnamor she can become incredibly strong.
Also a possibility would be Yodin, if she is not level 4 yet.

A really strong card, rulesets that are especially help her: Target Practice, Equal Opportunity, Equalizer and Explosive Weaponry, again only if not yet level 4.

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Summary

In my 6 post series, we have now seen all of the Gladius maps in Splinterlands. We have found that there is one or even more cards for almost every use, rule combination, and mana range. The Bloodlust ability, which all Gladius cards have, is what makes these cards so strong. But their value also lies in their rarity. Not everyone has Gladius cards, let alone leveled ones.

Since the introduction of Soulbound Reward cards, we have Summoners at our disposal that allow the use of Gladius cards in Ranked Matches. Additionally, there is a new rule that makes this possible.
This makes Gladius cards more important overall, and makes them worth collecting.

In combination with the new reward cards, this makes interesting lineups possible. Overall, the value of the Gladius cards increases the importance of Brawls, which is a good development.

The collection of these rare cards is a great pleasure and it motivates me to play good brawls to earn as many merits as possible. Opening the Gladius cases is always an exciting thing and who knows, maybe I'll soon draw the missing cards!

In this sense, I wish you good luck in using the Gladius cards, see you on the battlefield!

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