Hello Splinterlands Summoners and welcome to another edition of Community Engagement Challenge! There has been much excitement since Conclave Arcana came out. There are new, overpowered and "must have" cards to add to our deck. However, there are still those unassuming but dependable cards that we can use to win battles. The Halfling Refugee is one of those cards.

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Lore

Since the Chaos Empire conquered Praeotria, the land has seen a refugee crisis the likes of which it has never before known. With major cities and smaller villages alike torn apart by war, famine, and disease, very few sanctuaries remain.

In the Great Lowlands, many of these refugees travel to Fireboro, where the republic’s former chancellor and those loyal to him have established safe havens for those who lost their homes to the empire. Among them are the Republic of Fireboro’s Praetorian halflings, whose shires were mostly destroyed by the legions of Chaos. They remain defiant, yet it’s hard to keep fighting the good fight when you’ve lost everything you hold dear.

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Stats and Abilities

The Halfling Refugee is an epic neutral card. He deals five melee damage, has eight health and three speed at maxed levels. He only has two abilities, well one actually since the other is a debilitation or disability. Heal restores 1/3 of his maxed health each round while Weary, a debilitation gives him a 10% of chance of being Exhausted or lose turns every round. This makes the Halflings value to be not as desired or halved as his name suggests. However, since he only needs one mana to be used in battle and being a neutral card, there are a lot of situations where he can be utilized.

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Role in Battle

The Halfling Refugee often finds a slot in my team in low mana battles. I use him as a tank because he has a lot of health for only one mana although he lacks armor and abilities for a tank. I can also use him in the back line to guard against sneak attackers. Also, I can use him in rulesets where melee units are granted abilities to attack from any position such as Super Sneak or Equal Opportunity.

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Battle Featuring the Halfling Refugee

Tank in Low Mana Battle

The following battle has a maxed mana of twenty five. I saw that the enemy liked to use magic and the Thanalorian Scion as his tank so I built my team to counter his set up. I chose the Earth splinter.

Kaylia Silverleaf (archon)

Kaylia Silverleaf decreases the enemy's magic magic attack by one which counters my opponent. She also grants the Execute ability to all elves which is an important ability to counter the enemy's Thanalorian Elf.

Halfling Refugee (tank)

The Halfling Refugee only needs one mana to field in battle and mine is at level one which has ample health of six. Putting him on tank duties allowed me to field four more units for a total of five units in this battle.

Thanalorian Blade (second position)

The Thanalorian Blade deals two melee damage and has three speed. She has an armor and five health making her a decent secondary tank. She has the Execute ability which is great against the enemy tank.

Silverleaf Warlock (third position)

The Silverleaf Warlock deals two magic damage and grants buffs the team with additional speed owing to his Swiftness ability. He will gain the Execute ability from my archon due to his elven bloodline.

Blackmoor Wildelf (fourth position)

Another elf in my line up to take advantage of the Execute ability. The Blackmoor Wildelf also deals two magic damage.

Thunderhoof Nomad (last position)

The Thunderhoof Nomad is only a three mana card allowing me to field five units in this twenty five mana battle.

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The Enemy Team

The enemy team has the Water Splinter as I expected. He only has three units but they have good synergy. The Thanalorian Scion is a great tank with ten armor and Void armor ability. However, she only has one health making her a great target for units with the Execute ability. This is the reason why I built my team around this strategy of having units with such ability. In second position he has Abyssmal Elemental who has the Resurgence ability. In third, he has the Conclave Tracker who repairs his tank's armor. This would have worked had I not built my team to counter his strategy.

The Battle

My elves who had the Execute ability attacked his tank twice in every round. This is because it only had one health and triggered the Execute ability in my units. This was my core strategy to counter the enemy tank along with debuffing his magic attacks. My team quickly eliminated the enemy's tank in the first round and soon the battle was over in round three.

Link to Battle

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Conclusion

There are a lot of powerful and sought after units in Splinterlands. However, there are also underrated but capable units that you can use to give you the victory in battles. Find these units and you need not invest a lot to build a competitive team. This is what makes Splinterlands a fun game. Invest time and attention to build a synergistic and strategic team and you'll win battles.