Hey there, Splinterlands community! 👋
I'm back with part two of my Splinterlands Social Media Challenge series, diving deeper into the new Rebellion Reward Cards! Last week, we covered the Legendary Reward Cards, so this time, I’ll be focusing on Epic cards, exploring each one’s strengths and weaknesses to see how they measure up. ⚔️💥

Introduction:

My goal with this series is to provide a detailed breakdown of these cards by rarity, helping players make smarter choices when adding them to their collections or browsing the Glint Shop 🛒✨.

This analysis primarily reflects high-level gameplay, as that’s where I spend most of my time, though I’ll touch on how these cards might perform in Bronze or Silver as well. 🥉🥈 While my Epic cards aren't all maxed out just yet, I’m close with a few, and I feel I’ve gained enough experience to offer a fair evaluation.

With that said, let’s jump in and take a closer look at the Epic cards in Rebellion! 🔍🔥

Epic Rebellion Reward Cards: The Best of the Set? 🌟

Last week, we discussed how disappointing the Legendary cards were in the Rebellion Reward set, with one major reason being that the Epic cards simply outshine them. Unsurprisingly, that sentiment still holds—Epic cards are the standout stars of the set. 💫

This time, the team released seven Epic cards for the Rebellion Reward set, each fitting nicely within the Rebellion meta. What makes these Epic cards particularly strong is that at least three of them—Olivia of the Brook, Halfling Refugee, and Shock Trooper—are likely the top three cards in the entire set and absolute must-haves. These cards are on a whole other level, standing out due to their incredible utility and power, making them almost incomparable to other cards in the Rebellion Reward set. 🏆🔥

By now, this might not be news to anyone. Truthfully, this isn’t my first post reviewing an Epic Rebellion card, but the idea here is to help both new and veteran players focus their resources on the right purchases, whether through the Glint Shop or real currency. Even though these are the best cards in the set, the big question remains: how do they really stack up against older reward cards from the Chaos Legion (CL) era? 🤔💰

An interesting aspect of the Rebellion Reward Epic cards is that the "Debilitations" mentioned during the set’s reveal appear exclusively on Epic cards. This unique feature is part of what sets them apart from the other rarities.

With just seven cards, let’s take a closer look at each one and try to answer these questions. I'll also rate each card on a 1-10 scale, as before: 🎯📊

Thanalorian Blade: Rating: 5/10 ⚔️

Thanalorian Blade is still a card waiting to be fully recognized. 🌱 I see a lot of potential here, but the main drawback is that it’s a melee card in the Earth deck, which often has to face Tofu, the anti-melee summoner. 🥒 Unless Tofu is out of the picture, Thanalorian Blade struggles to shine. 🌑

This is why the card earns a lower rating despite boasting some solid stats. First off, it’s a 6-mana card with four abilities, which isn’t something to overlook! The synergy between its abilities is impressive, too: Opportunity is a reliable ability that’s easy to utilize, and combining Trample with Execute enables devastating combos if this unit manages to take down an enemy or get close. 💥⚔️

While it has great potential, its true strength may only surface in scenarios without Tofu. For now, it remains a card with untapped possibilities.

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Night Reaper: Rating: 5/10 🌌💀

Night Reaper introduces a new ability, Wingbreak, which allows it to specifically target enemy units with the Flying ability, regardless of other abilities or rulesets. Additionally, it deals +2 damage against targets with Flying. 🦅💥

Night Reaper is a tough card to rate. For starters, 11 mana is quite a hefty cost, especially given that its base stats aren’t exceptionally strong for such a high investment. Reflection Shield is a great asset, and Last Stand can be helpful in the right circumstances, but overall, the stats feel a bit average. ⚖️

This lower rating reflects the unpredictability and limitations of Wingbreak. While Wingbreak has the potential to sway battles by prioritizing and damaging enemy Flying units, it’s tricky to rely on. Often, Flying units aren’t high-stakes targets, meaning Night Reaper could end up spending turns on less impactful enemies. If you’re fielding an 11-mana card, you may not expect the enemy to bring weaker Flying monsters, and you’d ideally want concentrated firepower rather than splitting your focus. 🎯

That said, Night Reaper could perform well in very specific matchups. Even without Wingbreak, it’s serviceable if you have extra mana and lack other options, offering a bit of versatility. 🌠

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Kha'zi Conjurer: Rating: 7/10 🔥🧙‍♀️

As I mentioned before with Epic cards in the Rebellion Reward Card Set, some of these cards boast impressive stats but come with a debilitation. Kha'zi Conjurer is no exception, arriving with Incendiary. 🔥

With Incendiary, Kha'zi gains the "Burning" effect each turn, which has a 33% chance to spread to adjacent units at the start of each round. All units affected by Burning lose 2 health. The Burning effect can be removed with Cleanse. 😬

Burning can be brutal—it’s one of the most damaging debilitations. If it spreads through your backline, it can bring down your team quickly, potentially within just a few turns.

