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Card Highlights #11: Dalthin Ironhood

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" ARMOR, n. The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is a blacksmith. "
- Ambrose Bierce
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In search for higher power, I look for units that doesn't seem that strong but has potential.

I've been interested in the potential of Weapons Training recently so I've been looking around for what undiscovered possible combos are out there. I believe that these units are extremely strong at the moment so I want to harness that power and get some wins as much as possible.

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Lore

The great halls of the Kingdom of Grimbardun follow the seams of precious metals and minerals deep beneath the northern Agniavas. The Chaos Empire sought these riches, but the mountain dwarves closed their gates and reinforced their defenses. When the legions attacked, the kingdom refused to fall. Eventually, Silus of the Rift called off the siege. As long as the stunties remained holed up in their caves, there was no need for more legionnaires to die.

And so the dwarves of Grimbardun shut themselves off from the world, indifferent to the atrocities committed outside their halls. But while Silus had chosen to preserve the combat power of his legions, it turned out that certain splinters of his Host had no compunctions about dying en masse.

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^{For full lore of this card, visit this website:
https://next.splinterlands.com/card-detail/617/regular/12/?tab=lore}

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Buy and Rental Costs

For an Epic unit, this one is quite expensive. It's currently priced for $2.28 for level 1. If you have Yodin Zaku or frequently renting it, then you might want to check this unit despite the high price.

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Contrary to the buying price, the renting price is affordable at 0.57 DEC per day for level 1. This would allow you to feel this unit if it's strong for you before deciding to buy one.

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Card Stats

Dalthin Ironhood, in terms of stats, are on the mid. He isn't particularly strong or particularly weak. This makes him a good unit as you can make him stronger than others or weaker to bait certain abilities.

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Card Effects

Weapons Training

Adjacent Units gain half this Unit's attack if they have no attacks themselves

This is the most important ability. It gives other units range attack and is very strong when combined with Yodin Zaku.

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Immunity

This Unit is immune to negative status effects

Immunity is a situational ability. It might be strong or useless depending on what's happening. If you are playing in Noxious Fumes rule set, then this ability is strong. If you are playing in a rule set that doesn't involve any negative status, then this has no effect making it useless.

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Redemption

When this Unit dies, it does 1 damage to all enemy Units

Redemption is a strong but double-edged ability. In order to activate it, you need this unit to die. Just like Martyr, the earlier you can activate this, the better. The problem is that, at the same time, it would also reduce your damage since this unit will need to die.

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Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

Through Weapons Training Ability, this offsets Yodin Zaku's High Mana. You can make a lower mana build core with Dalthin Ironhood's Weaons Training. It will then balance Yodin Zaku's high mana cost without sacrificing the number of units you can use on that battle. Dalthin Ironhood also has good compatibiliy with Yodin Zaku. As I mentioned, this unit and the trained units all get the increased damage from Yodin Zaku. In addition to that, since Blast damage gets half of the damage, rounded up, they all would inflict 2 Blast damage instead of 1. The decent armor is also a plus when baiting units attacking with Opportunity. Since he only has 5 health, he can be a good bait for units with Opportunity. There are a lot of units with higher than 5 health and this would allow you to redirect your enemy's damage to this unit instead.

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Weaknesses

For a 7 mana unit, the stats are quite mid. It isn't strong or weak. to compare, although Zyriel has lower health than this unit, has the same 7 mana. Zyriel has 3 damage giving 3 damage to others by Weapons Training. That's without any increases from its summoner. In connection to the last, while it is good with Yodin Zaku, it is only good with Yodin zaku. Fire doesn't have good summoners for range units. You can use a dragon summoner for increased range damage but it's still a range unit and range has a lot of holes in how it works. Like I mentioned, there's not a lot of options for good summoners in Fire that supports Range units. The dragon summoner that can be substituted is also unavailable in Modern Format since it's a beta summoner.

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When To Use

Aimless

All Units have the Scattershot ability.

Scattershot makes this unit and the other two trained units random. This is a strong ability when combined with Yodin Zaku's Blast ability as it would have a chance to inflict 3 units at the same time instead of 2.

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Briar Patch

All units receive the Thorns ability at the start of the battle. Enemy units that use melee attacks receive damage back.

Since range units are not affected by Thorns, it's a good rule set for you. It add defense without you doing any effort that will only affect your enemies.

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Close Range

Ranged attacks may be used in the first position in battles.

Since this unit and the other two trained units are ranged, it's a good tihng if you can attack while in the front. This fixes the biggest weakness of range units.

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When Not To Use

Going the Distance

Only units with ranged attacks may be used.

Let me quote what I said in my Card Highlights #10: Daarg Deadblast but instead of Daarg Deadblast, I will change it a bit for Dalthin Ironhood. 

"This rule set is bad for Dalthin Ironhood since you are not allowed to use any units without attack completely nullifying your Weapons Training ability."

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Silenced Summoners

Summoners do not give any stat buffs or debuffs or grant/use any abilities.

Since Dalthin Ironhood is reliant on Yodin Zaku to make it a strong unit, then removing Yodin Zaku would make using this card worthless.

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Fire and Regret

All units receive the Return Fire ability at the start of the battle. Enemy units that attack with ranged attacks receive damage back.

Since you will be training your units in Range attack, then they would also be affected and get damaged by Return Fire ability when they inflict damage to enemies.

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Battle Sample

^{https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_a4c9bfe5b8ea09a0b8129e31ae092c05}

Yodin Zaku is very strong with Dalthin Ironhood. This is because of two things:

1. Dalthin Ironhood has range attack which means the Weapons Training is also range attack. Since they are all range, they would also get the benefit of the increased range damage with Yodin Zaku.

2. Units without attacks are usually low mana. This makes you get the mana you invested with Yodin Zaku. This mean that you can use Yodin Zaku without sacrificing the number of units you can use. The more units you have, the more damage you will get.

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Final Thoughts

I'm very happy that this worked really well. You see, range unit in Fire element is unfavorable. Fire units are stronger when they are melee since Tarsa complements them.

Tarsa requires lower mana which means you can use more units in the battle. Tarsa also boosts melee damage. This means using range units is not as strong and worse than using melee units with Tarsa.

Yodin Zaku fixes that weakness and making Dalthin Ironhood good. The only bad thing is that you cannot use this in Modern because Yodin Zaku is from Untamed and you can only use Chaos Legion and Rebellion in Modern Ranked Format.

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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
• Canva