There are many units in Splinterlands that are underestimated and undervalued. One of them is Silverleaf Warlock and it's because its strength are mostly on higher levels. I want to give a shine on him today as I think he's a niche unit in certain teams.
Based on Silverleaf Warlock's abilties, his main concept is buffing other unit's speed and anything that relies on speed. While Backfire benefits himself, Swiftness and Blind benefits his team. Swiftness increases the team's speed that increases the chance the enemy attack misses. Blind decreases the chance that an enemy attack would succeed.
If you partner Silverleaf Warlock with units like Helheim Demon, who has high speed and Flying, the result will be really good since both the unit's main goal is the same.
In this battle though, since I have Silverleaf Warlock at low levels and Back to Basics rule, abilities doesn't matter and the 2 magic attack at level 1 is a huge appeal.
Lore
The warlocks of the Silverleaf family draw their power not from nature spirits or earthen magic, but from something dark, ancient, and primal. They wield it at the command of Rathlorien Silverleaf, the family’s patriarch, unleashing it to serve his will.
A handful join Kaylia’s fellowship in a desperate struggle to stop Mahkah Hemlig from destroying their land in her search for the secret of Praetoria.
https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/743/regular/14?tab=lore
Stats
Silverleaf Warlock is a strong support unit because all of his abilities help his team avoid attacks and control the pace and damage of the battle. His stats are simple, but the 2 magic damage is still good because it always lands and passes through armor. Silverleaf Warlock works best when paired with units that rely on speed and plays around evading enemy attacks.
Abilities
| Icon | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Swiftness | All friendly Units have their Speed increased by 1. |
 is a match because Swiftness giving +1 speed makes Dodge much stronger because Dodge increases the chance more that the enemy will miss their melee and range attacks. When they’re combined, your team gets a much higher chance to avoid enemy melee and ranged attacks. Every missed hit is a full defense because it keeps your team alive longer. | ||
 is a counter because Slow removes 1 speed from your team, which cancels out the bonus from Swiftness. This really hurts Silverleaf Warlock because his whole idea is to increase advantages through speed and evasion. If both abilities exist at the same time, the enemy Slow effectively takes away your Swiftness buff. |
 | Backfire | If an enemy misses this Unit with an attack, the attacker takes 2 damage. |
| is a match because Dodge increases the number of missed attacks, which means Backfire will trigger more often. Since Backfire deals 2 damage every time an enemy misses, this can become a strong and steady damage source. Backfire works on all attacks so if this unit gains Phase, Backfire also works on magic attack. | ||
 is a counter because True Strike makes all attacks hit no matter what which disables Backfire completely. Since Backfire only activates when the Silverleaf Warlock dodges, this makes it 100% useless. True Strike is one of the biggest hard counters for this unit as all of its strategy rely on enemy missing their shots. |
 | Blind | All enemy Melee & Ranged attacks have a 15% higher chance of missing their target. |
 is a match because Blind makes enemy attacks less accurate and Phase adds another layer by letting magic attacks miss too. Without Phase, Blind does nothing against magic attacks so pairing them together covers all attack types. This is one way to counter magic attacks and can be done easily now with the help of the ability, Phase Ward. | ||
| is a counter because Blind reduces enemy accuracy but True Strike ignores all accuracy loss. This means the enemy always hits even through Blind, Swiftness or any speed advantages you stacked. In battles with True Strike, Blind doesn't work and is just wasted. |
Good Rules to Consider
| Icon | Name | Reason |
|---|---|---|
 | Fog of War | Units lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities. |
| This rule removes Sneak, Snipe and Opportunity. Sneak and Snipe being unavailable is important because it keeps Silverleaf Warlock safe in the backline. Since his abilities only work when he is alive, it's a good idea to keep him alive to boost other unit's potential. Fog of War lets him do his job for longer, making the whole team harder to hit. | ||
 | Armored Up | All Units have 2 Armor in addition to their normal Armor stat. |
| Armored Up gives every unit extra armor and this helps Silverleaf Warlock because his magic attack ignores armor completely. While other units with melee and range attacks need to break through the bonus armor first, Silverleaf Warlock deals direct damage to the enemy health right away ignoring the armor. This makes him more reliable getting advantage from Armored Up rule without any of the demerits. | ||
 | What Doesn't Kill You | All units have Enrage (+50% melee power and speed if not at full health, rounded up). |
| Even though the rule doesn’t help Silverleaf Warlock directly, it supports your other units since this increases their speed which is the main purpose of Silverleaf Warlock. Enrage given by this rule still works on non-melee increasing their speed but it only increases melee attacks and not magic or range damage. |
Bad Rules to Think Twice
| Icon | Name | Reason |
|---|---|---|
 | Reverse Speed | Units with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks. |
| All speed bonuses become bad here because lower speed becomes stronger. Silverleaf Warlock giving +1 speed puts your whole team at a disadvantage. His entire purpose gets reversed in this rule making it worse for your team. | ||
 | Aim True | All units gain True Strike (attacks will never miss). |
| Aim True makes every attack hit, which removes any benefit from Swiftness, Blind or Backfire. Without dodges, Silverleaf Warlock’s value drops a lot. This rule is very similar to True Strike but applied to all of the units on that battle. | ||
 | Weak Magic | Magic attacks hit Armor before reducing Health. |
| Weak Magic makes your magic attacks hit armor first, slowing down your damage. Since Silverleaf Warlock has low magic damage to begin with, this rule can be problematic especially if the enemy have Repair that restores broken armor. |
Battle
This is a Back to Basics battle. The most important thing in Back to Basics rule is that all of your units can attack. There's no deep strategy here, just plain stats. This is why I like magic attacks. They can attack from all position which can maximize your damage and the attacks passes through armor which means you don't need to waste your attacks hitting their armor instead of the health. Silverleaf Warlock is good in this especially on lower levels. At low level, Silverleaf Warlock has no ability but already have 2 magic damage. This is a solid stat for a 6 mana unit especially when fighting in a battle where abilities doesn't work.
Images were taken from Splinterlands, made in Canva, drawn in Krita and animated in Photoshop.
Support me by joining Splinterlands using my referral code.
Thanks for sharing! - @alokkumar121