In return for this debilitation, Kha'zi offers incredible stats for a 2-mana card: 6 ranged damage with pierce and 5 speed. That's quite a package! 🚀🏹

Since debilitations work like abilities, they’re nullified in Back to Basics rulesets, making Kha'zi Conjurer a must-have here. Without the Burning drawback, Kha'zi’s high stats really shine in Back to Basics. Needless to say, this card is also useful in Little League or any other low-mana match, given its value for just 2 mana. 🪙⚔️

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Arachne Weaver: Rating: 8/10

Arachne Weaver brings with itself a hole new ability. Corrupted Healing: Each round, restore 70% of max health to allied units, rounded down. Each time a unit is healed, its max health is reduced by 1.
Arachne costs 5 mana and the stats are far from impressive. 2 magic attack with 2 speed and only 7 life and no armor doesn't really scream strong in my book. But, and this is a big one, all of this lack of stats is clearly compensated by the new healing ability.
The Death splinter actually doesn't have many healing abilities and of course there are no other healing abilities that work team wide.
There are a lot of rulesets (poison, blast etc) where this ability will be a game changer.
This is definitely a card you don't want to miss on. I think this card will probably be a must in the future for very specific situations.

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Shock Trooper: Rating: 9/10 ⚡🔋

Shock Trooper is yet another Epic card from the Rebellion Reward set, bringing its own unique debilitation: Electrified. This effect is similar to Kha'zi’s, but slightly different—Electrified deals 1 damage to all allied units at the beginning of each round, and that’s it. While this debilitation can add up, the self-damage is spread across the team, making it less impactful. ⚔️💥

In this case, the trade-off between debilitation and stats is a clear win for stats. Shock Trooper gets a much higher rating than Kha'zi due to its superior stats: Swiftness adds 1 speed to your entire team, and its 5 magic damage is substantial. 🔮✨

At a cost of just 4 mana, Shock Trooper fits easily into most team compositions and can even play well in Little League rulesets. Like Kha'zi, it shines in Back to Basics rulesets where debilitations don’t activate. For 4 mana, 5 magic damage is an impressive stat line, unmatched by any other card. Shock Trooper is simply strong and reliable. 🚀

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Olivia of The Brook: Rating: 10/10

We finally arrived to the best card of the set. Olivia gets a 10/10 raiting for good reasons. For 6 mana Olivia brings 3 really important things to the table: Reflection Shield, arguabily the best ability of the game. Opportunity, like I said before always very useful to have and really easy to combo. And lastly but not least: Mimic.
Honestly Mimic deserves a post on its own because is a new and very interesting ability. For the ones that still are not sure what this is about let me explain: Mimic will cause that at the beginning of round 2 and each following round, Olivia will gain a random ability from the enemy team. But also Olivia gets a 25% chance to gain a random ability from an attacker when hit. On top of that Dispel removes one mimicked ability in the order they were gained, so dispell doesnt really dispells every ability. Lastly is important to note that Debilitations, Targeting abilities, Ambush, Weapons Training, Flank, Reach, Charge, and Taunt cannot be mimicked.
We all have seen what this card can do so far in ranked in tournaments and thats even before most people have it maxed. Olivia at lv 6 gets Reflection Shield and that makes the card a MUST in every melee only match up. Its so important to have this card maxed that if you have a lv 5 and the enemy has a lv 6 your olivia will probably die really fast cause of Tofu's thorns while the enemy Olivia will just gain ability after ability and survive becoming an unstoppable force.
Olivia is like an avalanche. It will start building slowly but at some point it will be unstopable and unkillable.
This is the state of the game as of now. Its important to note that this can change if the team changes how the Mimic ability works.

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Halfling Refugee: Rating: 10/10 🏆✨

Halfling Refugee brings a unique and challenging debilitation called Weary. This effect gives the unit a 10% chance each round to become Exhausted, increasing by 10% every round up to a maximum of 80%. If this card becomes exhausted, it will skip its turn entirely. This can introduce significant randomness into the match—one unlucky roll could prevent Halfling Refugee from attacking in crucial moments. 😰🌀

Despite this, Halfling Refugee’s base stats and 1-mana cost make it exceptionally versatile. It’s strong enough to serve as either a backline or frontline unit, and with Self-Heal, it can sustain itself through drawn-out matches. This card has the potential to become as widely used as Chaos Agent, especially in Back to Basics and Little League rulesets, where the Weary debilitation is irrelevant. 🛡️🌟

With high utility, adaptability, and a tiny mana cost, Halfling Refugee is likely to be one of the most played cards in the Rebellion Reward Card set. A solid choice for any strategy.

Conclusion

The Epic cards in the Rebellion reward set have undoubtedly lived up to their hype, with an impressive average rating around 7/10 overall. Unlike their Legendary counterparts, these Epic cards often excel in multiple roles and bring significant value to the current meta. Cards like Halfling Refugee and Shock Trooper stand out as must-haves, combining excellent stats with abilities that can make a major impact in diverse scenarios. Olivia is the new shiny toy everyone wants to play with but it really needs lv 6 to be fully unleashed.

However, some of the Epic cards do come with trade-offs. The inclusion of debilitation abilities like Weary and Electrified challenges players to navigate potential risks, as these effects can occasionally disrupt strategies. Nonetheless, these cards still manage to offer great value for their cost and are well-suited to both low and high mana matches, making them a solid choice for most lineups.

In short, while Legendary cards may lack the excitement many anticipated, Epic cards have quickly established themselves as essential assets in the Rebellion Reward set. Whether you’re investing in Glint or purchasing directly, focusing on these Epic options could give your lineup the strategic edge you’re looking for.

What’s your experience with the Rebellion Epics so far? Have you guys maxed some of them? Share your thoughts below! 👇🔥