Heloise the Hollow AI art by Night Cafe
Hello Splinterlands Summoners! The first auction of Heloise the Hollow has just concluded. The first copy sold to Housewifeftw for a whopping bid of 1,347,000 DEC or over $1,100! This shows how much interest for this card is which will only print a hundred copies. That's right, some buyers will not even be able to max out a card if they want to. The auction for the second copy is currently ongoing and the highest bid as of this writing is already 900k DEC or around $ 765 with 17 hours left.
Stats and Abilities
Heloise the Hollow is a very powerful card, some may say she's a broken card. Check out her stats and abilities.
At level 1, she is a powerful damage dealer with 7 melee damage. She also has the Opportunity ability allowing her to target the enemy unit with lowest health whichever position she is in. On the other hand, I think she will be eliminated easily at level 1. She has the Taunt ability which honestly at this point is a liability to her given that she only has 4 health. So it's not recommended to buy her if you only have her at level 1.
At level 2 she gains the Spite ability which allows her to counterattack the enemy that eliminates her. Sure she will probably eliminate that enemy unit but not if it's shielded. While the Spite ability gives her some more utility, it still doesn't make her a great unit especially she costs a lot of mana to field in battle.
At max level is where she achieves greatness or brokenness. She gains the Soul Siphon ability which allows her to self resurrect. Consider this: when the opponent eliminates her, it will trigger her Spite ability but she will come back to life removing all magic debuffs she received while reapply all magic buffs. She will eliminate the opposition while almost being immortal, I say almost because the Soul Siphon ability comes with a cost. It will apply Weary to a non-Weary allied unit with highest HP and reduces their max HP by 50%. She will continue to survive as long as she has teammates who will sacrifice their lives for her.
Conclusion
Heloise the Hollow is definitely a fun card to use at max level. There's only a hundred copies of her and at her price only whales will be able to afford her. We will probably only see her at higher leagues but I'd be thrilled to battle with her if I come across her at Gold League. It will be interesting to fight Heloise with Olivia the Brook.
The auction signals a positive sign for Splinterlands, showing player interest to spend money on NFT's again. As a Splinterlands player who want to see the game prosper, I hope the interest spill over to small players and support the next set, the Conclave Arcana.