Halfling Refugee: Unsung Hero

Currently, the most underrated card in my collection is the Halfling Refugee. It is a Rebellion soulbound Rewards card. A few days ago someone created a Hive post asking what one’s favorite Splinterlands card was. I replied by saying that in the old days my favorite was the Exploding Dwarf. However, currently my favorite was Halfling Refugee. It is just so versatile and I manage to work it into many of my small and medium sized mana matches. And I do not feel like my opponents make use of it as often as I do.

What makes Halfling Refugee so special? A combination of the things highlighted below.

• Neutral -- Can be summoned by any Archon
• Only 1 mana – takes up very little mana in the mana cap, can be played in Little League ruleset.
• Stats -- Plenty of health, Self-Heal, and a strong Melee attack

The worst part about Halfling Refugee is that it has the Weary ability. The monster starts out with a 10% chance of becoming exhausted and this increases by 10% every round. The bad part of it being exhausted for a round is that not only does it lose its ability to attack but also its ability to self-heal. Sometimes you get lucky and play an entire battle with no rounds being exhausted but other times you will play a battle and it will be exhausted in several rounds.

I typically place it in first, second, or last position. It is an excellent mini-tank in first position and that is probably where I use it most often. It also makes a great mini-tank in last position. It has a lot of health plus self heal if your opponent has sneak attack monsters. And if it does end up being your last monster standing, it can do damage with its strong Melee attack.

I will also use it in second position as a mini-tank behind my main tank. This works particularly well in “Fog of War” and “Back to Basics” rulesets where all the attacks are directed at the first position monster. The Halfling Refugee in second position will buy more time for the Magic and Ranged attack monsters behind it to attack.

The battle I have chosen to showcase with the Halfling Refugee is a 14 mana battle with the “Ferocity”, “Armored Up”, and “Born Again” rulesets. Water, Earth, and Dragon were the available splinters to choose from.

https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_1ba0e05a6a6750b5abf07bba030495d3?ref=ninjamike

The battle lasted 8 rounds, but I will highlight only a few key rounds

I chose the Earth splinter while my opponent chose the Water splinter. I have my Halfling Refugee in first position. Behind it I have a couple of filler monsters and then three strong Magic attack monsters. I have a couple monsters with the Strengthen ability getting my Halfling Refugee up to 10 health making its self-heal even more powerful.

During the first round, my Halfling Refugee lost its Armor but still has full health.

During the third round, I lost one of my backfield magic attack monsters. To start the fourth round, I have only two magic attack monsters left.

In the seventh round, my Halfling Refugee was defeated for the first time and then used its one time rebirth. It is still standing to begin the eighth round.

At the end of the eighth round, I was able to declare victory with my Halfling Refugee still alive with just one health.

My Halfling Refugee was able to survive long enough in first position for my Magic attack monsters to attack from the backfield the entire match. Though it did not do much damage itself because this was an Armored Up ruleset battle.

I believe that in general neutral cards as well as small mana cards are both underrated. Halfling Refugee is both neutral and only 1 mana. Similarly in the old days, the Furious Chicken was underrated. It was the first zero mana card, so it could be played just as long as you had an open slot even if your mana was full. Though as mana caps have gradually increased over time, small mana monsters have gotten pushed aside. The new voucher card Dar 'Gottem' Gearnut shows that there is a current trend of big beefy cards getting most of the attention.

Header image made using Canva. All other images are screenshots from the Splinterlands website.

If you have not played Splinterlands yet, you can join using my referral link:
https://splinterlands.com/register?ref=ninjamike